Virgil and the Beautiful Lady of the Lily
“Ecce tibi viridi se Lilia candice tollunt,
Atque humiles alto despactant vertice flores
Virginea ridente coma.”
P. Laurence le Brun, El. 50, 1. 7.
Once the Emperor went hunting, when he heard a marvellously sweet voice as of a lady singing, and all his dogs, as if called, ran into the forest.
The Emperor followed and was amazed at seeing a lady, beautiful beyond any he had ever beheld, holding in one hand a lily and wearing a broad girdle as of steel and gold, which shone like diamonds. The dogs fawned round her when the Emperor addressed her, but as he spoke she sank into the ground, and left no trace.
The Emperor came the second day also, alone, and beheld her again, when she disappeared as before.
The third day he told the whole to Virgil, and took the sage with him. And when the lady appeared Virgil touched her with his wand, and she stood still as a statue.
Then Virgil said:
“Oh, my lord, consider well this Lady of the Lily, and especially her girdle; for in the time when that lady shall lose that girdle Florence will gain more in one year than it now increases in ten.”
And with this the lady vanished as before, and they returned home.