NOTES his horse is not an uncommon feature in such tales.
The story of the service to the King of England,
and of the mysterious horses on which the prince
rides to hunt and to deliver the king from his foes,
occurs also in the far older tale of ‘Robert the
Devil,’ which can be traced back to the early
Middle Ages, and to which indeed William the
Conqueror is said to have alluded before the battle
of Hastings in his address to his soldiers.

MIRANDA; OR, THE ROYAL RAM.—A tale
by Mme. D’Aulnoy. The story became a favour-
ite for issue in chap-book form in England. Itis
a variant of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and is without
any distinguishing merit.

BLUE-BEARD.—One of Perrault’s admirable
tales. It has been supposed that the story was
based on the crimes and execution of the infamous
De Retz, but I do not think that there is evidence
that this was the case. Fatal curiosity occurs in
several folk-tales.

THE FAIR MAID WITH GOLDEN LOCKS.
—This capital story is by Mme. D’Aulnoy, but is
not wholly original. She has made use of the
favourite tale of the Thankful Beasts and the
story of the Tasks, and has welded the two happily
together. The Tasks are introduced into ‘Cupid
and Psyche.’

JACK THE GIANT KILLER.—Thisis a genuine
old English chap-book tale, and is to be compared
with others in other languages where a man of
small stature, by his adroitness and superior wits,
overcomes men larger and more powerful than
himself. Itis probably a reminiscence of a struggle
between two races, the one small and the other of
greater bulk.
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