mourning, and she heard the lamentations for her loss, and that they whispered to one another, "What a pity that this lovely young princess should perish through the cruelties of such a wicked creature!—She ought to be cut to pieces and made into a pie!" The king could neither eat nor drink, and cried ready to break his heart!
Gracieuse, seeing her father so afflicted, exclaimed, "Ah, Percinet, I cannot allow my father to believe any longer that I am dead. If you love me, take me back to him." All he could urge was in vain; he was compelled to obey, though with great reluctance. "My princess," said he, "you will regret more than once leaving this fairy palace; for, as to myself, I dare not think you will regret me. You are more unmerciful to me than Grognon is to you." It was of no use talking; she would go. She took leave of the prince's mother and sisters, entered the sledge with him, and the stags started off. As she left the palace she heard a great noise. She looked back; it was the entire building which had fallen and lay broken into a thousand fragments. "What do I see?" she cried; "the palace destroyed!" "My palace," replied Percinet, "shall be amongst the dead. You will never reenter it till after you are buried." "You are angry," said Gracieuse, endeavouring to appease him. "But am I not, in fact, more to be pitied than you?"
On arriving at the city, Percinet caused the princess, himself, and the sledge to be invisible. Gracieuse ascended to the king's apartment and flung herself at his feet. When he saw her, he was frightened and would have run away, taking her for a ghost. She stopped him, and assured him she was not dead; that Grognon had caused her to be carried off into the wilderness; that she had climbed up a tree, where she had lived upon wild fruits; that they had buried a log of wood in her place, and ended, by begging him, for mercy's sake, to send her to one of his castles, where she might no longer be exposed to the fury of her step-mother.
The king, scarcely able to credit her story, had the log of wood taken up, and was astounded at the malice of Grognon. Any other monarch would have ordered Grognon to be buried alive in its place; but he was a poor weak man, who hadn't courage to be really in a passion. He caressed his daughter a good deal, and made her sup with him. When
