Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/295

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OF TEMPORAL TRIBULATION.
283

and then, as if imprecating a curse upon his own eyes, he exclaimed in a paroxysm of mental agony, "Hateful, cruel sources of perception, do ye now refuse tears to the memory of my lamented girl." With expressions like these, he hastened to his navy, and entreated his servants to cast him into the sea; for the world, and all that it contained, had become odious to him[1].

They set sail for Tyre, and for a time the breezes blew prosperously; but changing, they were driven considerably out of their course. Guided by the good Providence of God, they entered the port of Machilena[2], where his daughter still abode. The pilot and the rest of the crew shouted loudly on their approach to land, and Apollonius sent to enquire the cause. "My lord," answered the pilot, "the people of Machilena are engaged in celebrating a birth-day." Apollonius groaned—"All can keep their birth-days

  1. The whole of the above is expressed by Shakspeare (or at least by the writer of "Pericles, Prince of Tyre") in dumb show.
  2. Mitylene is evidently meant; both here, and in the former mention of Machilenta.