for the youth and commanded him to bring the coffer; and so it was done.
As soon as the King took one of the pieces of linen into his hand and read, the colour of his countenance changed, and he cried aloud, "God save us!" and coming again to himself inquired, "Where is the damsel who wrought this?" to which the youth answered, "Let your Majesty pay me for what I shall say by buying these cloths;" and the King did so, for otherwise the youth would not answer his questions. But on his giving him five thousand crusadoes, which was the price the damsel had cost him, the youth said: "Sir, this damsel is in Portugal, the country where I was born, and I will show her to whomsoever your Majesty will send to see her." The King took the linen, and calling to him an old man, who was his steward, he said: "Rememberest thou that five or six years ago thou wentest to Ireland, and did'st agree to send my daughter, the Princess, whom you and your wife had brought up, to the Court of my cousin, the Queen of Ireland, and how I sent her accompanied with cavaliers, nobles, ladies and damsels of great worship, and how you and your wife might not go by reason of your sickness; and how it was told us that the ship was lost upon a shoal, and that some escaped; and how the Queen, my beloved wife, died of grief thereat. Now I know that when the ship was lost, the captain, to save my daughter and himself, entered a boat with some few others and strove to make land, but the winds were so adverse that this might not be; and driven by
