FullReads

“I have seen him!” she cried. “My Prince Warrior is himself in this forest: he was the hunter who has pursued me these two days, and has taken me at last. But he did not slay me: he saved and caressed me. Ah, he is gentler and sweeter even than the image in my heart.”

Here she began again to weep; but Gilliflower consoled her, and they went to sleep, wondering much how this adventure would end.

The prince, returning from the stream, missed his beautiful white hind, and came back to Becafico full of grief, mingled with a certain anger at the ingratitude of the creature to whom he had been so kind. But at break of day he rose, determined again to pursue her. She, however, in order to avoid him, took a quite different route. Still, the forest was not so large, but that at last he saw her, leaping and bounding among the bushes. Seized by an irresistible impulse, he shot an arrow after her; it struck her, she felt a violent pain dart through one of her slender limbs, and fell helpless on the grass. When the prince came up to her, he was overcome with remorse for his cruelty. He took a handful of herbs and bound up her wound, made her a bed of branches and moss, laid her head upon his knees, and wept over her.

“My lovely hind,” said he, “why did I wound you so cruelly? You will hate me, when I wish you to love me.” So he tended and cherished her all day, and, towards nightfall, he knotted a ribbon round her neck, with the intention of gently leading her home. But she struggled with him; and the struggle was so sore that Gilliflower, coming out in search of her dear mistress, heard the rustling, and saw her hind in the hunter’s power. She rushed to rescue her, to the prince’s great astonishment.

“Whatever consideration I owe you, madam,” said he, “you must know that you are committing a robbery; this hind is mine.”

“No, sir, she is mine,” returned Gilliflower, respectfully. “She knows she is, and will prove it if you will only give her a little liberty. My pretty pet, come and embrace me.” The hind crept into her arms. “Now kiss me on my right cheek.” She obeyed. “Now touch my heart.” She laid her foot against Gilliflower’s bosom.

“I allow she is yours,” said the prince, discontentedly. “Take her and go your ways.”

But he followed them at a distance, and was very much surprised to see them enter the cottage. He asked the old woman who the damsel was, but she said she did not know, except that the lady and the hind lived there together in solitude, and paid her well. But when Becafico, who had eyes as sharp as needles, coming to meet his master, by chance caught sight of Gilliflower, he recognised her at once.

“Here is some great mystery,” said he, “for that is the lady who was the favourite of the Princess Desiree.”

“Do not utter that name, which only recalls my grief,” said the prince, sadly; but Becafico, determined to gratify his curiosity, made all sorts of inquiries, and discovered that Gilliflower was lodged in the next room.

“I should like to see her again,” thought he; “and since only a thin partition divides us, I will bore a hole through.”

He did so, and beheld a wonderful sight. There sat the fairest princess in all the world, attired in a robe of silver brocade, her hair falling in long curls, and her eyes sparkling through tears. Gilliflower knelt before her, binding up her beautiful arm, from which the blood was flowing.

“Do not heed it,” sighed the princess; “better let me die, for death itself would be sweeter than the life I lead. Alas! how hard it is to be a hind all day; to see my betrothed, to feel his tenderness and goodness, yet be unable to speak to him, or to tell him the fatal destiny which divides me from him.”