Page 35 - Doralice

small dagger, which he had marked the day
before hanging from her girdle. Then he re
turned to the children's room and killed them
both with the dagger, which he immediately
put back into its scabbard, all bloody as it was,
and having opened a window he let himself
down by a cord. As soon as the shopmen of
the city were astir, he went to a barber's and

had his long beard taken off for fear he might
be recognized, and having put on different
clothes he walked about the city without
apprehension.
In the palace the nurses went, as soon as they
awakened, to suckle the children; but when
they came to the cradles they found them both

lying dead. Whereupon they began to scream
and to weep bitterly, and to rend their hair
and their garments, thus laying bare their
breasts. The dreadful tidings came quickly to
the ears of the king and queen, and they ran
barefooted and in their night-clothes to the
spot, and when they saw the dead bodies of
the babes they wept bitterly. Soon the report
of the murder of the two children was spread

throughout the city, and, almost at the same
time, it was rumoured that there had just
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