see no hindrance, he found he could not make any way towards her.

"Ha! ha!" roared the demon, "my fine caballero, you'll find you will have to do with me at last!"

66

And who are you?" shouted the baffled knight, "and what is this beautiful princess to you?"

"I am bound to answer the knight who asks that question," answered the demon, "or it is little you would have learnt from me. Know, then, that this princess was the only daughter of King Euric, to whom belonged all the country as far as eye can see; and she would have succeeded to his kingdom, but her temper was so violent, no one could bear with her. Upon the least contradiction she would order a subject to be executed; and her arbitrary conduct was continually involving the kingdom in discontent and trouble. Her father, who tenderly loved her, used to coax her and use every endeavour to soften her, but with no avail. At last, one day she provoked him so sore that in his anger he exclaimed, 'Go to the horned one!' When I heard myself called, I hastened to seize her, but, notwithstanding all my speed, before I could arrive he had revoked the curse, and so I was tricked out of her. This happened several times, but each time fatherly fondness was quicker than my utmost haste. At last, a day came when she excited him greatly,

and he said again, 'Go to the horned one!' and before he could recall the words that time, he had fallen down a lifeless corpse. So now she is mine, and mine she must remain till some knight will win her in arms from me, and marry her, and restore her to her castle and her kingdom."

"That will I!" said the knight stoutly; for though he feared the lady's violent temper after what he had heard, his devotion to chivalry bound him to use his best endeavours to deliver her.

Accordingly he drew his sword, and called to the demon to come on. "Remember one thing," said the demon, "if you should win her, she is yours for ever; I take her back no more."

Meantime, Listeno, at the top of the well, had been reporting to his companions all that he heard going on below, and their curiosity getting the better of their fears, they let themselves down by the rope, and all four arrived in time to witness the terrible contest.

Never was such a fight seen in this world as that between this knight and the demon; and at last the knight cut off the demon's ear. No tongue could describe the demon's rage at finding his ear in possession of a mortal.

"Give me my ear!" he cried in tones so sharp that they almost stunned Listeno's sensitive hearing powers.

"Never," replied the knight, "or at least not

without a heavy ransom. In the first place I exact that without further ado you reinstate the Princess in her castle and all her power." The demon stamped and raged, but the knight was firm. The demon was ashamed to go home without his ear, so he thought it best to comply.

The Princess was restored to her throne, the castle was restored to its strength, the garrison was restored to the ramparts, the servants were restored to the halls. The knight married the princess; great rejoicings and festivities were celebrated, and to his four followers were given places of trust and consequence in the palace.

The demon often came to beg for his ear, but the knight felt that at some time or other he might have need of him, so he would not lose his hold over him.

For a time all went well enough, but by little and little the Princess forgot her years of adversity and the debt she owed the knight: she grew more and more wilful, and before a year was out she had become so violent again, that he grew weary of his life, and declared he could no longer endure the continual turmoil. Remonstrance and coaxing were alike unheeded, and it was vain that he tried her father's remedy, for the demon had sworn never to take her back.

In this strait Porto reminded him of the ear he held in hostage, adding, "I will take it upon myself

to deliver you of her." So putting the bottle of brine in which the ear was kept into his pocket, he swung the Princess over his shoulder, and all her struggling was useless against "the son of the strong porter."

Thus laden he went to find out the demon, "You are to take back this princess, she is only fit for your company," he said, when he had found

him.

"Not I!" answered the demon, grinning: "I told your master when he would have her he must take her for good and all."

"Do you know this ear?" then asked Porto, showing him the bottle.

The demon clutched at it.

"Not so fast!" cried Porto. "If you want to have it back, this is my master's condition: you must take back the princess along with it."

So, crest-fallen and glad to get his ear back on any condition, the demon accepted the bargain as it was dictated to him; and the princess who could not command her temper never found another knight to deliver her.

THE HERMIT AND THE FIG

TREE.

HERE was an old man of Toledo who had one son, whom he brought up in the fear of God. Now it happened that this old man had to go to a distant town of Estramadura, to receive some money of a creditor, and the creditor dying, his heirs disputed the debt, and drove the old man to a lawsuit which kept him absent many years. When at last the suit was just decided in his favour, the old man fell ill and died. Meantime the son, growing uneasy at his father's prolonged absence, arranged his affairs as well as he could, and prepared to take the journey to see after him. Calling in his three clerks, Jacinto, Gonzalo, and Diego, who were all men whom his father trusted, and whom he therefore respected, he divided his property in three parts, and to each he gave charge of one part, leaving it to each to do the best he could for him, saying, "The wisdom of your grey