Miscellanea. 455
The lady gave her husband (for it was her husband) a glass of wine to drink ; and when he had drunk it he fell back asleep. Then his wife, taking the tray, went out of the palace, and on and on until she came to a cave, and into the cave she went, shutting the door behind her. The girl had followed her and found a crevice in the rock, through which she could peep. There she saw the beautiful lady sitting with a hideous negro, whose lips hung down to his waist ; and he was scolding her for being so late. They ate and drank and disported themselves ; and while the little girl was watching, three doves came and spoke to her, saying, " Your nurse has missed you, and she is crying and beating her breast." She begged them not to betray her, and stayed where she was.
After some time the lady got up and bade good-bye to the negro, and returned to the palace, where she found her husband still asleep. She pushed him and woke him up. " Wake up, the dinner is cold," said she. He began rubbing his eyes and looking about. The little girl, who was looking through the round window, got so angry that she threw one of her apples at the lady and put out her eye. Then she ran away back to the little stair and up to her own garden. When she got up-stairs she found her father, who had made a treaty with his enemies and come home again.
The lady bade her husband go and find out who it was who had done her this mischief. He said, " I can't think who it is. Here we are in a place where not even birds can come, but I will find a way to know." So he dressed himself up like a Jew, and took a tray of beautiful things to sell. There were gold thimbles and rings, and all sorts of things ; and with this he went up to the upper world. He came to the king's palace, and the young princess asked him the price of a beautiful necklace. He replied, " I don't sell for money, but if you can tell me a good story you shall have it." So she told him all she had seen down the well, and at the end she said, " If you were not a Jew, you would be the very man himself." When he had heard the story he gave her the necklace and went back to his wife, and told her that he had found out who it was who had put out her eye, and that he had hacked the offender in pieces.
That evening he hung a sponge round his neck, and when his wife gave him wine he poured it on the sponge instead of
