Page 115 - Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cherie

him, and upon whom he had made some
excellent meals. Their bones were piled
around the apple-tree, upon which was the
beautiful apple, and they were heaped up so
high, that it was not possible to see it.
The frightful animal came bounding along,
covering the ground with a froth which was
very poisonous: out of his infernal throat

issued fire and young dragons, which he
hurled like darts in the eyes and ears of the
knights-errants who wished to carry away the
apple. But when he saw his alarming figure
multiplied a hundred and a hundred times in
the Prince's mirrors, it was he that was
frightened in his turn. He stopped, and

looking fiercely at the Prince laden with
dragons, he took flight. Cheri, perceiving the
happy effect of his armour, pursued him to the
entrance of a deep chasm, into which the
monster precipitated himself to avoid him. The
Prince closed up the aperture securely, and
returned with all speed to the singing apple.
After mounting upon the top of all the bones
that surrounded it, he looked with admiration

upon the beautiful tree; it was of amber, the
apples being topazes, and the most
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