Page 40 - Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cherie

no longer obliged to expose themselves to the
peril attending the trade of a Corsair. They had
become sufficiently rich to discontinue it, for
every three days there dropped, as I have
already said, from the beautiful hair of the
Princess and her brothers, jewels of great
value, which Corsine disposed of in the
nearest town, and always brought back from it

a thousand pretty things for her four babies.
As they grew older, the Corsair applied
himself seriously to the cultivation of the fine
natural abilities with which heaven had
endowed them, and as he felt convinced there
were some great mysteries attached to their
birth, and the accident by which he had met

with them, he desired, by his care of their
education, to prove his gratitude to the gods
for the present they had made him. So having
rendered his dwelling more habitable, he
attracted to it persons of talent, who taught
the children various sciences, which they
acquired with a facility surprising to all their
great masters.
The Corsair and his wife had never told the

story of the four children. They passed for
their own, although they gave evidence by all
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