The Queen embraced him, and presented him to Fairer, begging him to accept her at her hands. There is no need to say he obeyed joyfully, exclaiming with transport, "Oh Love! for all my tender care and aid, By this rich guerdon I am overpaid!" The two marriages were celebrated on the same day. Both couples were so happy, that 'tis said they are the only pairs who have ever really gained the golden Vine,[13] and that those who have been since named as having done so are purely fabulous personages. Thus innocence triumphs over the misfortunes with which it is assailed. Envy and jealousy only serve to increase its lustre; and often the justice of Heaven renders its possessors happier for the trials they have undergone. There is a Providence which watches over the conduct of mortals, and delights in rewarding the worthy, even in this world. FOOTNOTES: [11] A favourite palace of Louis XIV., four leagues west of Paris, and the scene of many celebrated entertainments. It was destroyed in the Revolution of 1789. [12] A shepherd who, according to the story told by Plato, was possessed of a ring which he took off the finger of a dead man enclosed in the body of a brazen horse, and which rendered the wearer invisible. By means of this ring he became King of Lydia. [13] _La vigne d'or_, more commonly _la vigne de l'évêque_. "On dit d'un mari et d'une femme qui passent la première année de leur mariage sans s'en repentir, qu'ils auront la vigne de l'evêque."--P. J. Le Roux, _Dictionnaire Comique_. In the only English version I have seen of this story, "the golden vine" is of course transformed into "the flitch of bacon." THE GOOD WOMAN. There was once upon a time a Good Woman, who was kind, candid, and courageous. She had experienced all the vicissitudes which can agitate human existence. She had resided at Court, and had endured all the storms to which it is so subject:--treasons, perfidies, infidelities, loss of wealth, loss of friends. So that, disgusted with dwelling in a place in which dissimulation and hypocrisy have established their empire, and weary of an intercourse wherein hearts never appear as they really are, she resolved to quit her own country and go to a distance, where she could forget the world, and where the world would hear no more of her. When she believed herself far enough off, she built a small house in an extremely agreeable situation. All she could then do was to buy a little flock of sheep, which furnished her with food and clothing.