Curiosities and wonders > Sleeping beauty of the wood

9
the son of a king then reigning, and who was
of another family from that of the sleeping
princess, being out a hunting on that side of the
country, asked what these towers were which he
saw in the midst of a great thick wood. Every
one answered according as they had heard, some
said it was an old ruinous castle, haunted by spir¬
its : others, that all the sorcerers and witches
kept their sabbath, or weekly meeting, in that
place.
The most common opinion was, that an ogree*
lived there, and that he carried thither all the
little children he could catch, that he might eat
them up at his leisure, without any body being-
able to follow him, as having himself only power
to pass through the wood.
The prince was at a stand, not knowing what
to believe, when an aged man spoke to him
thus :
May it please your highness, it is about fifty
years since I heard from my father, who heard
my grandfather say, that there was then in this
castle a princess, the most beautiful that was ever
seen, that she must sleep there for a hundred
* An ogree is a giant with long teeth and claws,
a raw head and bloody bones; who runs away
with little boys and girls, and eats them up.