Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/153

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PRINCESS PRINTANIERE.
121

he sang them only for Printaniere. He had learned them expressly from Ovid:—

"Love is a wicked god. The little knave
Ne'er grants a boon but to secure a slave;
Beneath the cover of deceitful joys,
His poison'd shaft the heart's repose destroys.

"Who can know it better than I!" exclaimed she, interrupting the bird. "Alas! I am too well acquainted with the cruelty of his shafts and that of my fate!" "Take courage," said the amorous nightingale, "and look in this thicket; thou wilt find therein sweetmeats and tartlets from Le Coq's; but do not again commit the imprudence of giving any to Fanfarinet." The princess needed not this prohibition to prevent her doing so. She had not yet forgotten the last two tricks he had played her; and besides, she was so very hungry, that she began at once to eat the almonds and the tartlets. The greedy Fanfarinet, having perceived her eating by herself, flew into such a passion, that he ran to her, his eyes flashing with fury, and his drawn sword in his hand, to kill her. She instantly uncovered the jewel of the head-dress which rendered the possessor invisible, and, keeping out of his reach, reproached him with his ingratitude in terms which sufficiently proved that she could not yet positively hate him.

In the meanwhile, Admiral Chapeau-pointu had despatched Jean Caquet, with his straw boots, Cabinet-courier in ordinary, to tell the king that the princess and Fanfarinet had landed on the Island of Squirrels; but that, being unacquainted with the country, he was afraid of ambuscades.

At these tidings, which gave their majesties much joy, the king sent for a great book, each leaf of which was eight ells long. It was the masterpiece of a learned Fairy, and contained a description of the whole earth. The king learned thereby that the Island of Squirrels was uninhabited. "Go," said he to Jean Caquet, "and order the admiral in my name to land instantly. It was very wrong of him, and of me, to leave my daughter so long with Fanfarinet."

As soon as Jean Caquet had returned to the fleet, the admiral ordered a grand flourish of drums, kettle-drums, trumpets, hautbois, flutes, violins, hurdygurdys, organs, and guitars. There was the most desperate uproar, for all these musical instruments of war and peace were to be heard incessantly