husbands they desired, they blushed and cast down their eyes. He pressed them still further to acknowledge it. They did so, and he immediately exclaimed, "I certainly do not know what power is influencing me, but I will not leave this house until I have married the beautiful Blondine." "Sire," said the King's brother, "I crave your permission to marry this lovely Brunette." "Grant me a similar favour, Sire," said the Admiral, "for this golden-haired girl pleases me greatly."
The King, much gratified at being thus imitated by the chief persons in his dominions, told them he approved of their choice, and asked the mother of the young women if she consented. She replied that it gave her the greatest joy she could ever hope to experience. The King embraced her, and the Prince and the Admiral followed his example.
When the King was ready for dinner, there came down the chimney a table laid for seven with gold plate and everything that could be imagined most delicate to provoke the appetite. The King, however, hesitated to taste anything; he feared the witches had cooked the viands at one of their festivals, and this mode of serving it by the chimney appeared to him rather suspicious. The buffet was also set out. Nothing was to be seen but basins and vases of gold, the workmanship of which surpassed the material. At the same time a swarm of bees appeared in crystal hives, and commenced the most charming music that can possibly be imagined. The whole dining-room was filled with hornets, bees, wasps, gnats, and other insects of that description, which waited on the King with supernatural ability. Three or four thousand flies helped him to wine, without one of them daring to drown itself in it, which evinced a moderation and a discipline perfectly astonishing. The Princess and her daughters saw clearly enough that all this could only be attributed to the little old woman, and they blessed the hour they had known her.
"After the banquet, which lasted so long that night surprised the company at table, (of which his majesty was rather ashamed, for it appeared as if Bacchus had taken the place of Cupid at this marriage,) the King rose and said, "Let us finish this ceremony as we ought to have begun it." He drew his ring from his finger, and placed it on that of Blon-
