"I must continue to be friendly with him, for if he becomes wealthy he
will enrich me."
Josserande also knew that her beloved son sought after the fairy-stone,
and even had mentioned it to Gildas the Wise, who shook his venerable
head and said,--
"What God wills will be. Be careful that your son wears a mask over his
face when he seeks the cursed thing; for what escapes from the crucible
is Satan's breath, and the breath of Satan causes blindness."
Josserande, meditating upon these words, went to kneel before the cross
of St. Cado, which is in front of the seventh stone of Cæsar's
camp,--the one that a little child can move by touching it with his
finger, but that twelve horses harnessed to twelve oxen cannot stir from
its solid foundation. Thus prostrate, she prayed: "O Lord Jesus! Thou
who hast mercy for mothers on account of the Holy Virgin, Thy mother,
watch well over my little Sylvestre, and take from his head this thought
of making gold. Nevertheless, if it is Thy will that he should be rich,
Thou art the Master of all things, my sweet Saviour!"
And as she rose she murmured: "What a beautiful boy he would be with a
cloak of fine cloth and a hood bordered with fur, if he only had means
to buy them."