[Penguin Island by Anatole France]@TWC D-Link book
Penguin Island

BOOK III
6/63

And when King Brian, attracted by the noise, entered the chamber, Glamorgan, showing him her dishevelled hair, her eyes flooded with tears, and her bosom that in the fury of her love she had torn with her nails, said: "My lord and husband, behold the traces of the insults I have undergone.
Driven by an infamous desire Oddoul has approached me and attempted to do me violence." When he heard these complaints and saw the blood, the king, transported with fury, ordered his guards to seize the young monk and burn him alive before the palace under the queen's eyes.
Being told of the affair, the Abbot of Yvern went to the king and said to him: "King Brian, know by this example the difference between a Christian woman and a pagan.

Roman Lucretia was the most virtuous of idolatrous princesses, yet she had not the strength to defend herself against the attacks of an effeminate youth, and, ashamed of her weakness, she gave way to despair, whilst Glamorgan has successfully withstood the assaults of a criminal filled with rage, and possessed by the most terrible of demons." Meanwhile Oddoul, in the prison of the palace, was waiting for the moment when he should be burned alive.

But God did not suffer an innocent to perish.

He sent to him an angel, who, taking the form of one of the queen's servants called Gudrune, took him out of his prison and led him into the very room where the woman whose appearance he had taken dwelt.
And the angel said to young Oddoul: "I love thee because thou art daring." And young Oddoul, believing that it was Gudrune herself, answered with downcast looks: "It is by the grace of the Lord that I have resisted the violence of the queen and braved the anger of that powerful woman." And the angel asked: "What?
Hast thou not done what the queen accuses thee of ?" "In truth no, I have not done it," answered Oddoul, his hand on his heart.
"Thou hast not done it ?" "No, I have not done it.

The very thought of such an action fills me with horror." "Then," cried the angel, "what art thou doing here, thou impotent creature ?" * * The Penguin chronicler who relates the fact employs the expression, Species inductilis.


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