Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/60

 to-night; you will have to wait and be dished for breakfast in the morning.

. What on earth are you talking about?

. Ah! Then this is the decisive trial. This is the Ogre who has the Princess in his power! Must I vanquish him, too, in order to disenchant him and arrive victorious at her side? Then let him come quickly, and I, alone with my sword

. My lord, is it quite honorable to draw your sword against a gentleman who has opened the doors of his house so hospitably? I tell you that all this about ogres is pure nonsense, fable. There are, of course there are anthropophagi—that is to say, men who eat other men—from anthropos, man, and phagein, to eat; but that is only in savage regions, not in civilized countries like ours.

. What do you know about it anyhow? My books tell me the truth. Isn't it true, my good fairy? Are we not in the Castle of the Ogre?

. I don't know anything about ogres.

. You can tell by his looks that he must have eaten a great deal. If you could only see his paunch! It is the men and women and children he has swallowed whole.

. He hasn't done that, no, but he has swallowed houses and whole villages—yes, he has! You saw when you came in how all the neighborhood around is poor, and how only the lands and house of this man are rich? He has ruined all—buying here, lending there, crushing this one, deceiving that one, grinding down all beneath his treachery and greed. I myself was one of his victims. It is through him that you see me as I am.

. What? Is he guilty of your enchantment? Then his destruction shall not be delayed. Sally forth, Mr. Ogre! Sally forth and roar, for the Blue Prince awaits you!