An innocent and unprotected creature,—
She carefully avoided the dear man,
Although it sadly went against her nature;
In secret, too, her heart would oft implore her
To pity so respectful an adorer.
Sans-pair, who could not for his life make out
What caused the change he'd not been told a word of,
Sought her, in vain, to satisfy his doubt:
Brilliante was never to be seen or heard of.
She avoided him carefully, reproaching herself unceasingly with the sentiments she cherished for him. "What!" said she, "I have the misfortune to love!—and to love a miserable shepherd! What a destiny is mine! I preferred virtue to beauty. It appears that Heaven, to reward me for that choice, thought fit to render me handsome: but how unfortunate I consider myself in having become so! But for these idle charms, the shepherd I shun would not have striven to please me, and I should have escaped the shame of blushing at the sentiments I entertain for him!" These sad reflections always ended in tears, and her pain was increased by the state to which she reduced her amiable shepherd. He was, on his part, overwhelmed with affliction. He was tempted to declare to Brilliante the greatness of his birth, in the hope that a feeling of vanity might induce her to listen to him more favourably.
But he persuaded himself that she would not believe him, and that if she demanded a proof of what he asserted, he was not in a position to give her one. "How cruel is my fate!" he exclaimed: "hideous as I was, I must have succeeded to my father. A great kingdom makes up for many defects. It would be useless for me now to present myself to him or to his subjects; there is not one amongst them who could recognise me! and all the good the Fairy Benigne has done me, in taking from me my name and my ugliness, consists in having made me a shepherd, and the slave of an inexorable shepherdess, who cannot abide me!—Barbarous Fortune!" said he, sighing, "become more propitious to me, or restore my deformity together with my previous indifference!"
Such were the sad lamentations which the lover and his mistress indulged in, unknown to each other. But, as Brilliante persisted in avoiding Sans-pair, one day, having determined to speak to her, and wishing to find an excuse which would not offend her, he took a little lamb and adorned it
