“God!” said he, “if any one now should cry `Gee up!` ” He thought and spoke the words at the same moment, whereat the mare was sud¬denly frighted, and springing forward on the instant tumbled the luck¬less priest into the bush where the thorns and briars grew sharpest and thickest. There he lay in that uneasy bed, nor might move from one side to the other, backwards or forwards, for all the money in the mint.
The mare galloped straight to her own stable, but when the priest`s household saw her return in this fashion they were greatly discomforted. The servants cursed her for an evil and a luckless jade, whilst the cook maid swooned like any dame, for well she believed that her master was dead.
When they were returned a little to themselves they ran to and fro, here and there, about the country searching for the priest, and presently on their way to the market town they drew near to that bush where their master yet lay in much misease. On hearing their words be¬wailing his piteous case, the priest raised a lamentable voice, and cried:
“Diva, Diva, do not pass me by. This bush is an uneasy bed, and here I lie very hurt and troubled and utterly cast down. Do you not see how my blood is staining these thorns, and briars a vermeil red?”
The servants hurried to the bush, and stared upon the priest.
“Sir,” said they, “who has flung you herein?”
Book of Hours
“Alas,” answered he, “`tis sin that has undone me. This morning when I rode this way reading in my Book of Hours, I desired over greatly to eat of the mulberries growing hereon, and so I fell into the sin of gluttony. Therefore this bush gat hold upon me. But help me forth from this place, for I wish now for no other thing but to have a surgeon for my hurts, and to rest in my own house.”
Now by this little story we may learn that the prudent man does not cry aloud all he may think in his heart, since by so doing many an one has suffered loss and shame, as we may see by this fable of the Priest and the Mulberries.
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