Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/413

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379

THE THREE CITRONS.

Well was it in truth said by the wise man, "Do not say all you know, nor do all you are able;" for both one and the other bring unknown danger and unforeseen ruin; as you shall hear of a certain slave (be it spoken with all reverence for my lady the Princess), who, after doing all the injury in her power to a poor girl, came off so badly in the court, that she was the judge of her own crime, and sentenced herself to the punishment she deserved.


The king of Long-Tower had once a son, who was the apple of his eye, and on whom he had built all his hopes; and he longed impatiently for the time when he should find some good match for him, and hear himself called grandpapa. But the prince was so averse to marriage and so obstinate, that whenever a wife was talked of he shook his head and wished himself a hundred miles off, so that the poor king, finding his son stubborn and perverse, and foreseeing that his race would come to an end, was more vexed and melancholy, cast