she called:

'Anne, Sister Anne, do you see nothing coming?'

'I see,' replied Sister Anne, 'a great cloud of dust which comes this
way.'

'Is it my brothers?'

'Alas, sister, no; it is but a flock of sheep.'

'Do you refuse to come down?' roared Blue Beard.

[Illustration: '_Brandishing the cutlass aloft_']

'One little moment more,' exclaimed his wife.

Once more she cried:

'Anne, Sister Anne, do you see nothing coming?'

'I see,' replied her sister, 'two horsemen who come this way, but they
are as yet a long way off.... Heaven be praised,' she exclaimed a moment
later, 'they are my brothers.... I am signalling to them all I can to
hasten.'

Blue Beard let forth so mighty a shout that the whole house shook. The
poor wife went down and cast herself at his feet, all dishevelled and in
tears.

'That avails you nothing,' said Blue Beard; 'you must die.'

Seizing her by the hair with one hand, and with the other brandishing
the cutlass aloft, he made as if to cut off her head.

The poor woman, turning towards him and fixing a dying gaze upon him,
begged for a brief moment in which to collect her thoughts.

'No! no!' he cried; 'commend your soul to Heaven.' And raising his
arm----

At this very moment there came so loud a knocking at the gate that Blue
Beard stopped short. The gate was opened, and two horsemen dashed in,
who drew their swords and rode straight at Blue Beard. The latter
recognised them as the brothers of his wife--one of them a dragoon, and
the other a musketeer--and fled instantly in an effort to escape. But
the two brothers were so close upon him that they caught him ere he
could gain the first flight of steps. They plunged their swords through
his body and left him dead. The poor woman was nearly as dead as her
husband, and had not the strength to rise and embrace her brothers.

It was found that Blue Beard had no heirs, and that consequently his
wife became mistress of all his wealth. She devoted a portion to
arranging a marriage between her sister Anne and a young gentleman with
whom the latter had been for some time in love, while another portion
purchased a captain's commission for each of her brothers. The rest
formed a dowry for her own marriage with a very worthy man, who banished
from her mind all memory of the evil days she had spent with Blue
Beard.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Once upon a time there lived a merchant who was exceedingly rich. He had
six children--thr