Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/277

 chamber, and, coming to the bed where the little boys lay, and who were every soul of them fast asleep, except Little Thumb, who was terribly afraid when he found the Ogre fumbling about his head, as he had done about his brothers’, the Ogre, feeling the golden crowns, said:

‘I should have made a fine piece of work of it, truly; I find I drank too much last night.’

Then he went to the bed where the girls lay; and, having found the boys’ little bonnets,

‘Ah!’ said he, ‘my merry lads, are you there? Let us work as we ought.’

And saying these words, without more ado, he cut the throats of all his seven daughters.

Well pleased with what he had done, he went to bed again to his wife. So soon as Little Thumb heard the Ogre snore, he waked his brothers, and bade them put on their clothes presently and follow him. They stole down softly into the garden, and got over the wall. They kept running about all night, and trembled all the while, without knowing which way they went.

The Ogre, when he awoke, said to his wife: ‘Go upstairs and dress those young rascals who came here last night.’

The Ogress was very much surprised at this goodness of her husband, not dreaming after what manner she should dress them; but, thinking that he had ordered her to go and put on their clothes, she went up, and was strangely astonished when she perceived her seven daughters killed, and weltering in their blood.

She fainted away, for this is the first expedient almost all women find in such cases. The Ogre, fearing his wife would be too long in doing what he had ordered, went up himself to help her. He was no less amazed than his wife at this frightful spectacle.

‘Ah! what have I done?’ cried he. ‘The wretches shall pay for it, and that instantly.’

He threw a pitcher of water upon his wife’s face, and, having brought her to herself,

‘Give me quickly,’ cried he, ‘my boots of seven leagues, that I may go and catch them.’

He went out, and, having run over a vast deal of ground, both on this side and that, he came at last into the very road where the poor children were, and not above a hundred paces from their father’s house. They espied the Ogre, who went at one step from