194 '^he Book of Cats. 



officers of his wardrobe to fetch him the handsomest 

 suit it contained. The King's daughter was mightily 

 taken with his appearance, and the Marquis of 

 Carabas had no sooner cast upon her two or three 

 respectful glances, than she became violently in love 

 with him. The Cat, enchanted to see how well his 

 scheme was likely to succeed, ran before to a 

 meadow that was reaping, and said to the reapers : — 

 '' Good people, if you do not tell the King, who will 

 soon pass this way, that the meadow you are reap- 

 ing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you 

 shall be chopped as small as mince-meat." The 

 King did not fail to ask the reapers to whom the 

 meadow belonged ? " To my Lord Marquis of 

 Carabas," said they all at once ; for the threats of 

 the Cat had terribly frightened them. Puss at 

 length arrived at a stately castle that belonged to 

 an Ogre, whom he first persuaded to assume the 

 form of a mouse, and then cleverly gobbled him up 

 before he could get back to his proper shape again. 

 The King's party soon after arrived. The Cat said 

 the castle was his master's ; and the King was so 

 much charmed with the amiable qualities and noble 

 fortune of the Marquis of Carabas, and the young 

 Princess too had fallen so violently in love with 

 him, that when the King had partaken of a colla- 



