round, and recognised her young Prince. What joy, to be assured he was alive!—but what terror to see the imminent peril he was in amongst those horrible giants and the dragons that were springing upon him. She uttered fearful shrieks, and was ready to die at the sight of his danger.
But the enchanted bone with which Biroquoi had armed the Prince never struck in vain, and the light dolphin flying up or down with him at exactly the right moment, was also of wonderful assistance to him; so that in a very short time the ground was covered with the bodies of these monsters.
The impatient Prince, who saw his Infanta through the glass, would have dashed the bottle to pieces had he not been afraid of wounding her. He decided, therefore, to descend through the neck of it. When he reached the bottom of the bottle, he flung himself at the feet of Babiole, and respectfully kissed her hand. "My Lord," said she, "it is necessary, in order to retain your good opinion, that I should give you my reasons for the tender interest I took in your preservation. Know that we are near relations: that I am the daughter of the Queen, your aunt, and that very Babiole whom you found in the form of an ape on the sea-shore, and who afterwards had the weakness to evince an attachment for you which you despised." "Ah, Madam," said the Prince, "can I believe so miraculous a circumstance? You have been an ape,—you have loved me, I have been aware of it, and was capable of rejecting the greatest of all blessings!" "I should at this moment have a very bad opinion of your taste," replied the Infanta smiling, "if you could then have felt any affection for me: but let us away, my Lord; I am weary of captivity, and I fear my enemy. Let us seek the Queen, my mother, and tell her all the extraordinary things in which she must be so much interested." "Come, Madam, let us go," said the enamoured Prince, mounting the winged dolphin, and taking Babiole in his arms; "let me hasten to restore to her in your person the most lovely princess that the world ever boasted."
The dolphin rose gently into the air and took his flight towards the capital, where the Queen passed her melancholy life. The disappearance of Babiole had deprived her of repose. She could not cease thinking of her, of the pretty speeches she had made, and, all ape as she was, the Queen would have given half her kingdom to see her once more. As
