a had it proclaimed that next day his daughter Elvira and her lover
Alaric would be burnt in the public square for having dealings with the
evil one. Many of his oldest courtiers tried to persuade him that he was
too precipitate; but he was not to be moved, and all that night Elvira
and Alaric were preparing to meet death.

At the first ray of light Wamba was up, and with his soldiers and
executioners hurried to the public square. Elvira and Alaric were led
among a strong body of men, and everything was being prepared for
burning the lovers, when Elvira's old tutor presented himself before
Wamba, and said--

"Know, O king, that thy daughter fears not death, for her comfort is on
the Cross, and not on the Crescent. If any one be to blame, I am he, for
I instructed her. Let me, then, be burned in her stead."

Wamba gazed fiercely at the old man, and, raising his massive olive
staff surmounted by a gold crown, exclaimed--

"Thou shalt also die, but not before thou hast witnessed her sufferings.
Thy God is a false God, or if He have power to save all of you, He shall
cause this ancient olive staff to grow and throw out green leaves by
to-morrow morning, or else you shall all die;" and saying this, he stuck
his royal staff into the ground.

Elvira was to be allowed to remain close to the staff, but no one with
her; and, so that she might not escape, guards were posted all round the
square.

Kneeling at the side of that emblem of authority, which for generations
had been wielded by her ancestors, she gave vent to her prayers and
tears, and the latter fell so quickly that they moistened the ground;
and when morning came, Wamba, on arriving, saw his royal staff growing,
a sapling then, but shortly to grow into a tree, even as the Christian
faith in its sapling stage was to throw out its spreading branches over
the kingdom, till they all became one people, loving but one God.

Wamba caused a church to be built near the spot, which church still
exists; and the olive-tree grows by its side, giving the name of
Olive-tree to the Square.

Alaric was married to Elvira; and Wamba having been called to the grave
of his forefathers, these two reigned conjointly, and appointed the old
tutor their counsellor.

THE ENCHANTED MULE.

There was once a very merry, but very poor hostler in Salamanca. He was
so poor that he had to go about his business in rags; and one day when
he was attending on the richly caparisoned mule b