FROM Ebron men go to Bethlehem in halfe a daye, for it is but five myle, and it is a fayre waye & thorow[1] woddes full pleasaunt. Bethlem is but a little citie long and narowe, and well walled, and enclosed with a great diche and it was wont to be called Effrata as holy wryte sayth _Ecce audivimus eum in Effrata_ &c., That is to saye, Lo we herde him in Effrata. And toward the ende of the citie toward the East, is a ryght fayre churche and a gracious and it hath many toures, pinacles and kirnelles[2] full strongly made & within that Church is xliiii great pyllers of marble & betwene this church the field[3] florished, as ye shall here. [Footnote 1: Through woods.] [Footnote 2: Battlements.] [Footnote 3: The flowered field.] CAP. XVIII. _Of a fayre mayden that should be put to death wrongfully._ [Illustration] THE cause is, for as much as a fayre maiden y^t was blamed wyth wrong that she hadde done fornication, for the which cause she was demed[1] to dye and to bee brente[2] in that place to the which she was ledde. And as the woode began to brenne about hir, she made hir prayer to our Lorde as she was not gyltie of that thing, that he would helpe hir that it might be knowne to all men. And whan she had thus sayde, she entred the fyre and anone the fyre went out, and those braunches that were brenninge became red Roses and those braunches that were not kindled became white Rosiers[3] full of white roses, and those were the fyrst roses and rosyers that any man sawe, and so was the mayden saved through the grace of God, and therefore is that felde called the feeld of God florished, for it was full of Roses. Also besyde the quire of that Church aforesayd at the right side as men come downwarde xii[4] grees[5] is the place where our Lorde was borne that is now full well dyght[6] of Marble & full rychely depaynted of golde, sylver and asure and other colours. And a lyttle thens by three paces is the crybe[7] of the Oxe and the Asse, and besyde y^t is the place where the sterre[8] fell that lede the three Kinges Jasper, Melchior and Balthasar, but men of Grece call the Kinges thus, Galgalath, Saraphy, Malgalath. These three Kinges offered to our Lorde, Encence, Gold & Mirre and they came together through myracle of God, for they mette togither in a citie that men call Chasak, that is liii journeys from Bethleem, and there they were at Bethleem the fourth[9] daye after they hadde seene the sterre. And under the cloyster of this church xviii grees[10] at the righte syde is a great pytte where the bones of the Innocentes lie, and before that place where Chryst was borne is the tombe of Sainct Jerom that was a priest and a Cardinal that translated the Byble and the Sauter[11] from Hebrew into Latyn, and beside that church is a Church of Saynte Nycolas, where our Lady rested hir whan she was delivered of chyld, and for as much as she had so much mylke in hir pappes that it greved hir, she mylked it out