was presently relieved by a genteel stranger,
who, ascertaining his condition, desired him to
take his youngest boy, Almerigo by name, into
the garden early on the following morning, and
to place him by a large cypress-tree. If these
instructions were followed, the fisherman would
find a large chest full of gold near the tree,
which he was to take forthwith and retire,
leaving the child behind him.

All this was done, but it happened that the
boy had no sooner been left under the tree than he
was perceived by the powerful and beneficent
enchantress Sabina, who was taking her
morning's stroll through the air. Expressing great
disgust at his father's conduct, she carried him
home with her to her residence on the Seven-
Star Mountain, which stood close at hand, and in
which she reigned as chief over a host of young
maidens, who, all beautiful, were all inferior to
herself. When he had attained his twenty-
second year, and was a goodly young man to
look upon, one of these damsels asked him
jestingly whether he was happier in his present
residence, or preferred his early home? As he
had forgotten all about his childhood, and
fancied himself one of Sabina's numerous clan, his
curiosity was not a little excited, and he pressed
his informant with inquiries, till he learned that
his parents, on the strength of the chest of gold,
were now residing in London as wealthy
persons, but that he would never be able to see
them again without the consent of Sabina.

To the lovely Sabina he betook himself
accordingly, and asked permission to visit
England, but he did not find her at all disposed to
comply with his request.

"If ever you leave this place," said she,
"you will never return."

His own personal influence being insufficient,
he requested the young ladies to put in a word
for him; and, pleased with their task, they put
in so many words, that Sabina was at last
wearied into compliance. As it was, her
consent was not pleasantly granted.

"Let him go for a while," said she, "but on
the express condition that, during his absence,
he never makes mention of me, or of anything
belonging to me; and if he never returns,
woebetide you all as counsellors of evil."

The young ladies were somewhat cast down
by the tone of their mistress; but they soon
recovered their spirits, and hastened to communicate
the glad tidings to Almerigo, who lost no
time in thanking Sabina, and promising to
accept her condition. Provided with four fairy
horses and three servants, he hastened through
the air to London, where he took up his
lodgings in the Royal Hotel (Locanda Reale),
immediately opposite the queen's palace.

When he arose in the morning, he opened
the shutters of his window, and washed his
face. While thus creditably employed, he was
observed by one of the queen's daughters,
who immediately hastened to her mother with
the information that a handsome stranger,
doubtless a prince, was lodging over the way.
Tidings so extraordinary naturally aroused the
curiosity of the queen, and she sent the
stranger an invitation to dinner, which he cheerfully
accepted.

Under the state of manners supposed to prevail
in the days of the fairies, the road to a matrimonial
union with royalty was not so intricate
or so narrow as during more historical periods.
Indeed, whenever a king wanted some object
to be carried out—a dragon to be killed, or a
magical apple to be plucked—his very first
expedient was to offer the hand of his daughter to
any one who satisfied his wish, without regard
to birth or social position. Competition,
indeed, was not quite unlimited, a threat of
decapitation in case of failure, which was faithfully
carried out, exactly answering the purpose of
a modern Civil Service examination in thinning
the number of the candidates for promotion.

There was nothing, therefore, at all derogatory
in the delight with which the queen perceived,
as she sat at table with her daughters
and the stranger, that her first-born had fallen
in love with her guest. So promising a
match was not to be found every day, and
she therefore improved the occasion by extolling
the beauty and virtue of her eldest daughter to
a degree which was highly creditable to her
as a mother, but utterly at variance with
obvious truth. Now, unfortunately, the admirable
Sabina, who had otherwise given Almerigo an
excellent education, had been less attentive
than she might have been with respect to the
article of good manners; so her pupil, hearing
a number of assertions which were palpably
opposed to the evidence of his own eyes,
presently lost all patience, and rudely told the
queen that she need not make so much fuss
about her daughter's beauty, inasmuch as the
young lady was not half so handsome as the
ugliest girl at the court which he had just
quitted. Remarks of this kind are not likely to
find favour in the royal palaces of any age or
country, and therefore, when we learn that the
queen and her daughters rose indignantly from
the table, and that the former ordered her guest
to be cast into a dungeon and laden with heavy
chains, we may indeed deem such proceedings
harsh, but can scarcely pronounce them unnatural.

The royal mandate was, of course, executed,
but just at the moment the ever-ready Sabina
happened to be amusing herself with a magic
mirror, which could reflect the events that passed
in every quarter of the world, and which now
showed the dismal situation of her favourite.
Without a moment's delay she conjured up a
large army, and marched through the air to
London, where she arrived just as the queen
had assembled her grand council to pronounce
judgment on the discourteous Almerigo. The
councillors differed from their queen, in a leaning
to the side of mercy; and one of them, a prudent
gentleman, considerably advanced in years,
plainly told her that she had better take care
what she did, for the prisoner might possibly be
the son of a mighty king, who, if any harm
happened to his son, might visit unhappy England