Page:The Allies Fairy Book.djvu/110

 farewell, and the ogress, wicked as she was, consented. “Alas, alas!” cried the poor princess, “must I die so young. It is true that I have been a good while in the world, but I have slept a hundred years, and surely that ought not to count! What will you say, what will you do, my poor prince, when you come back, and find that your little Day, who is so sweet, and your little Dawn, who is so pretty, are there no longer to throw their little arms round your neck, and that even I myself am no longer there to greet you? If I weep, it is your tears that I shed. Perhaps—I dread to think it—you will take vengeance for our fate upon yourself! As for you, miserable wretches, who do an ogress’s bidding, the king will have you put to death—burnt to death on a slow fire.” The ogress, when she heard these words—which went so far beyond a mere farewell—was transported with rage, and cried: “Executioners, do your duty, and throw this babbler into the tub!” They there and then approached the queen, and took hold of her by her dress; but, just at that moment, the king, whom no one expected to arrive so early, came riding into the court. He had come post-haste; and he asked, in his astonishment, what was the meaning of this horrible sight. No one dared to tell him; when the ogress, maddened at seeing the course events had taken, threw herself head foremost into the tub, and was gobbled up in an instant by the dreadful creatures she had ordered to be put there. The king did not allow himself to be grieved over-much, although she was his mother. He soon found consolation in his beautiful wife and his children.

Many a girl has waited long

For a husband brave or strong;

But I’m sure I never met

Any sort of woman yet

Who could wait a hundred years,

Free from fretting, free from fears.