ondine! reflect well. Six months without descending from
my back and without asking me a single question! When once you have
accepted the conditions, when we have commenced our journey, if you have
not the courage to endure to the end, you will remain eternally in the
power of the enchanter, Perroquet, and his sister Rose and I cannot
even continue to bestow upon you the little assistance to which you owe
your life during the last six months."

"Let us go, Madam Tortoise let us be off, immediately. I prefer to die
of hunger and fatigue rather than of grief and uncertainty. Your words
have brought hope to my poor heart, and I have courage to undertake even
a more difficult journey than that of which you speak."

"Let it be according to your wish, Blondine. Mount my back. Fear neither
hunger nor thirst nor cold nor sunshine nor any accident during our long
journey. As long as it lasts you shall not suffer from any
inconvenience."

Blondine mounted on the back of the Tortoise. "Now, silence!" said she;
"and not one word till we have arrived and I speak to you first."

THE JOURNEY AND ARRIVAL

The journey of Blondine lasted, as the Tortoise had said, six months.
They were three months passing through the forest. At the end of that
time she found herself on an arid plain which it required six weeks to
cross. Then Blondine perceived a castle which reminded her of that of
Bonne-Biche and Beau-Minon. They were a full month passing through the
avenue to this castle.

Blondine burned with impatience. Would she indeed learn the fate of her
dear friends at the palace? In spite of her extreme anxiety, she dared
not ask a single question. If she could have descended from the back of
the Tortoise, ten minutes would have sufficed for her to reach the
castle. But, alas! the Tortoise crept on slowly and Blondine remembered
that she had been forbidden to alight or to utter a word. She resolved,
therefore, to control her impatience. The Tortoise seemed rather to
relax than to increase her speed. She consumed fourteen days still in
passing through this avenue. They seemed fourteen centuries to Blondine.
She never, however, lost sight of the castle or of the door. The place
seemed deserted; she heard no noise, she saw no sign of life.

At last, after twenty-four days' journey, the Tortoise paused, and said
to Blondine:--

"Now, princess, descend. By your courage and obedience you have earned
the recompense I promised. Enter