Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/321

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BABIOLE.
277

that did not take him to be the God of Soles, for to speak the truth, this young Prince had a certain air which is rarely met with in mortals.

The hope of soon recovering the charming Princess he adored inspired him with a joy he had not experienced since her loss, and the faithful chronicle of these events asserts that he ate with an excellent appetite whilst he was staying with Biroquoi, and that he thanked him and all the company with extraordinary eloquence. He then bade adieu to Criquetin, and mounted the flying dolphin, who set off with him immediately. The Prince, towards evening, found himself at such a height, that for the sake of a little rest he entered the kingdom of the Moon. The curiosities he saw there would have detained him for some time had he been less anxious to extricate his beloved Infanta from the bottle in which she had been living for several months.

Morning had scarcely dawned when he discovered her surrounded by giants and dragons, which the Fairy, by the power of her little wand, had kept beside her. She so little imagined that any one would have power to rescue the Princess, that she felt perfectly satisfied with the vigilance of her terrible guards, and their ability to prolong the sufferings of Babiole.

That beautiful Princess had raised her mournful eyes to Heaven, and was addressing to it her sad complaints, when she saw the flying dolphin and the knight who came to her deliverance. She had not believed in the possibility of such an event, although her own experience had taught her that the most extraordinary things become familiar to certain persons. "Is it by the malice of some Fairies," said she, "that yon knight is borne through the air? Alas! how I pity him if, like me, he is doomed to be imprisoned in some bottle or flagon."

Whilst she thus ruminated, the Giants, who saw the Prince hovering above their heads, thought it was a boy's kite, and cried one to the other, "Catch hold, catch hold of the line!—it will amuse us;" but while they were stooping to look for the line, the Prince rushed down upon them, sword in hand, cut them in pieces as you would cut a pack of cards, and scattered them to the winds.

At the noise of this desperate combat the Infanta looked