thief which she saved from the gallows, and the master of the ship, to be healed of their diseases.

Then was the Empress called forth before the Emperor, but she muffled her face as well as she could, that the Emperor her husband should not know her, and when she had so done, she saluted him with great reverence, as appertained to his estate; and, again, he in like manner, saying thus: "O good lady, if thou list of thy kindness to heal my brother of his leprosy, ask of me what you will, and I shall grant it thee for thy reward.”

When the Empress heard this, she looked about her and saw there the Emperor's brother a foul leper; she saw there, also, the knight that slew the earl's daughter, blind and deaf; the thief that she saved from the gallows, lame; and also the master of the ship distraught of his wits; and all were come to her to be healed of their maladies, and knew her not; but though they knew her not, she knew them well. Then said she unto the Emperor thus: "My reverend lord, though you give me all your empire, I cannot heal your brother, nor none of these, except they acknowledge openly what great evil they have done."

When the Emperor heard this he turned him towards his brother and said unto him, "Brother, acknowledge openly thy sin before all these men, that thou mayest be healed of all thy sickness.” Then anon he began to tell how he had led his life, but he told not how he had hanged the Empress in the forest by the hair of the head most despitefully.

When he had acknowledged all that him list, the Empress replied, and said, "Soothly, my lord, I would gladly lay unto him my medicine, but I wot right well it is in vain, for he hath not made a full confession."

The Emperor hearing this, he turned towards his brother, and said in this wise, "What evil, sorrow, or other unhappy wretchedness, is in thee? Seest thou not how that thou art a foul leper? therefore acknowledge thy sin truly, that thou mayst be whole, or else avoid my company for evermore."

"What

"Ah, my lord," quoth he, "I may not tell my life openly, except I be sure of thy grace." hast thou trespassed against me?" said the Emperor. Then answered his brother, and said, "Mine offence against thee is grievous, and, therefore, I heartily ask thee forgiveness." The Emperor thought not on the Empress, for as much as he supposed she had been dead many years before; therefore he commanded his brother to tell forth wherein he had offended him, and he should be forgiven.

When the Emperor had thus forgiven his brother, he began to tell openly how he had desired the Empress to commit adultery with him, and because she denied, he had hanged her by the hair in the forest on such a day.

When the Emperor heard this he was almost beside himself, and in his rage he said thus, "O thou wretched creature, the vengeance of God is fallen upon thee, and were it not that I have pardoned

thee, thou shouldst die the most shameful death that

could be thought."

Then said the knight that slew the earl's daughter, "I wot not," quoth he, "what lady you mean; but I wot that my lord found on a time such a lady hanging in the forest, and brought her home to his castle, and he took her and gave her his daughter to keep, and I provoked her as much as I could to sin with me; wherefore I slew the earl's daughter that lay with her, and when I had done so, I put the bloody knife in the lady's hand, that the earl should think she had slain his daughter with her own hand, and then she was exiled thence, but where she became I wot not.”

Then said the thief, "I wot not of what lady you mean; but well I wot, that seven officers were leading me to the gallows, and such a lady came riding by and bought me of them, and then went I with her, and betrayed her unto the master of the ship."

"Such a lady," quoth the master of the ship, "received I; and when we were in the midst of the sea, I would have lain with her, but she kneeled down to her prayers, and anon there arose such a tempest, that the ship all to brast, and all therein was drowned, save she and I, but afterwards what befel of her I wot not."

Then cried the Empress with a loud voice, and said, "Soothly, dear friends, ye do now truly and declare the truth, wherefore I will no medicine,” and anon they received their 1

When the lady the Empress had thus done, she uncovered her face to the Emperor, and he forthwith knew her, and ran to her, and embraced her in his arms, and kissed her oftentimes, and for joy he wept bitterly, saying, "Blessed be God, now I have found that I desired." And when he had thus said he led her home to the palace with great joy; and after, when it pleased Almighty God, they ended both their lives in peace and rest.

THE Elk-Horn Pyramid, on the Upper Missouri, is quite a curiosity. At the "Two Thousand Miles River," so named by Lewis and Clark, which joins the Missouri, on the north side, two thousand miles above the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, is an extensive prairie, covered with bushes of artemisia, filled with elk and deer paths in all directions. The prairie extends without interruption as far as the eye can reach, and is called Prairie à la Corne de Cerf, because the wandering Indians have here erected a pyramid of elks' horns.