THE BENEFICENT FROG.
Once upon a time there was a King, who for a long while maintained a war against his neighbours. After several battles, they besieged his capital city. He was anxious about the Queen, who was near her confinement, and he entreated her to retire to a castle that he had fortified, and where he had never been but once. The Queen employed prayers and tears to persuade him to allow her to remain near him. She wished to share his fate, and uttered piercing cries when he placed her in her chariot to depart. However, he commanded his guards to accompany her, and promised her to steal away as secretly as he could to visit her. He flattered her with this hope; for the castle was far off, surrounded by a thick forest, and without knowing the roads well, there was no getting to it.
The Queen set out, very sorrowful at leaving her husband to the dangers of the war; they travelled with her by short stages, fearing she would be fatigued by so long a journey; at length she arrived at her castle very uneasy and melancholy. After she was sufficiently rested, she wished to make excursions in the neighbourhood; but she found nothing that could amuse her. She looked all around her; she saw immense deserts, which rather increased than diminished her sorrow. She looked at them sadly, and sometimes said, "What a difference between this abode and the one I have been in all my life. If I stay here much longer, I shall die. Who is there to talk to in these solitary places? To whom can I unburden my heart? and what have I done to the King that he should banish me? It seems as though he would make me feel all the bitterness of his absence, when he sends me away to this horrid castle."
Such were the lamentations she indulged in; and although
