hereto?" "That ye gather a great host," quoth she, "and help him
to fight against his enemys." "I shall fulfill thy will," said the earl;
and gathered a greate hoste and wente with the emperour at his owne
costage to the battle, and had the victorye, and set the emperour again
in his heritage.

And then said the emperour, "Blessed be the hour I gat my yonest
doughter! I loved her lesse than any of the others, and now in my nede
she hath succored me, and the others have failed me, and therefore after
my deth she shall have mine empire." And so it was done in dede; for
after the deth of the emperour the youngest doughter reigned in his
sted, and ended peacefully.

MORALITE

Dere Frendis, this emperour may be called each worldly man, the which
hath three doughters. The first doughter, that saith, "I love my fadir
more than my self," is the worlde, whom a man loveth so well that he
expendeth all his life about it; but what tyme he shall be in nede of
deth, scarcely if the world will for all his love give him five
knyghtes, _scil._ v. boards for a coffin to lay his body inne in the
sepulcre. The second doughter, that loveth her fader as muche as her
selfe, is thy wife or thy children or thy kin, the whiche will haply
find thee in thy nede to the tyme that thou be put in the erthe. And the
third doughter, that loveth thee as muche as thou art worthy, is our
Lord God, whom we love too little. But if we come to him in tyme of oure
nede with a clene hert and mynd, withoute doute we shall have help of
him against the Kyng of Egipt, _scil._ the Devil; and he shall set us in
our owne heritage, _scil._ the kyngdome of heven. _Ad quod nos_ [etc.].

ANCELMUS THE EMPEROUR[B]

Ancelmus reigned emperour in the cite of Rome, and he wedded to wife
the Kinges doughter of Jerusalem, the which was a faire woman and long
dwelte in his company.

[B] The story of the three caskets in 'The Merchant of
Venice.'

... Happing in a certaine evening as he walked after his supper in a
fair green, and thought of all the worlde, and especially that he had no
heir, and how that the Kinge of Naples strongly therefore noyed [harmed]
him each year; and so whenne it was night he went to bed and took a
sleep and dreamed this: He saw the firmament in its most clearnesse, and
more clear than it was wont to be, and the moon was more pale; and on a
parte of the moon was a faire-colored bird, and beside her stood two
beasts, the which n