ho, being persecuted by the King, had fortified himself in a
lonesome wood on the top of a mountain, where no bird ever flew, and
was so thick and tangled that one could never see the sun there. This
ogre had a most beautiful horse, which looked as if it were formed with
a pencil; and amongst other wonderful things, it could speak like any
man. Now the courtiers, who knew how wicked the ogre was, how thick the
wood, how high the mountain, and how difficult it was to get at the
horse, went to the King, and telling him minutely the perfections of
the animal, which was a thing worthy of a King, added that he ought to
endeavour by all means to get it out of the ogre's claws, and that
Corvetto was just the lad to do this, as he was expert and clever at
escaping out of the fire. The King, who knew not that under the flowers
of these words a serpent was concealed, instantly called Corvetto, and
said to him, "If you love me, see that in some way or another you
obtain for me the horse of my enemy the ogre, and you shall have no
cause to regret having done me this service."

Corvetto knew well that this drum was sounded by those who wished him
ill; nevertheless, to obey the King, he set out and took the road to
the mountain. Then going very quietly to the ogre's stable, he saddled
and mounted the horse, and fixing his feet firmly in the stirrup, took
his way back. But as soon as the horse saw himself spurred out of the
palace, he cried aloud, "Hollo! be on your guard! Corvetto is riding
off with me." At this alarm the ogre instantly set out, with all the
animals that served him, to cut Corvetto in pieces. From this side
jumped an ape, from that was seen a large bear; here sprang forth a
lion, there came running a wolf. But the youth, by the aid of bridle
and spur, distanced the mountain, and galloping without stop to the
city, arrived at the Court, where he presented the horse to the King.

Then the King embraced him more than a son, and pulling out his purse,
filled his hands with crown-pieces. At this the rage of the courtiers
knew no bounds; and whereas at first they were puffed up with a little
pipe, they were now bursting with the blasts of a smith's bellows,
seeing that the crowbars with which they thought to lay Corvetto's good
fortune in ruins only served to smooth the road to his prosperity.
Knowing, however, that walls are not levelled by the first attack of
the battering-ram, they resolved to try their luck a second ti