me, and
said to the King, "We wish you joy of the beautiful horse! It will
indeed be an ornament to the royal stable. But what a pity you have not
the ogre's tapestry, which is a thing more beautiful than words can
tell, and would spread your fame far and wide! There is no one,
however, able to procure this treasure but Corvetto, who is just the
lad to do such a kind of service."

Then the King, who danced to every tune, and ate only the peel of this
bitter but sugared fruit, called Corvetto, and begged him to procure
for him the ogre's tapestry. Off went Corvetto and in four seconds was
on the top of the mountain where the ogre lived; then passing unseen
into the chamber in which he slept, he hid himself under the bed, and
waited as still as a mouse, until Night, to make the Stars laugh, puts
a carnival-mask on the face of the Sky. And as soon as the ogre and his
wife were gone to bed, Corvetto stripped the walls of the chamber very
quietly, and wishing to steal the counterpane of the bed likewise, he
began to pull it gently. Thereupon the ogre, suddenly starting up, told
his wife not to pull so, for she was dragging all the clothes off him,
and would give him his death of cold.

"Why you are uncovering me!" answered the ogress.

"Where is the counterpane?" replied the ogre; and stretching out his
hand to the floor he touched Corvetto's face; whereupon he set up a
loud cry,--"The imp! the imp! Hollo, here, lights! Run quickly!"--till
the whole house was turned topsy-turvy with the noise. But Corvetto,
after throwing the clothes out of the window, let himself drop down
upon them. Then making up a good bundle, he set out on the road to the
city, where the reception he met with from the King, and the vexation
of the courtiers, who were bursting with spite, are not to be told.
Nevertheless they laid a plan to fall upon Corvetto with the rear-guard
of their roguery, and went again to the King, who was almost beside
himself with delight at the tapestry--which was not only of silk
embroidered with gold, but had besides more than a thousand devices and
thoughts worked on it. And amongst the rest, if I remember right, there
was a cock in the act of crowing at daybreak, and out of its mouth was
seen coming a motto in Tuscan: IF I ONLY SEE YOU. And in another part a
drooping heliotrope with a Tuscan motto: AT SUNSET--with so many other
pretty things that it would require a better memory and more time than
I have to relate them