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426 Daylight returned, and with it the Princess resumed her form of the White Hind. She knew not what to do, whether to seek the places the Prince generally frequented, or to take an opposite direction and avoid him. She decided upon the latter, and went very far away; but the young Prince, who was as cunning as she was, did the same thing, firmly believing she would adopt this little ruse, so that he discovered her in the thickest part of the forest. She was just fancying herself perfectly safe, when she caught sight of him. She instantly bounded up, and jumped over the bushes, and, as if she feared him still more on account of the trick she had played him the preceding evening, she flew faster than the winds; but at the moment she was crossing a path, he took so good an aim at her, that he lodged an arrow in her leg. She was in violent pain, her strength failed her, and she fell.

Cruel and barbarous Cupid, where wert thou then? What! couldst thou suffer an incomparable girl to be wounded by her affectionate lover? The sad catastrophe was inevitable, for the Fairy of the Fountain intended this to be the end of the adventure. The Prince came up; he was sensibly affected to see the Hind bleeding. He gathered some herbs, bound them round her leg, to alleviate the pain of the wound, and made her a new bed of branches. He placed the Hind's head upon his knees. "Dost thou not deserve what has happened to thee, little runaway?" said he. "What did I yesterday, that thou shouldst have abandoned me? It shall not happen again to-day; I will take thee with me." The Hind did not answer: what could she say? She was wrong, and could not speak; for it does not always follow that those who are wrong will be silent. The Prince lavished a thousand caresses on her. "How grieved I am that I have wounded thee!" said he; "thou wilt hate me, and I would thou shouldst love me." To hear him, it seemed as if some genius secretly inspired him with all he said to the Hind. At last the time arrived for returning to the old woman's; he lifted up his game, and was much inconvenienced by carrying it, leading it, and sometimes by dragging it.

She had not the slightest wish to go with him. "What will become of me," said she, "alone with this Prince? Ah! I would rather die!" She made herself as heavy as she could