enture near;
When he softly speaks to her,
And with haste builds her up.

'"This joke is not good,
Manole, my beloved;
Reflect that I am a mother,
And that I am bringing up your son."
But Manole still jokes
And hastens as much as he can.

'Up to her breast he had built up,
And she sweetly sings to him;
The strong wall bruised her,
And she swims in tears,
But when he had finished,
The wall more than overtopped her.

'This was the remedy:
And the wall was able to stand;
And after this the monastery
Ceased to fall any more;
The wind, the earthquake do not shake it.
Utza within the wall upholds it.'

Thus far the poet;[43] but the legend does not end there. The boasts of
the masons were so arrogant after the cathedral was completed that
Radul, or Neagu (for he is called by both names), gave orders for the
scaffolding to be removed, and left them to die of hunger on the roof.
Manole and his companions sought to save themselves by constructing
parachutes of light wood, but as each attempted to descend he was dashed
to the ground and turned into stone. Manole himself was the last to make
the attempt, but when he approached the parapet he was horror-struck at
hearing the plaint of his wife as he had heard it when he was building
her up in the foundation, and, losing all sense and power, he fell to
the ground. From the spot where he fell dead a spring of clear water
gushed forth, and a fountain which was erected there is still known as
Manoll's.

And now to pass from fiction to fact. According to the inscription upon
a tablet outside of the church, it was founded by Neagu Bassarab, a
prince of Wallachia, to whom we shall refer hereafter in our historical
sketch. He is reported to have been very pious and patriotic, to have
founded many monasteries and restored the cathedral of Tirgovistea. He
died about A.D. 1520, and was buried in the church at Ardges.[44] He
did not, however, live to complete the cathedral, for another tablet
within the church says that John Radul, or Radul d'Affumaz, to whom
reference will also be made in our historical summary, caused the
paintings to be executed in 1526.[45]

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the church was desecrated
and plundered by ruthless invaders, Christians (Hungarians) as well as
Mohammedans, who carried off its treasures, which are said to have been
of great value. In 1681,