` If I chose I could make any one of my scullions richer and more powerful than you . I do not want your treasures , but , ' she added softly , ` if you will give me your heart -- if you will marry me -- I will add twenty kingdoms to the one you have already ; you shall have a hundred castles full of gold and five hundred full of silver , and , in short , anything you like to ask me for . ' '' ` Madam Ragotte , ' said I , ` when one is at the bottom of a pit where one has fully expected to be roasted alive , it is impossible to think of asking such a charming person as you are to marry one ! I beg that you will set me at liberty , and then I shall hope to answer you fittingly . ' '' ` Ah ! ' said she , ` if you really loved me you would not care where you were -- a cave , a wood , a fox-hole , a desert , would please you equally well . Do not think that you can deceive me ; you fancy you are going to escape , but I assure you that you are going to stay here and the first thing I shall give you to do will be to keep my sheep -- they are very good company and speak quite as well as you do . `` As she spoke she advanced , and led me to this plain where we now stand , and showed me her flock , but I paid little attention to it or to her . `` To tell the truth , I was so lost in admiration of her beautiful slave that I forgot everything else , and the cruel Ragotte , perceiving this , turned upon her so furious and terrible a look that she fell lifeless to the ground . `` At this dreadful sight I drew my sword and rushed at Ragotte , and should certainly have cut off her head had she not by her magic arts chained me to the spot on which I stood ; all my efforts to move were useless , and at last , when I threw myself down on the ground in despair , she said to me , with a scornful smile : '' ' I intend to make you feel my power . It seems that you are a lion at present , I mean you to be a sheep . ' `` So saying , she touched me with her wand , and I became what you see . I did not lose the power of speech , or of feeling the misery of my present state . '' ` For five years , ' she said , ` you shall be a sheep , and lord of this pleasant land , while I , no longer able to see your face , which I loved so much , shall be better able to hate you as you deserve to be hated . ' `` She disappeared as she finished speaking , and if I had not been too unhappy to care about anything I should have been glad that she was gone . `` The talking sheep received me as their king , and told me that they , too , were unfortunate princes who had , in different ways , offended the revengeful fairy , and had been added to her flock for a certain number of years ; some more , some less . From time to time , indeed , one regains his own proper form and goes back again to his place in the upper world ; but the other beings whom you saw are the rivals or the enemies of Ragotte , whom she has imprisoned for a hundred years or so ; though even they will go back at last . The young slave of whom I told you about is one of these ; I have seen her often , and it has been a great pleasure to me . She never speaks to me , and if I were nearer to her I know I should find her only a shadow , which would be very annoying . However , I noticed that one of my companions in misfortune was also very attentive to this little sprite , and I found out that he had been her lover , whom the cruel Ragotte had taken away from her long before ; since then I have cared for , and thought of , nothing but how I might regain my freedom .
I have often been XXXXX the forest ; that is where I have seen you , lovely Princess , sometimes driving your chariot , which you did with all the grace and skill in the world ; sometimes riding to the chase on so spirited a horse that it seemed as if no one but yourself could have managed it , and sometimes running races on the plain with the Princesses of your Court -- running so lightly that it was you always who won the prize .
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