ke
fun of him, and look upon him as nothing better than a miserable little
King worth a few coppers a day. The King thereupon swore that he would
never forgive them, and ordered them to be brought to trial at once.
This did not take long; the judges had only to look at the real
Rosette's portrait and then at the Princess who had arrived, and,
without hesitation, they ordered the prisoners' heads to be cut off as a
punishment for having lied to the King, since they had promised him a
beautiful Princess, and had only given him an ugly peasant girl. They
repaired with great ceremony to the prison to read this sentence to
them; but the prisoners declared that they had not lied, that their
sister was a Princess, and more beautiful than the day; that there must
be something under this which they did not understand, and they asked
for a respite of seven days, as before that time had expired their
innocence might have been established. The King of the Peacocks, who had
worked himself up to a high pitch of anger, could with great difficulty
be induced to accord them this grace, but at last he consented.

While these things were going on at the Court, we must say something
about poor Rosette. Both she and Fretillon were very much astonished,
when daylight came, to find themselves in the middle of the sea, without
a boat, and far from all help. She began to cry, and cried so piteously,
that even the fishes had compassion on her: she did not know what to do,
nor what would become of her. "There is no doubt," she said, "that the
King of the Peacocks ordered me to be thrown into the sea, having
repented his promise of marrying me, and to get rid of me quietly he has
had me drowned. What a strange man!" she continued, "for I should have
loved him so much! We should have been so happy together," and with that
she burst out crying afresh, for she could not help still loving him.
She remained floating about on the sea for two days, wet to the skin,
and almost dead with cold; she was so benumbed by it, that if it had not
been for little Fretillon, who lay beside her and kept a little warmth
in her, she could not have survived. She was famished with hunger, and
seeing the oysters in their shells, she took as many of these as she
wanted and ate them; Fretillon did the same, to keep himself alive,
although he did not like such food. Rosette became still more alarmed
when the night set in. "Fretillon," she said, "keep on barking, to
frighten