Page 9 - The She-Bear

her, "Sooner than take another wife may the
gout lay hold of me; may I have my head cut off
like a mackerel! My dearest love, drive such a
thought from your mind; do not believe in
dreams, or that I could love any other woman;
you were the first new coat of my love, and you
shall carry away with you the last rags of my
affection."
As he said these words the poor young Queen,
who was at the point of death, turned up her
eyes and stretched out her feet. When the King
saw her life thus running out he unstopped the
channels of his eyes, and made such a howling
and beating and outcry that all the Court came
running up, calling on the name of the dear
soul, and upbraiding Fortune for taking her
from him, and plucking out his beard, he
cursed the stars that had sent him such a
misfortune. But bearing in mind the maxim,
"Pain in one's elbow and pain for one's wife are
alike hard to bear, but are soon over," ere the
Night had gone forth into the place-of-arms in
the sky to muster the bats he began to count
upon his fingers and to reflect thus to himself,
"Here is my wife dead, and I am left a
wretched widower, with no hope of seeing any
one but this poor daughter whom she has left
me. I must therefore try to discover some
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