a mountain of such goodly growth, that the three mountains that were steps to the Giants would not have reached up to its waist. When he came there, he threw the plant into the cave, and instantly a deep sleep laid hold on the dragon, and Miuccio began to cut him in pieces.
Now just at the time that he was busied thus, the queen felt a cutting pain at her heart; and seeing herself brought to a bad pass, she perceived her error in having purchased death with ready money. So she called her husband, and told him what the astrologers had predicted,—how her life depended on that of the dragon, and how she feared that Miuccio had killed him, for she felt herself gradually sliding away. Then the king replied, "If you knew that the life of the dragon was the prop of your life and the root of your days, why did you make me send Miuccio? who is in fault? you have yourself done the mischief, and you must suffer for it; you have broken the glass, and you may pay the cost." And the queen answered, "I never thought that such a stripling could have the skill and strength to overthrow an animal which made nothing of an army; and I expected that he would have left his rags there; but since I reckoned without my host, and the bark of my projects is gone out of its course, do me
