the gods, to support and console me in my old age; but what will best prove my regard for you, is the choice I have made of you for my daughter Carpillon; she of whom you have often heard me deplore the loss. Heaven, who has restored her to me, wills that she should be your wife. I desire it also with all my heart. Will you be the only one to object to it?" "Ah, my father," cried the Prince, throwing himself at his feet, "dare I flatter myself with what I hear? Am I so happy, that your choice falls upon me? or do you merely wish to discover my sentiments with respect to this lovely shepherdess?" "No, my dear son," said the King, "do not hesitate between hope and fear; I am resolved in a few days to celebrate your nuptials." "You overwhelm me with kindness," replied the Prince, embracing his knees; "and if I but poorly express my gratitude to you, it is from the excess of my joy." The King forced him to rise, said a thousand kind things to him, and although he did not tell him of his high rank, he gave him to understand his birth was far above the condition fortune had reduced him to.
But Carpillon, a prey to her anxiety, could not refrain from following her father and her lover into the garden. She watched them at a distance, hidden behind some trees: when she saw him at the King's feet, she so fully believed he was entreating him not to sentence him to so cruel a separation, that she would stay to learn no more; she flew into the depths of the forest, running like a fawn, that the hounds and hunters were pursuing; she feared nothing,—neither the ferocity of the wild beasts, nor the thorns, which caught her on all sides. The echoes repeated her sad lamentations; she seemed only bent on seeking death; when the shepherd, impatient to impart to her the good tidings he had just heard, hastened in search of her. "Where are you, my shepherdess, my charming Carpillon!" cried he; "if you hear me, fly not. Happiness awaits us."
As he uttered these words, he perceived her far down in a valley, surrounded by several huntsmen, who were endeavouring to place her on a horse behind a little humpbacked and deformed man. At this sight, and the shrieks of his mistress for assistance, he flew towards her like an arrow from a bow; having no arms but his sling, he hurled a stone, which struck the man who was carrying off the shepherdess so direct and
