Like many others in the world, there was a gentleman and lady. They
had several children. There was one whom they did not love so much
as they did the others, because he said that he heard a voice very
often. He said also that this voice had told him that a father and
a mother would be servants to their son, but without saying that it
was they. When the mother heard that she got very angry, taking it
for herself. They were very rich, and they had two men-servants. This
mother told these servants to go with her son and kill him, and bring
his heart back to the house.
The next day she said to her son:
"You must go for a walk to such a place with these servants, and you
may stop there till twelve o'clock."
The lad goes off quietly with the servants, and when they had gone
a little distance, the two servants begin to talk loudly, and to
dispute, and get angry. He goes up to them, and sees what they are
quarrelling about. The one wished to kill him, and the other did
not. They fought, and the one who did not wish to kill him got the
better of the other. And they said that they would kill a big dog
which they had with them, and that they would carry his heart to
their mistress. Before the servants returned the mother had already
begun to be sorry.
Our young man wandered from place to place, and wandering like that,
he said to himself that he must go to Rome. He meets with two men
who tell him that they are going to Rome too, and they will make the
journey together. They loved this young lad very much, because they
saw that there was something in him different from the rest. When
night came they all go to a house hidden in a thick forest. They ask
shelter for the night. They tell them to enter, and give them a good
supper. Our young lad hears the voice, and it says to him:
"You are in a very unhappy place here. It would have been better if
you had not come here."