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Adapted from the Charles Perrault story by Thomas M. Quigley
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There was a miller who left no more estate to the
three sons he had than his mill, his donkey, and his cat. The partition
was soon made. Neither reporter nor attorney was sent for. They would
soon have eaten up all the poor patrimony. The eldest had the mill, the
second the donkey, 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 a 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 Puss in Boots,
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 appearance (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."
Puss in Boots, 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. Puss in Boots, 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.
Puss in Boots 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.
Puss in Boots, 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 Puss in
Boots, "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
Puss in Boots, "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 collection, 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 in Boots became a great lord, and never ran
after mice any more but only for his diversion.
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