hield of fig-tree wood, upon which the sword of malice is broken, or
blunts its point; so that, when a poor man fancies himself already dead
and buried, he revives again in bone and flesh, as you shall hear in
the story which I am going to draw from the cask of memory with the tap
of my tongue.

There was once a great Lord, who, having a daughter born to him named
Talia, commanded the seers and wise men of his kingdom to come and tell
him her fortune; and after various counsellings they came to the
conclusion, that a great peril awaited her from a piece of stalk in
some flax. Thereupon he issued a command, prohibiting any flax or hemp,
or such-like thing, to be brought into his house, hoping thus to avoid
the danger.

When Talia was grown up, and was standing one day at the window, she
saw an old woman pass by who was spinning. She had never seen a distaff
or a spindle, and being vastly pleased with the twisting and twirling
of the thread, her curiosity was so great that she made the old woman
come upstairs. Then, taking the distaff in her hand, Talia began to
draw out the thread, when, by mischance, a piece of stalk in the flax
getting under her finger-nail, she fell dead upon the ground; at which
sight the old woman hobbled downstairs as quickly as she could.

When the unhappy father heard of the disaster that had befallen Talia,
after weeping bitterly, he placed her in that palace in the country,
upon a velvet seat under a canopy of brocade; and fastening the doors,
he quitted for ever the place which had been the cause of such
misfortune to him, in order to drive all remembrance of it from his
mind.

Now, a certain King happened to go one day to the chase, and a falcon
escaping from him flew in at the window of that palace. When the King
found that the bird did not return at his call, he ordered his
attendants to knock at the door, thinking that the palace was
inhabited; and after knocking for some time, the King ordered them to
fetch a vine-dresser's ladder, wishing himself to scale the house and
see what was inside. Then he mounted the ladder, and going through the
whole palace, he stood aghast at not finding there any living person.
At last he came to the room where Talia was lying, as if enchanted; and
when the King saw her, he called to her, thinking that she was asleep,
but in vain, for she still slept on, however loud he called. So, after
admiring her beauty awhile, the King returned home to his kingdom,