Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/349

Rh horse, and on asking his brother whose it was, heard that it was his own; then he felt a great desire to ride him, and just as he was ordering the stirrup to be held, Jennariello quickly cut off the horse's legs with his knife. Thereat the king waxed wrath, for his brother seemed to have done it on purpose to vex him, and his choler began to rise; however he did not think it a right time to show resentment, lest he should poison the pleasure of the bride at the first sight, whom he could never gaze upon enough.

When they arrived at the royal palace, he invited all the lords and ladies of the city to a grand feast, at which the hall seemed just like a riding-school full of horses, curvetting and prancing, with a number of foals in the form of women. But when the ball was ended, and a great banquet had been despatched, they all retired to rest.

Jennariello, who thought of nothing else than to save his brother's life, hid himself behind the bed of the bridal pair; and as he stood watching to see the dragon come, behold at midnight a fierce dragon entered the chamber, who sent forth flames from his eyes and smoke from his mouth, and who, from the terror he carried in his look, would have been a good agent to sell all the antidotes to fear in the apothecaries' shops. As soon as Jennariello saw the monster, he began to lay about him