who was such an ugly ogress that Nature seemed to have formed her as a
model of horrors. Her hair was like a besom of holly; her forehead like
a rough stone; her eyes were comets that predicted all sorts of evils;
her mouth had tusks like a boar's--in short, from head to foot she was
ugly beyond imagination. Now she seized Nardo Aniello by the nape of
his neck, saying, "Hollo! what now, you thief! you rogue!"

"Yourself the rogue," replied the Prince, "back with you, old hag!" And
he was just going to draw his sword, when all at once he stood fixed
like a sheep that has seen the wolf and can neither stir nor utter a
sound, so that the ogress led him like an ass by the halter to her
house. And when they came there she said to him, "Mind, now, and work
like a dog, unless you wish to die like a dog. For your first task
to-day you must have this acre of land dug and sown level as this room;
and recollect that if I return in the evening and do not find the work
finished, I shall eat you up." Then, bidding her daughter take care of
the house, she went to a meeting of the other ogresses in the wood.

Nardo Aniello, seeing himself in this dilemma, began to bathe his
breast with tears, cursing his fate which brought him to this pass. But
Filadoro comforted him, bidding him be of good heart, for she would
ever risk her life to assist him. She said that she ought not to lament
his fate which had led him to the house where she lived, who loved him
so dearly, and that he showed little return for her love by being so
despairing at what had happened. The Prince replied: "I am not grieved
at having exchanged the royal palace for this hovel; splendid banquets
for a crust of bread; a sceptre for a spade; not at seeing myself, who
have terrified armies, now frightened by this hideous scarecrow; for I
should deem all my disasters good fortune to be with you and to gaze
upon you with these eyes. But what pains me to the heart is that I have
to dig till my hands are covered with hard skin--I whose fingers are so
delicate and soft as Barbary wool; and, what is still worse, I have to
do more than two oxen could get through in a day. If I do not finish
the task this evening your mother will eat me up; yet I should not
grieve so much to quit this wretched body as to be parted from so
beautiful a creature."

So saying he heaved sighs by bushels, and shed many tears. But
Filadoro, drying his eyes, said to him, "Fear not that my mother will
tou