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THERE was a miller
who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass,
and his cat. The partition was soon made. Neither scrivener nor attorney
was sent for. They would soon have eaten up all the poor patrimony. The
eldest had the mill, the second the ass, and the youngest nothing but the
cat. The poor young fellow was quite comfortless at having so poor a lot.
"My brothers,"
said he, "may get their living handsomely enough by joining their stocks
together; but for my part, when I have eaten up my cat, and made me a muff
of his skin, I must die of hunger."
The Cat, who heard
all this, but made as if he did not, said to him with a grave and serious
air: "Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master. You have nothing else
to do but to give me a bag and get a pair of boots made for me that I may
scamper through the dirt and the brambles, and you shall see that you have
not so bad a portion in me as you imagine."
The Cat's master
did not build very much upon what he said. He had often seen him play a
great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang
by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead;
so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in
his miserable condition. When the Cat had what he asked for he booted himself
very gallantly, and putting his bag about his neck, he held the strings
of it in his two forepaws and went into a warren where was great abundance
of rabbits. He put bran and sow-thistle into his bag, and stretching out
at length, as if he had been dead, he waited for some young rabbits, not
yet acquainted with the deceits of the world, to come and rummage his bag
for what he had put into it.
Scarce was he
lain down but he had what he wanted. A rash and foolish young rabbit jumped
into his bag, and Monsieur Puss, immediately drawing close the strings,
took and killed him without pity. Proud of his prey, he went with it to
the palace and asked to speak with his majesty. He was shown upstairs into
the King's apartment, and, making a low reverence, said to him: "I have
brought you, sir, a rabbit of the warren, which my noble lord the Marquis
of Carabas" (for that was the title which puss was pleased to give his
master) "has commanded me to present to your majesty from him." "Tell thy
master," said the king, "that I thank him and that he does me a great deal
of pleasure."
Another time
he went and hid himself among some standing corn, holding still his bag
open, and when a brace of partridges ran into it he drew the strings and
so caught them both. He went and made a present of these to the king, as
he had done before of the rabbit which he took in the warren. The king,
in like manner, received the partridges with great pleasure, and ordered
him some money for drink.
The Cat continued
for two or three months thus to carry his Majesty, from time to time, game
of his master's taking. One day in particular, when he knew for certain
that he was to take the air along the river-side, with his daughter, the
most beautiful princess in the world, he said to his master: "If you will
follow my advice your fortune is made. You have nothing else to do but
go and wash yourself in the river, in that part I shall show you, and leave
the rest to me."
The Marquis of
Carabas did what the Cat advised him to, without knowing why or wherefore.
While he was washing the King passed by, and the Cat began to cry out:
"Help! help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas is going to be drowned."
At this noise
the King put his head out of the coach- window, and, finding it was the
Cat who had so often brought him such good game, he commanded his guards
to run immediately to the assistance of his Lordship the Marquis of Carabas.
While they were drawing the poor Marquis out of the river, the Cat came
up to the coach and told the King that, while his master was washing, there
came by some rogues, who went off with his clothes, though he had cried
out: "Thieves! thieves!" several times, as loud as he could.
This cunning Cat
had hidden them under a great stone. The King immediately commanded the
officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best suits for the
Lord Marquis of Carabas.
The King caressed
him after a very extraordinary manner, and as the fine clothes he had given
him extremely set off his good mien (for he was well made and very handsome
in his person), the King's daughter took a secret inclination to him, and
the Marquis of Carabas had no sooner cast two or three respectful and somewhat
tender glances but she fell in love with him to distraction. The King would
needs have him come into the coach and take part of the airing. The Cat,
quite overjoyed to see his project begin to succeed, marched on before,
and, meeting with some countrymen, who were mowing a meadow, he said to
them: "Good people, you who are mowing, if you do not tell the King that
the meadow you mow belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be
chopped as small as herbs for the pot."
The King did not
fail asking of the mowers to whom the meadow they were mowing belonged.
"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," answered they altogether, for the Cat's
threats had made them terribly afraid . "You see, sir," said the Marquis,
"this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every
year."
The Master Cat,
who went still on before, met with some reapers, and said to them: "Good
people, you who are reaping, if you do not tell the King that all this
corn belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as
herbs for the pot."
The King, who
passed by a moment after, would needs know to whom all that corn, which
he then saw, did belong. "To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," replied the reapers,
and the King was very well pleased with it, as well as the Marquis, whom
he congratulated thereupon. The Master Cat, who went always before, said
the same words to all he met, and the King was astonished at the vast estates
of my Lord Marquis of Carabas.
Monsieur Puss
came at last to a stately castle, the master of which was an ogre, the
richest had ever been known; for all the lands which the King had then
gone over belonged to this castle. The Cat, who had taken care to inform
himself who this ogre was and what he could do, asked to speak with him,
saying he could not pass so near his castle without having the honor of
paying his respects to him.
The ogre received
him as civilly as an ogre could do, and made him sit down. "I have been
assured," said the Cat, "that you have the gift of being able to change
yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a mind to; you can, for example,
transform yourself into a lion, or elephant, and the like."
"That is true,"
answered the ogre very briskly; "and to convince you, you shall see me
now become a lion." Puss was so sadly terrified at the sight of a lion
so near him that he immediately got into the gutter, not without abundance
of trouble and danger, because of his boots, which were of no use at all
to him in walking upon the tiles. A little while after, when Puss saw that
the ogre had resumed his natural form, he came down, and owned he had been
very much frightened.
"I have been,
moreover, informed," said the Cat, "but I know not how to believe it, that
you have also the power to take on you the shape of the smallest animals;
for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse; but I must own to
you I take this to be impossible."
"Impossible!"
cried the ogre; "you shall see that presently. " And at the same time he
changed himself into a mouse, and began to run about the floor. Puss no
sooner perceived this but he fell upon him and ate him up.
Meanwhile the
King, who saw, as he passed, this fine castle of the ogre's, had a mind
to go into it. Puss, who heard the noise of his Majesty's coach running
over the draw-bridge, ran out, and said to the King: "Your Majesty is welcome
to this castle of my Lord Marquis of Carabas."
"What! my Lord
Marquis," cried the King, "and does this castle also belong to you? There
can be nothing finer than this court and all the stately buildings which
surround it; let us go into it, if you please."
The Marquis gave
his hand to the Princess, and followed the King, who went first. They passed
into a spacious hall, where they found a magnificent collation, which the
ogre had prepared for his friends, who were that very day to visit him,
but dared not to enter, knowing the King was there. His Majesty was perfectly
charmed with the good qualities of my Lord Marquis of Carabas, as was his
daughter, who had fallen violently in love with him, and, seeing the vast
estate he possessed, said to him, after having drunk five or six glasses:
"It will be owing to yourself only, my Lord Marquis, if you are not my
son-in-law."
The Marquis, making
several low bows, accepted the honor which his Majesty conferred upon him,
and forthwith, that very same day, married the Princess.
Puss became a
great lord, and never ran after mice any more but only for his diversion.
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