And drooping when you were not nigh
My passion to express essay'd:
Consuming with my secret flame,
In silence doom'd so long to languish:
With gentle touch you thrill'd my frame,
With gentle look assuaged my anguish.
Sometimes those lovely lips would kiss
My leaves, all trembling with emotion.
Oh then, to tell thee all my bliss—
To prove my grateful heart's devotion—
In those sweet moments how I pray'd
Some magic power, my fate deploring,
Would break the spell upon me laid,
My shape, my speech again restoring.
My prayer was heard; once more I find
The form, the voice, for which I panted;
But thou art changed!—no longer kind!
Ye gods! my prayer why have ye granted?
The Princess seemed well pleased with the Prince's gallantry. She highly praised the impromptu, and though she was not accustomed to hear verses, she spoke on the subject like a person of good taste. The Queen, who had borne her Shepherdess's dress with great impatience, touched her, and wished for her the richest clothes that were ever seen. In a moment, her white linen changed to silver brocade, embroidered with carbuncles; from her high head-dress fell a long veil of gauze, mixed with gold; her black hair was ornamented with a thousand diamonds; and her complexion, whose whiteness was dazzling, assumed so rich a colour, that the Prince could scarcely support its brilliancy. "Ah! Fortunée, how beautiful and charming you are!" exclaimed he, sighing; "will you be inexorable to my pain?" "No, my son," said the Queen; "your cousin will not resist our prayers."
While they were thus talking, Bedou, returning to his work, passed them, and seeing Fortunée attired like a goddess, he thought he was dreaming. She called him to her with much kindness, and begged the Queen to have pity on him. "What, after having so ill-treated you?" said she. "Ah! Madam," replied the Princess, "I am incapable of vengeance." The Queen embraced her, and praised the generosity of her sentiments. "To gratify you," she rejoined, "I am going to enrich the ungrateful Bedou." His hut became a palace, well furnished, and full of money; his stools and his mattress remained unchanged to remind him of his former state; but the Queen of the Woods refined his spirit, amended his manners,
