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Rh ran into the wood, tearing her fine clothes with the brambles, and her white skin with the thorns. She was scratched as if she had been playing with cats. (This is what comes of loving young men; it brings nothing but trouble!) After having searched everywhere, she returned, very sad, to Fanfarinet, and told him she had found nothing. He turned his back on her, and left her, muttering between his teeth.

The next morning they made another fruitless search; in short, they passed three days without eating anything but some leaves and a few cockchafers. The princess did not complain, though she was by far the most delicate. "I should be content," said she, "if I were the only sufferer, and should not mind being starved provided you had enough to eat." "You might die for what I care," replied he, "if I had but as much as I wanted." "Is it possible," rejoined the princess, "that you would be so little affected by my death? Is this the end of all the vows you have made me?" "There is a vast difference," said he, "between a man perfectly at his ease, who is neither hungry nor thirsty, and an unhappy wretch at the point of death in a desert island." "I am in the same danger," continued she, "and yet I do not murmur." "You would do so with a good grace, truly," answered he, bluntly: "you chose to quit your father and mother, to come rambling about here!—Mighty comfortable we are!" "But it was for love of you, Fanfarinet!" said she, holding out her hand to him. "I could willingly have spared you the trouble," said he; and thereupon he turned away from her.

The princess, pained to the heart, began to weep so bitterly that it would have melted a stone. She sat herself down beneath a bush covered with white and red roses. After having contemplated them for some time, she said to them: "How happy you are, young flowers! The zephyrs caress you, the dew bathes you, the sun embellishes you, the bees love you, the thorns defend you. Everybody admires you!—Alas! must you enjoy more tranquillity than I!"—This reflection caused her tears to flow so plenteously, that the roots of the rose-tree were quite soaked with them: she then perceived, to her great astonishment, that the bush became agitated, the roses expanded into fuller bloom, and the most beautiful one said to her: "If thou hadst not loved, thy lot would