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Once upon
a time...
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.
Puss In Boots
from the Blue Fairy Book
Story Edited
by Andrew Lang |
