THE DISCREET PRINCESS. 83

life in this solitude, as filled them with despair. As for
Finetta, she was not in the least out of
humour; her spindle, needle, and music,
furnished her with sufficient amuse-
ments, One day, as she was busied in
her chamber, about some pretty work,
her sisters, who were at the window,
saw, at the foot of the tower, a poor
woman clothed in rags and tatters, who
cried out to them in a sorrowful tone
and in a very moving manner, com-
plained to them of her misery. She
begged of them with her hands joined
together, that they would let her come j
into the castle, telling them that she ¥:
was a wretched stranger, who knew-
how to do a thousand things, and would =
serve them with the utmost fidelity.
“Do you think,” said Pratilia to her sister, “that the ‘king's
order extends to this unfortunate wretch? I believe we may
take herin without any consequence.” You may do, sister,”
answered Drona, “ what you please.” ‘Then Pratilia, who only
waited her consent, immediately let down the basket. The
‘woman got into it, and the princesses drew her up by the help
of the pulley. The new servant of these princesses took a
hundred turns about the castle, under pretence of doing her
work: but, in reality, to see how things were disposed in it ;
for this pretended beggar-woman was the son of a powerful
king, a neighbour of the princesses’ father. This prince, who
always acted with artifice and cunning, was by the people
surnamed Rich-in-craft, but in shortness Rich-Craft.

He had a younger brother, who was as full of good qualities

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