t I have saved you from
the Enemy and have brought you up in the midst of great wealth. Now this
wealth we are to enjoy together, for you, Lionbruno, are to be my
husband." You can imagine whether the youth wished to say no. He replied
at once: "I will do your will in all things." Then the fairy said: "My
Lionbruno, take this ruby; all that you ask of it you shall have." He
took the ruby. Then all the fairies gave him in turn some token. He
took them, and thanked them all. Then he embraced his bride and
departed. Lionbruno travelled better than a prince, magnificently
dressed, on a superb horse, with guards before him. He arrived at his
town, went to the square, and a crowd of people surrounded him out of
curiosity. He asked his way to the house of the mariner who was his
father. He did not reveal himself to his parents, but asked them for a
lodging that night. At midnight Lionbruno changed, by virtue of the
ruby, the wretched hovel into a magnificent palace, and the next day he
changed himself into the thirteen-year-old Lionbruno and revealed
himself to his parents, telling them how the fairy Colina had liberated
him from the Enemy, brought him up, and made him her husband. "For this
reason, dear father and mother," said he, "I cannot remain with you. I
have come to see you, to embrace you, to make you rich; but I can stay
with you a few days only, and then I must leave you." His father and
mother saw that they could do nothing, and had to be contented. One fine
morning Lionbruno, by an order to the ruby, which he wore on his finger,
brought together a great mass of riches, and then called his parents and
said: "I leave you masters of all this wealth and of this palace. You
will no longer need anything. Now give me your blessing, for I wish to
go." The poor people began to weep, and said: "Bless you, my son!" They
embraced each other in tears, and he departed.

He arrived at a great city,--like Naples, for example,--and went to
lodge at the finest inn. Then he went out to walk and heard a
proclamation which declared: "Whatever prince or knight, on horse, with
spear in hand, shall pierce and carry away a gold star, shall marry the
king's daughter." Imagine how many princes and knights entered the
lists! Lionbruno, more for braggadocio than for anything else, said to
himself: "I wish to go and carry away the star;" and he commanded the
ruby: "My ruby, to-morrow, I wish to carry away the golden star." The
princes and knig