you little abortion of nature, if you have not seen a fine young man, a young girl, and a camel pass by here?" "Ah, I will tell you," replied the dwarf; "I know that you are in quest of a gentle Damoiseau,[1] a marvellously fair dame, and the beast they rode on. I espied them here yesterday at this, disporting themselves happily and joyously. The gentle Damoiseau received the praise and guerdon of the jousts and tournaments, which were held in honour of Merlusine, of whom you here behold the lovely resemblance. Many high-born gentlemen and good knights broke their lances here, on hauberks, helmets, and shields; the conflict was rough, and the guerdon, a most beautiful clasp of gold, richly beset with pearls and diamonds. On their departure, the unknown dame said to me, 'Dwarf, my friend, without longer parley, I crave a boon of thee, in the name of thy fairest lady-love.' 'It will not be denied,' said I to her; 'and I grant it to you, on the sole condition, that it is in my power.' 'In case then,' said she, 'that thou shouldst espy the great and extraordinary giant, whose eye is in the middle of his forehead—pray him most courteously, that he go his way in peace, and leave us alone;' and, therewith, she whipped her palfrey, and they departed." "Which way?" said Ravagio. "By that verdant meadow, on the skirts of the wood," said the dwarf. "If thou liest," replied the Ogre, "be assured thou filthy little reptile, that I will eat thee, thy pillar, and thy portrait of Merluche."[2] "There is no villainy or falsehood in me," said the dwarf; "my mouth is no lying one; living man cannot convict me of fraud. But go quickly, if you would kill them before the sun sets." The Ogre strode away. The dwarf resumed her own figure, and touched the portrait and the pillar, which also became themselves again. What joy for the lover and his mistress! "Never," said the Prince, "did I suffer such keen anxiety, my dear Aimée! as my love for you increases every moment, so are my fears augmented when you are in peril." "And I," said she, "seemed to have no fear; for Ravagio never eats pictures, and I was alone exposed to his fury. There was
- ↑ A young gentleman before he was knighted. All the answers of the dwarf in the original are written in the language of the middle ages, and evince Madame d'Aulnoy's study of the Romans and Fabliaux of the 13th and 14th centuries.
- ↑ An intentional contemptuous alteration of the name of Merlusine into that for a stock-fish.
