Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/69

 She accepted the parrot and immediately arranged that he would receive five hundred scudi per year as compensation for his immense generosity. She had a rich and honorable cage made into which the bird was moved, and had it placed in her room and for most of the day she discussed various matters with him.

Now the parrot had been living with the Empress day and night for two months, and he had never seen that the false Emperor had slept with her which made him very happy and cheerful, notwithstanding the miserable state in which he found himself. As they were conversing one morning at a time when she was alone in her room the Empress said, "I truly see, wise and prudent animal, because you converse with me about various things so intelligently and prudently, that I cannot persuade myself, that you are irrational. Indeed, I am certain that you are the spirit of some noble person, and you have turned yourself into a parrot through some magic art. So, if this is true, I kindly ask you to be willing to reveal it to me."

When the Empress spoke these words, the parrot could no longer conceal who he was because of the love that he felt for this woman. He told her the whole history from the beginning, and the reason that he was so miserable and unhappy because of the maliciousness and disloyalty of the counselor.

The Empress replied that she herself had noticed from the unusual way in which she was caressed that he was a false Emperor,