Page:The Allies Fairy Book.djvu/109

 poor children, whom I loved so well! ” She believed them dead, as they had been taken away without anything having been said to her.

“No, no, madam!” replied poor Master Simon, his heart softening, “you shall not die. You shall go to see your dear children again; but it shall be in my house, where I am keeping them in hiding. I will trick the old queen once more. I will make her eat a young hind in your place.” He took her without more ado to his wife’s room, where he left her clasping her children in her arms and crying with them, and went to prepare the hind, which the ogress ate for her supper with just as much gusto as if it had indeed been the young queen. She was, in fact, quite delighted over her own cruelty, and had made up her mind to tell the king when he came back that some ravenous wolves had eaten his wife and his two children.

One evening, while the old queen was roaming about the courts and yards of the castle to see if she could sniff out some fresh dainty, she heard in one of the back rooms little Day, who was crying because his mother was going to whip him for being naughty. She also heard little Dawn asking forgiveness for her brother. The ogress recognized the voices of the young queen and her children. Furious at having been duped, she commanded—in that terrible voice of hers that frightened everybody—that on the very next morning a huge tub should be brought into the middle of the court. It should be filled with toads, vipers, adders, and all sorts of reptiles, and the young queen and her children, Master Simon, his wife, and servant were all to be thrown in together.

They were to be brought thither—so the old queen commanded—with their hands tied behind their backs. They were already there—the executioners stood in readiness to throw them into the tub—when the young queen asked that at least she should be allowed to bid her children