crowds
presented themselves before the emperor, complaining of the robberies,
murders, and other crimes that were committed nightly in the streets.

The emperor, desiring nothing so much as the safety of his subjects,
took counsel with Virgilius how this violence could be put down.

Virgilius thought hard for a long time, and then he spoke:

'Great prince,' said he, 'cause a copper horse and rider to be made, and
stationed in front of the Capitol. Then make a proclamation that at ten
o'clock a bell will toll, and every man is to enter his house, and not
leave it again.'

The emperor did as Virgilius advised, but thieves and murderers laughed
at the horse, and went about their misdeeds as usual.

But at the last stroke of the bell the horse set off at full gallop
through the streets of Rome, and by daylight men counted over two
hundred corpses that it had trodden down. The rest of the thieves--and
there were still many remaining--instead of being frightened into
honesty, as Virgilius had hoped, prepared rope ladders with hooks to
them, and when they heard the sound of the horse's hoofs they stuck
their ladders into the walls, and climbed up above the reach of the
horse and its rider.

Then the emperor commanded two copper dogs to be made that would run
after the horse, and when the thieves, hanging from the walls, mocked
and jeered at Virgilius and the emperor, the dogs leaped high after them
and pulled them to the ground, and bit them to death.

Thus did Virgilius restore peace and order to the city.

Now about this time there came to be noised abroad the fame of the
daughter of the sultan who ruled over the province of Babylon, and
indeed she was said to be the most beautiful princess in the world.

Virgilius, like the rest, listened to the stories that were told of her,
and fell so violently in love with all he heard that he built a bridge
in the air, which stretched all the way between Rome and Babylon.
He then passed over it to visit the princess, who, though somewhat
surprised to see him, gave him welcome, and after some conversation
became in her turn anxious to see the distant country where this
stranger lived, and he promised that he would carry her there himself,
without wetting the soles of his feet.

The princess spent some days in the palace of Virgilius, looking at
wonders of which she had never dreamed, though she declined to accept
the presents he longed to heap on her. The hours passed as if