Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
General
Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
Fairy tales
the crime you have committed in breaking my chains, which were too
great an honour for you to bear; and as for you, ungrateful Oriza, I
triumph after all in the love you have felt for me. Content with this
victory, I shall visit you with the same misfortune as your rivals; and
I command,' added she, 'in memory of this adventure, that when the use
of mirrors shall be known to all the world, the breaking of these fatal
glasses shall always be a certain sign of the infidelity of a lover.'
The Fairy disappeared in the air after having pronounced these words.
We were changed into trees; but the cruel Ceora, no doubt with the idea
of increasing our suffering, left us our reason. Time has destroyed the
superb castle, which was the victim of our misfortune; and you are the
only visitor we have seen during the two thousand years that we have
been in this frightful forest."
Philax was about to reply to this speech of the cypress tree, when he
was suddenly transported into a beautiful garden; he there found a
lovely nymph, who approached him with a gracious air, saying, "If you
wish it, Philax, I will allow you in three days to see the Princess
Imis."
The Prince, transported with joy at so unexpected a proposition, threw
himself at her feet to express his gratitude. At that same moment
Pagan was in the air, concealed in a cloud with the Princess Imis: he
had told her a thousand times that Philax was unfaithful, but she had
always refused, on the word of a jealous lover, to believe it. He now
conducted her to this spot, he said, to convince her of the fickleness
of the Prince she so unjustly preferred to him. The Princess saw Philax
throw himself, with an air of extreme delight, at the feet of the
nymph; and was in despair that she could no longer deceive herself on
a point which she feared to believe more than anything in the world.
Pagan had placed her at a distance from the earth, which prevented her
hearing what Philax and the nymph said; and it was by his orders that
the latter had presented herself to him.
Pagan led Imis back to his island, where after having convinced her of
the infidelity of Philax, he found he had only redoubled the grief of
that beautiful Princess without rendering her at all more favourable to
himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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