Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/354

322 have my brother restored to life?" "I would give this whole kingdom," replied Liviella. And the king answered, "Would you give the blood of your children?" "Nay, not that indeed," replied the queen; "for I could not be so cruel as to tear out with my own hands the apple of my eyes." "Alas!" said the king, "in order to see a brother alive, I have killed my own children! for this was the price of Jennariello's life."

So saying, he showed the queen the little boys in the coffin; and when she saw this sad spectacle, she cried aloud like one mad, saying, "O my children! you props of my life, joys of my heart, fountains of my blood! who has painted red the windows of the sun ? who has without a doctor's licence bled the chief vein of my life? Alas, my children, my children! my hope now taken from me, my light now darkened, my joy now poisoned, my support now lost! you are stabbed by the sword, I am pierced by grief; you are drowned in blood, I in tears. Alas that, to give life to an uncle, you have slain your mother! for I am no longer able to weave the thread of my days, without you, the fair counterpoises of the loom of my unhappy life. The organ of my voice must be silent, now that its bellows are taken away. O children, children, why do ye not give answer