t; do it," she said, stretching out her neck. "Carry out your
orders, and then I shall go and see my children, my poor children, whom
I loved so much and so tenderly."

For she thought them dead, since they had been taken away without her
knowledge.

"No, no, madam," cried the poor chief cook, all in tears; "you shall not
die, and you shall see your children again at once. But then you must
go home with me to my lodgings, where I have concealed them, and I will
deceive the Queen once more, by giving her a young hind in your stead."

Upon this he forthwith conducted her to his room, where, leaving her to
embrace her children, and cry along with them, he went and dressed a
young hind, which the Queen had for her supper, and devoured with as
much appetite as if it had been the young Queen. She was now well
satisfied with her cruel deeds, and she invented a story to tell the
King on his return, of how the Queen his wife and her two children had
been devoured by mad wolves.

One evening, as she was, according to her custom, rambling round about
the courts and yards of the palace to see if she could smell any fresh
meat, she heard, in a room on the ground floor, little Day crying, for
his mamma was going to whip him, because he had been naughty; and she
heard, at the same time, little Dawn begging mercy for her brother.

The Ogress knew the voice of the Queen and her children at once, and
being furious at having been thus deceived, she gave orders (in a most
horrible voice which made everybody tremble) that, next morning by break
of day, they should bring into the middle of the great court a large tub
filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and all sorts of serpents, in order
to have the Queen and her children, the chief cook, his wife and maid,
thrown into it, all of whom were to be brought thither with their hands
tied behind them.

They were brought out accordingly, and the executioners were just going
to throw them into the tub, when the King, who was not so soon expected,
entered the court on horseback and asked, with the utmost astonishment,
what was the meaning of that horrible spectacle.

No one dared to tell him, when the Ogress, all enraged to see what had
happened, threw herself head foremost into the tub, and was instantly
devoured by the ugly creatures she had ordered to be thrown into it to
kill the others. The King was of course very sorry, for she was his
mother; but he soon comforted himself with his beauti