Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/345

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OF EXTORTION.
171

which he who sinned would have totally lost, had not the compassion and consequent sufferings of the Son of God, meliorated the condign punishment.





TALE LI.

OF EXTORTION.

Josephus mentions, that Tiberius Cæsar, inquiring why the governors of provinces remained so long in office, was answered by an example. "I have seen," said the respondent, "an infirm man covered with ulcers, grievously tormented by a swarm of flies. When asked why he did not use a flap and drive off his tormentors, he answered, 'The very circumstance which you think would re-