Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/352

320 marble; and when he went on to relate the affair of the horse in the same manner, he became visibly stone up to the waist, stiffening miserably,—a thing which at another time he would have paid in ready money, but which now his heart wept at. At last, when he came to the affair of the dragon, he stood like a statue in the middle of the hall, stone from head to foot. When the king saw this, reproaching himself for the error he had committed and the rash sentence he had passed upon so good and loving a brother, he mourned him more than a year, and every time he thought of him he shed a river of tears.

Meanwhile Liviella gave birth to two sons, who were two of the most beautiful creatures in the world. And after a few months, when the queen was gone into the country for pleasure, and the father and his two little boys chanced to be standing in the middle of the hall, gazing with tearful eyes on the statue—the memorial of his folly, which had taken from him the flower of men,—behold a stately and venerable old man entered, whose long hair fell upon his shoulders and whose beard covered his breast. And making a reverence to the king, the old man said to him, "What would your Majesty give to have this noble brother return to his former state?" And the king answered, "I would give