When The Emperor Dodsi[3] Heard Of The Slaughter Of The Four Friars, He Ordered The Melich To Be Brought Bound Before Him, And Questioned Him Why He Had Cruelly Ordered These Men To Be Slain.

The melich endeavoured to justify himself, by representing that they had exerted themselves to subvert the laws of Mahomet, against whom they had spoken blasphemously.

The emperor thus addressed him; "O! most cruel dog! when you had seen how the Almighty God had twice delivered them from the flames, how dared you thus cruelly to put them to death?" And the emperor ordered the melich, and all his family, to be cut in two; sentencing him to the same death which he had inflicted on the holy friars. On these things coming to the knowledge of the kadi, he fled out of the land, and even quitted the dominions of the emperor, and so escaped the punishment he had so justly merited.

[1] The whole of this and the following section is omitted in the old English of Hakluyt, and is here translated from the Latin. - E.

[2] Probably he who is named above Tolentinus. - E.

[3] Probably the same called, at the close of the former sections, Daldili, and there conjecturally explained as the King of Delhi. - E.

SECTION IV.

Of the Miracles performed by the four Martyrs.

It is not the custom in that country to commit the bodies of their dead to the grave, but they are exposed in the fields, that they may be consumed by the heat of the sun. But after the bodies of these martyrs had remained fourteen days exposed to the sun, they remained as fresh and uncorrupted as on the day of their martyrdom. On this being seen by the Christians who inhabited the land, they buried the bodies with great reverence. When I, Oderic, heard of the circumstances attending the death of these martyrs, I went to the place and dug up their bodies; and having collected all their bodies into beautiful towallias, I carried them with me into upper India to a certain place, assisted by a companion and a servant. While we were on our way, we rested in the house of a hospitable person, and placing the bones at my head, I went to sleep. And while I was asleep, the house was suddenly set on fire by the Saracens, that I might be burnt therein. My companion and servant made their escape, leaving me and the bones in the burning house. Seeing the fire above and all around me, I took up the bones, and withdrew, with them into one of the angles of the house; whence I saw all the other three corners on fire, while I remained safe along with the bones. So long as I remained there with the bones, the fire kept itself above my head, like lucid air; but the moment that I went out with the bones, the whole of that place where I had stood was enveloped in the flames, and many other surrounding buildings were likewise burnt to the ground.

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