第42章

The King, however, hearing the uproar, and being told by a chamberlain what was the matter, ordered the smith to be instantly admitted, for he knew that something unusual must have made him come at that hour.Then the smith, unloading his beast, knocked out the head of the cask, and forth came Cannetella, who needed more than words to make her father recognise her, and had it not been for a mole on her arm she might well have been dismissed.

But as soon as he was assured of the truth he embraced and kissed her a thousand times.Then he instantly commanded a warm bath to be got ready; when she was washed from head to foot, and had dressed herself, he ordered food to be brought, for she was faint with hunger.Then her father said to her, "Who would ever have told me, my child, that I should see you in this plight? Who has brought you to this sad condition?" And she answered, "Alas, my dear sire, that Barbary Turk has made me lead the life of a dog, so that I was nearly at death's door again and again.I cannot tell you what I have suffered, but, now that I am here, never more will I stir from your feet.Rather will I be a servant in your house than a queen in another.Rather will I wear sackcloth where you are than a golden mantle away from you.Rather will I turn a spit in your kitchen than hold a sceptre under the canopy of another."

Meanwhile Fioravante, returning home, was told by the horses that the locksmith had carried off Cannetella in the cask, on hearing which, burning with shame, and all on fire with rage, off he ran towards High-Hill, and, meeting an old woman who lived opposite to the palace, he said to her, "What will you charge, good mother, to let me see the King's daughter?" Then she asked a hundred ducats, and Fioravante, putting his hand in his purse, instantly counted them out, one a-top of the other.Thereupon the old woman took him up on the roof, where he saw Cannetella drying her hair on a balcony.But--just as if her heart had whispered to her--the maiden turned that way and saw the knave.She rushed downstairs and ran to her father, crying out, "My lord, if you do not this very instant make me a chamber with seven iron doors I

am lost and undone!"

"I will not lose you for such a trifle," said her father; "I would pluck out an eye to gratify such a dear daughter!" So, no sooner said than done, the doors were instantly made.

When Fioravante heard of this he went again to the old woman and said to her, "What shall I give you now? Go to the King's house, under pretext of selling pots of rouge, and make your way to the chamber of the King's daughter.When you are there contrive to slip this little piece of paper between the bed-clothes, saying, in an undertone, as you place it there--

Let every one now soundly sleep, But Cannetella awake shall keep."

So the old woman agreed for another hundred ducats, and she served him faithfully.

Now, as soon as she had done this trick, such a sound sleep fell on the people of the house that they seemed as if they all were dead.

Cannetella alone remained awake, and when she heard the doors bursting open she began to cry aloud as if she were burnt, but no one heard her, and there was no one to run to her aid.So Fioravante threw down all the seven doors, and, entering her room, seized up Cannetella, bed-clothes and all, to carry her off.But, as luck would have it, the paper the old woman had put there fell on the ground, and the spell was broken.All the people of the house awoke, and, hearing Cannetella's cries, they ran--cats, dogs, and all--and, laying hold on the ogre, quickly cut him in pieces like a pickled tunny.Thus he was caught in the trap he had laid for poor Cannetella, learning to his cost that--

"No one suffereth greater pain Than he who by his own sword is slain."