THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE. 21
on her head full two yards high, and on each side of her stood her
guards and attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the
tallest giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And
before her stood princes and dukes, and earls : and the fisherman went
up to her and said, " Wife, are you emperor ?" " Yes," said she, " I am
emperor." " Ah !" said the man as he gazed upon her, " what a fine
thing it is to be emperor!" "Husband," said she, "why should we
stay at being emperor ? I will be pope next." " wife, wife !" said he,
•* how can you be pope ? there is but one pope at a time in
Christendom." "Husband," said she, "I will be pope this very day."
" But," replied the husband, " the fish cannot make you pope* • " What
nonsense !" said she, " if he can make an emperor, he can make a pope,
go and try him." So the fisherman went. But when he came to the
shore the wind was raging, and the sea was tossed up and down like
boiling water, and the ships were in the greatest distress and danced
upon the waves most fearfully ; in the middle of the sky there was a
little blue, but towards the south it was all red as if a dreadful storm
was rising. At this the fisherman was terribly frightened, and
trembled, so that his knees knocked together; but he went to the
ahore and said, »
" man of the sea !
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plague of my life,
Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee ! ^
" What does she want now ?" said the fish. " Ah I" said the fisher- man, " my wife wants to be pope." " Go homo," said the fish, " she is pope already."
Then the fisherman went home, and found his wife sitting on a throne that was two miles high ; and she had three great crowns on her head, and around stood all the pomp and power of the Church;
