Many hundred years ago, there was a king of France named Clovis, whose
coat-of-arms was three black toads. But, one night, an old hermit saw a
most wonderful vision in his cell. An angel appeared to him, holding a
shield of great beauty. Its colour was the blue of the sky, and on it
were emblazoned three golden lilies. The hermit was told to give it to
the wife of Clovis, Queen Clotilde; this he did, and Clovis took the
three lilies as the emblem of France, instead of the three black toads.
From the day he did so his armies were everywhere victorious.
[Illustration: Illustration of a group of astonished woodcutters in
eastern robes halting their work as a woman's face emerges from the
trunk of a tree by a stream.]