Page 25 - The Green Beaubird

were lying beside her. The queen began to
weep bitterly and to deny that the dogs
were her offspring, but her wicked sisters
came and declared that everything the old
mother had said was the truth. The king
when he heard this was greatly disturbed,
and fell to the ground grief-stricken. After
he had come to himself he could scarce

believe such thing could be; but at last he
gave ear to his mother's false tale. But
Chiaretta's dignity and sweetness, and the
patience with which she bore the insults of
the courtiers, won him over to spare her
life, and to sentence her to be kept in a cell
under the place where the cooking pots and

pans were washed, and to be fed on the
garbage which was swept off the dirty sink.

While the unhappy queen passed her life in
this filthy wise, feeding upon carrion,
Gordiana, the wife of the miller Marmiato,
gave birth to a son who was christened
Borghino and brought up with the three
foundlings. When Gordiana went to cut the

hair of these there often fell out of it many
precious stones and great white pearls; so
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