Page:The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray Vol.20.pdf/251

Rh purpose of torturing them and finding out where they had hidden their money.

Rosalba heard their shrieks and groans in the dungeon in which she was thrust: a most awful black hole, full of bats, rats, mice, toads, frogs, mosquitoes, bugs, fleas, serpents, and every kind of horror. No light was let into it, otherwise the jailers might have seen her and fallen in

love with her, as an owl that lived up in the roof of the tower did, and a eat, you know, who can see in the dark, and having set its green eyes on Rosalba, never would be got to go back to the turnkey’s wife to whom it belonged. And the toads in the dungeon came and kissed her feet, and the vipers wound round her neck and arms, and never hurt her, so charming was this poor Princess in the midst of her misfortunes.

At last, after she had been kept in this place ever so long the door of the dungeon opened, and the terrible came in.

But what he said and did must be reserved for another chapter, as we must now back to Prince Giglio.