Page 195 - @ccess 1 Teacher´s Book

tender glances at her but she fell head over heels in love with him. The king asked him to enter the
coach and join them on their ride.
The cat, quite overjoyed to see how his project was succeeding, ran on ahead. Meeting some
countrymen who were mowing a meadow, he said to them, "My good fellows, if you do not tell
the king that the meadow you are mowing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be
chopped up like mincemeat."
The king did not fail to ask the mowers whose meadow it was that they were mowing.
"It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas," they answered all together, for the cat's threats had
frightened them.
"You see, sir," said the marquis, "this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every
year."
The master cat, still running on ahead, met with some reapers, and said to them, "My good fellows,
if you do not tell the king that all this grain belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped
up like mincemeat."
The king, who passed by a moment later, asked them whose grain it was that they were reaping.
"It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas," replied the reapers, which pleased both the king and
the marquis. The king congratulated him for his fine harvest. The master cat continued to run ahead
and said the same words to all he met. The king was astonished at the vast estates of the Lord
Marquis of Carabas.
The master cat came at last to a stately castle, the lord of which was an ogre, the richest that had ever
been known. All the lands, which the king had just passed by, 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 invited him to sit down. "I have heard," said
the cat, "that you are able to change yourself into any kind of creature that you have a mind to. You
can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, an elephant, or the like."
"That is true," answered the ogre very briskly; "and to convince you, I shall now become a lion."
The cat was so terrified at the sight of a lion so near him that he leaped onto the roof, which caused
him even more difficulty, because his boots were of no use at all to him in walking on the tiles.
However, the ogre resumed his natural form, and the cat came down, saying that he had been very
frightened indeed.
"I have further been told," said the cat, "that you can also transform yourself into the smallest of
animals, for example, a rat or a mouse. But I can scarcely believe that. I must admit to you that I think
that that would be quite impossible."
"Impossible!" cried the ogre. "You shall see!"
He immediately changed himself into a mouse and began to run about the floor. As soon as the cat
saw this, he fell upon him and ate him up.
Meanwhile the king, who saw this fine castle of the ogre's as he passed, decided to go inside. The
cat, who heard the noise of his majesty's coach running over the drawbridge, 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?".
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 feast, which the ogre had prepared for his friends,
who were coming to visit him that very day, but dared not 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 your own fault, my Lord Marquis, if you do not
become 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.
The cat became a great lord, and never again ran after mice, except for entertainment.

194 Teacher’s Book