oppose them. Begone, Abricotine! I will hear no more of this girl, whose sentiments cause me so much affliction." Abricotine returned to the Princess with these bad tidings. It required little more to drive her to distraction. Leander was beside her, invisible; her extreme distress caused him the greatest pain. He dared not speak to her at that moment; but he recollected that Furibon was very avaricious, and that probably he might be tempted by a large sum of money to abandon his enterprise. He assumed the dress of an Amazon, and wished himself in the forest where he had left his horse. As soon as he called "Grisdelin!" Grisdelin came leaping and prancing to him with great delight, for he had become very weary waiting so long for his dear master; but when he saw him in female attire, he could not recognise him, and feared at first he was deceived. On Leander's arrival at the camp of Furibon, everybody took him to be really an Amazon; he was so handsome. They informed the king that a young lady demanded an audience on the part of the Princess of Peaceful Pleasures. He hurried on his royal robes, and seated himself on his throne, where one would have thought it was a large toad pretending to be a king.
Leander commenced his address, by informing him that "the Princess preferring a quiet and peaceable life to the troubles of warfare, was willing to give him any sum of money he would name, provided he would not molest her; but that, at the same time, if he refused this offer, she should certainly defend herself to the extent of her power."
Furibon replied, that "he was willing to take pity on her; that he would honour her by his protection; and that she had only to send him a hundred thousand thousand thousand millions of pistoles, and he would immediately return to his own kingdom." Leander answered, "that it would take too much time to count a hundred thousand thousand thousand millions of pistoles; but that he had only to say how many rooms full he desired; and that the Princess was too rich and too liberal to calculate so closely." Furibon was greatly astonished, that instead of endeavouring to bargain for a smaller sum, he was actually offered more; he thought to himself he would take all the money he could get, and then arrest the Amazon and kill her, in order that she should never return to her mistress.
