Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/157

Rh nothing, my dear sweet little husband," replied the ogress; "for you shall sooner see pigs with horns, apes with tails, moles with eyes, than a single word shall pass my lips." And so saying she put one hand upon the other and swore to it. "You must know then," said the ogre, "that there is nothing under the sky nor above the ground that can save the prince from the snares of death but our fat: if his wounds are anointed with this, his soul will be arrested which is just on the point of leaving the dwelling of his body."

Nella, who overheard all that passed, gave time to Time, to let them finish their chat; and then getting down from the tree, and taking heart, she knocked at the ogre's door, crying, "Ah! my good ogrish masters, I pray you for charity, alms, some sign of compassion! have a little pity on a poor, miserable, wretched creature, who is banished by fate far from her own country and deprived of all human aid, who has been overtaken by night in this wood and is dying of cold and hunger." And crying thus, she went on knocking and knocking at the door.

Upon hearing this deafening noise, the ogress was going to throw her half a loaf and send her away; but the ogre, who was more greedy of christian flesh than the squirrel is of nuts, the bear of honey, the cat of fish,