my sheep, which is nearly drowned, and I am so weak that I have not the strength to drag it out." "I am sorry for you," said she, and without offering her any assistance rode off. The shepherdess immediately cried out—"Good-bye, disguised beauty!" The surprise of our lovely heroine is not to be expressed. "How! is it possible," said she, "that I could be so easily detected? This old shepherdess scarcely saw me for a moment, and she knows that I am disguised! Whither am I about to go, then? I shall be found out by everybody, and if by the King, what will be my shame, and his anger?—He will think my father is a coward, who shrinks from danger." After much reflection, she determined that she would return home.
The Count and his daughters were talking of her, and counting the days of her absence, when they saw her enter. She related to them her adventure. The good man told her that he had warned her of it, and that if she had believed him, she would never have set out, because it was impossible not to discover a girl in man's clothes. All this little family was thrown into fresh embarrassment, not knowing what to do, when the second daughter, in her turn, came to seek the Count. "My sister," said she, "had never been on horseback, it is not surprising that she was discovered; with respect to myself, if you will permit me to go in her place, I dare promise that you will be satisfied with me."
All the old man could say in opposition to her intention had no effect upon her; he was forced to consent to her going; she put on another dress, took other arms, and another horse. Thus equipped, she embraced her father and sisters a thousand times, resolving to serve the King bravely: but in passing through the same meadow, where her sister had seen the shepherdess and her sheep, she perceived it at the bottom of the ditch, and the shepherdess occupied in getting it out.
"Unfortunate creature that I am," cried the old woman, "half my flock perish in this manner; if any one would but help me, I could save this animal, but everybody flies from me." "How is it, shepherdess, that you take so little care of your sheep, that you let them fall into the water?" said the fair cavalier, and without giving her any other consolation, she spurred her horse, and rode on. The old woman called
