Page 21 - The Green Beaubird

hese wicked women having carried
out this barbarous work, it only remained
for them to contrive a cruel death for the
three lovely children of the queen. But God
mercifully held them back from soiling their

hands with the blood of their kin. They
made a box, which they waxed within, and,
having put the children therein, they closed
it and cast it into the river to be borne away
by the stream. But God in His justice would
not allow these innocents to suffer. As the
box floated along it was espied by a certain
miller named Marmiato, who haled it out
and opened it, and found within three

smiling children. Seeing how fair and
_____
21