In spite of this tale, trust not your wives, nor your children, but make your offerings yourselves. So kind a woman as I have told about does not live now, you may be sure. And no clerk who reads this will ever find one of such good deeds. You men who are now present and hear about the sacrament, know that the sacrament on the altar has power over all things, as I have shown to the ignorant but not to the learned, for the clerks know it well. Let us pray our Creator that our Saviour, the Sacrament, will save us body and soul, and grant that we may love Him and be His forever. Translated by M. H. S. A MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN[41] Lord, Maker of all things, Almighty God in majesty, that ever, without beginning, wert and art and shall be, grant us both strength and opportunity so to serve Thy pleasure that we may, through Thy grace, dwell with Thee for ever and aye! We ought to bear well in mind those miracles of our Lady which are written in true story, showing how helpful she ever is to mankind. Once upon a time it happened in a city,—hearken well and ye may hear,—when Jews were wont to be together among Christians, Christians dwelt in one half of the city, and the Jews were forced to live in one street. The Christian children had made for themselves a pleasant place in a field, and there a Jew's child often played with them. The child's father took no heed of this and never cast an eye upon him, therefore the child came and went whenever he chose to play. So often did they play together that the Jew's son learned their games and was just like one of the Christian children, loved and welcomed by them. At one Easter time, which the Christians kept with great solemnity, a beautiful minster had been completed in the midst of the city, and to it the Christian folk went to hear both matins and mass, as, by Christian rule, is usual for both the high and the low. Every one in best array, both husbands and wives, attended. The children followed their fathers, as they were wont, and the Jew's child with right good cheer was happy to go with them. When he was well within the church, he thought he had never been so glad as he was at that seemly sight, such as he had never seen before—both lamps and tapers burning brightly, altars wonderfully ornamented, and beautifully wrought gold images of many good saints.