took his hat, and was going to the stable to
pay his horse a visit; but as he passed under one of the arbours, which
was loaded with roses, he thought of what Beauty had asked him to bring
back to her, and so he took a bunch of roses to carry home. At the same
moment he heard a most shocking noise, and saw such a frightful beast
coming towards him, that he was ready to drop with fear. "Ungrateful
man!" said the beast, in a terrible voice, "I have saved your life by
letting you into my palace, and in return you steal my roses, which I
value more than any thing else that belongs to me. But you shall make
amends for your fault with your life. You shall die in a quarter of an
hour." The merchant fell on his knees to the beast, and clasping his
hands, said, "My lord, I humbly beg your pardon. I did not think it
would offend you to gather a rose for one of my daughters, who wished to
have one." "I am not a lord, but a beast," replied the monster; "I do
not like false compliments, but that people should say what they think:
so do not fancy that you can coax me by any such ways. You tell me that
you have daughters; now I will pardon you, if one of them will agree to
come and die instead of you. Go; and if your daughters should refuse,
promise me that you yourself will return in three months."

The tender-hearted merchant had no thought of letting any one of his
daughters die instead of him; but he knew that if he seemed to accept
the beast's terms, he should at least have the pleasure of seeing them
once again. So he gave the beast his promise; and the beast told him he
might then set off as soon as he liked. "But," said the beast, "I do not
wish you to go back empty-handed. Go to the room you slept in, and you
will find a chest there; fill it with just what you like best, and I
will get it taken to your own house for you," When the beast had said
this, he went away; and the good merchant said to himself, "If I must
die, yet I shall now have the comfort of leaving my children some
riches," He returned to the room he had slept in, and found a great many
pieces of gold. He filled the chest with them to the very brim, locked
it, and mounting his horse, left the palace as sorry as he had been glad
when he first found it. The horse took a path across the forest of his
own accord, and in a few hours they reached the merchant's house. His
children came running round him as he got off his horse; but the
merchant, instead of kissing them