in the circumstance so wonderful that their limited reason could not at all understand it.
They carried away the child and the eaglets, all three screaming together. The eagle heard them, and came swooping down upon the ravishers of her property. They would have felt the effects of her fury if she had not been shot dead by an arrow which one of the shepherds let fly at her. The young Prince, full of natural feeling, seeing her fall, uttered pitiful cries, and wept bitterly. After this adventure the shepherds returned to their villages. A cruel ceremony was to take place the next morning, for the following reason:—This country, for a long time past, had been the resort of ogres. The inhabitants, alarmed at such dangerous neighbours, had tried every means to get rid of them, without success. These terrible ogres, incensed by the hatred that was manifested towards them, redoubled their cruelties, and devoured, without exception, all who fell into their hands.
One day that the shepherds had assembled to deliberate on the steps that should be taken against the ogres, all at once, in the midst of them appeared a man of tremendous size; half of his body was like that of a stag, covered with a blue skin. He had the feet of a goat, a club over his shoulder, and a buckler in his hand. He said to them, "Shepherds, I am the Blue Centaur; if you give me a child every three years, I promise to bring here a hundred of my brothers, and make such fierce war upon the ogres, that we will drive them out, whatever may be their numbers."
The shepherds hesitated to agree to do anything so cruel, but the most venerable amongst them said, "What then, my friends, is it more advantageous to us that the ogres should each day eat our fathers, our children, and our wives? By sacrificing one we should save many. Do not let us then refuse the offer the Centaur has made us." Upon this they all consented to it. They pledged themselves by sacred oaths to keep their word with the Centaur, and that the child should be ready for him.
He departed, and returned, as he promised, with his brothers, who were all as monstrous as himself. The ogres were as brave as they were cruel. They fought several battles, in which, however, the Centaurs were always victorious, and at last obliged them to fly. The Blue Centaur appeared to
