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even to sleep in the byres lest he might bring mildew on the stored
corn, so foul was he to look at, and their hired men drave him away,
and there was none who had pity on him. Nor could he hear anywhere
of the beggar-woman who was his mother, though for the space of
three years he wandered over the world, and often seemed to see her
on the road in front of him, and would call to her, and run after her till
the sharp flints made his feet to bleed. But overtake her he could not,
and those who dwelt by the way did ever deny that they had seen her,
or any like to her, and they made sport of his sorrow.
For the space of three years he wandered over the world, and in
the world there was neither love nor loving-kindness nor charity for
him, but it was even such a world as he had made for himself in the
days of his great pride.
And one evening he came to the gate of a strong-walled city
that stood by a river, and, weary and foot-sore though he was, he
made to enter in. But the soldiers who stood on guard dropped their
halberts across the entrance, and said roughly to him, "What is thy
business in the city?"
"I am seeking for my mother," he answered, "and I pray ye to
suffer me to pass, for it may be that she is in this city."
But they mocked at him, and one of them wagged a black
beard, and set down his shield and cried, "Of a truth, thy mother will
not be merry when she sees thee, for thou art more ill-favoured than
the toad of the marsh, or the adder that crawls in the fen. Get thee
gone. Get thee gone. Thy mother dwells not in this city."
And another, who held a yellow banner in his hand, said to
him, "Who is thy inother, and wherefore art thou seeking for her?"
And he answered, "My mother is a beggar even as I am, and I
have treated her evilly, and I pray ye to suffer me to pass that she may
give me her forgiveness, if it be that she tarrieth in this city." But they
would not, and pricked him with their spears.
And, as he turned away weeping, one whose armour was inlaid
with gilt flowers, and on whose helmet couched a lion that had wings,
came up and made inquiry of the soldiers who it was who had sought
entrance. And they said to him, "It is a beggar and the child of a
beggar, and we have driven him away."
"Nay," he cried, laughing, "but we will sell the foul thing for a
slave, and his price shall be the price of a bowl of sweet wine."