196 ok | The Story of

of which I heard the noise. I could not endure to hear the pitiful
cries and shouts of the princess, so cruelly abused; I had already
laid off the suit she made me put on, and taken my own, which
I had laid on the stairs the day before, when I came out of the
bath; I. made haste upstairs, distracted with sorrow and com-
passion, as I had been the cause of so great a misfortune. For
by sacrificing the fairest princess-on earth to the barbarity of a
merciless genie, I was become the most criminal and ungrateful
of mankind. ‘It is true, said I, ‘she has been a prisoner these ,
"twenty-five years; but, liberty excepted, she wanted nothing that
could make her happy. My folly has put an end to her happiness,
and brought upon her the cruelty of an unmerciful monster. 1 let
down the trap-door, covered it again with earth, and returned to
the city with a burden ef wood, which I bound up without eenowite,
what I did, so great was my trouble and sorrow.

My landlord, the tailor, was very much rejoiced to see me.

_ “Your absence, said he, ‘has disquieted me very much, because

_ you had entrusted me with the secret of your birth, and I knew:
not what to think; I was afraid somebody had discovered -you:
God be thanked for your return.’ I thanked him for his zeal and
affection, but not a word durst I say of what had passed, nor the
reason why I came back without my hatchet and cords.

I retired to my chamber, where I reproached myself a thousand
times for my excessive imprudence. ‘ Nothing,’ said I, ‘could have
paralleled the princess’s good fortune and mine had T forborne
to break: the: talisman.’

While I was thus giving myself over to claucholy thoughts,
the tailor came in. ‘An old man, said he, ‘whom I do not know,
brings me here your hatchet and cords, which he found in his way,
as he tells me, and understood from your comrades that you lodge
here; come out and speak to him, for he will deliver them to none
but yourself’.