fawn upon him beyond the beyonds[1]. When the king saw this he tore his beard, seeing that the bean of this cake[2], the prize in this lottery, had fallen to an ugly beast, the very sight of whom was enough to make one sick; who, besides having a shaggy head, owls' eyes, a parrot's nose, a deer's mouth, was bandy- and bare-legged; so that, without reading Fioravanti[3], you might see at once what he was. Then heaving a deep sigh, the king said, "What can that jade of a daughter of mine have seen to make her take a fancy to this sea-ogre, or strike up a dance with this hairy-foot? Ah vile, false creature, what metamorphosis is this? But why do we delay? let her suffer the punishment she deserves: let her undergo the penalty that shall be decreed by you; and take her from my presence, for I cannot endure the sight of her."
Then the councillors consulted together, and they resolved that she, as well as the malefactor and the children, should be shut up in a cask, and thrown into the sea; so that, without the king's dipping his hands in his own blood, they might put a full stop to the sentence of their lives. No sooner was the judgement pronounced, than the cask was brought, and all four were put into it; but
- ↑ Literally—fora de li fora.
- ↑ It is the custom in Italy and France to make a cake on the Epiphany, in which a bean is put; the cake is broken and divided, and the person who gets the bean is king for the evening. I believe the custom exists in parts of England. In Ireland a ring in put into the twelfth cake.
- ↑ A writer on physiognomy.
