So There
Were With Us Two Worthy Men, Friars Minors, That Were Of Lombardy,
That Said, That If Any Man
Would enter they would go in with us.
And when they had said so, upon the gracious trust of God
And of
them, we let sing mass, and made every man to be shriven and
houseled. And then we entered fourteen persons; but at our going
out we were but nine. And so we wist never, whether that our
fellows were lost, or else turned again for dread. But we saw them
never after; and those were two men of Greece, and three of Spain.
And our other fellows that would not go in with us, they went by
another coast to be before us; and so they were.
And thus we passed that perilous vale, and found therein gold and
silver, and precious stones and rich jewels, great plenty, both
here and there, as us seemed. But whether that it was, as us
seemed, I wot never. For I touched none, because that the devils
be so subtle to make a thing to seem otherwise than it is, for to
deceive mankind. And therefore I touched none, and also because
that I would not be put out of my devotion; for I was more devout
then, than ever I was before or after, and all for the dread of
fiends that I saw in diverse figures, and also for the great
multitude of dead bodies, that I saw there lying by the way, by all
the vale, as though there had been a battle between two kings, and
the mightiest of the country, and that the greater part had been
discomfited and slain.
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