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176 bride of this cruel little Ogre? Why didst thou not leave me to perish in the sea? Why didst thou preserve a life, that must be spent in this deplorable manner? Hast thou not some compassion for my grief?" She thus addressed the gods, and implored their aid.

When the weather was rough, and she thought the sea had cast some unfortunate persons on shore, she would carefully go and assist them, and prevent them from approaching the Ogres' cavern. It had been blowing fearfully throughout one night: she arose as soon as it was day, and ran towards the sea. She perceived a man, who, with his arms locked round a plank, was trying to gain the shore, notwithstanding the violence of the waves, which continually repulsed him. The Princess was most anxious to help him; she made signs to him, to indicate the easiest landing places; but he neither saw nor heard her. Sometimes he came so close, that it appeared he had but one step to make, when a wave would cover him, and he disappeared. At last he was thrown upon the sand, and lay stretched on it without motion. Aimée drew near him, and, notwithstanding his death-like appearance, she rendered him all the assistance she could. She always carried about her certain herbs, the odour of which was so powerful, it recovered any one from the longest fainting-fit. She pressed them in her hands, and rubbed his lips and temples with some of them. He opened his eyes, and was so astonished at the beauty and the dress of the Princess, that he could hardly determine if it were a dream or reality. He spoke first; she spoke in her turn. They could not understand each other, and looked at one another with much attention, mingled with astonishment and pleasure. The Princess had only seen some poor fishermen that the Ogres had entrapped, and whom she had saved, as I have already said. What must she, then, have thought, when she saw the handsomest and best made man in the world, most magnificently dressed! It was, in short, the Prince Aimé, her cousin-german, whose fleet, driven by a tempest, had gone to pieces on these shoals, and their crews, at the mercy of the winds and waves, had perished, or been cast upon unknown shores. The young Prince, for his part, was astonished at seeing so beautiful a creature, in such savage attire, and in so deserted a country; and the remembrance of the princes and ladies he had so recently quitted,