Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/217

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THE BEE AND THE ORANGE TREE.
177

only served to convince him that the being he now beheld far surpassed them all. In this mutual astonishment they continued to talk, without being understood by each other; their looks and their actions being the sole interpreters of their thoughts: when, after some moments, the Princess suddenly recollecting to what danger this stranger was about to be exposed, the deepest melancholy and dejection became expressed in her countenance. The Prince, fearing she was about to faint, evinced great anxiety, and would have taken her hand, but she repulsed him, and endeavoured, as well as she could, to impress upon him that he must go away. She began to run before him; then returned, and made signs to him to do so. He accordingly ran from her, and returned. When he returned, she was angry with him; she took her arrows, and pointed them to her heart, to signify to him that he would be killed. He thought she wished to kill him; he knelt on one knee, and awaited the blow. When she saw that, she knew not what to do, or how to express herself; and, looking at him tenderly, "What," said she, "must thou, then, be the victim of my frightful hosts?—must these very eyes, which now gaze on thee with so much pleasure, see thee torn in pieces, and devoured without mercy?" She wept; and the Prince was quite at a loss to comprehend the meaning of her actions. She succeeded, however, in making him understand she did not wish him to follow her. She took him by the hand, and led him into a cave in a rock, the mouth of which opened towards the sea. It was very deep: she often went there to deplore her misfortunes; sometimes she slept there, when the sun was too powerful to return to the Ogres' cavern; and, as she had great neatness and skill, she had furnished it with hangings of butterflies' wings, of various colours; and upon canes, twisted and passed one within the other, which formed a sort of couch, she had spread a carpet of sea-rushes. She had placed clusters of flowers in large and deep shells, answering the purpose of vases, which she filled with water, to preserve her bouquets. There were a thousand pretty little things she had manufactured, some with fish-bones and shells, and others with the sea-rush and cane; and these articles, notwithstanding their simplicity, were so exquisitely made, it was easy to judge from them of the good taste and ingenuity of the Princess. The Prince was perfectly surprised