ent of his wife, what abuse and brutal behavior to his children,
who, though ogrillons, are children! My dears, you may fancy, and need
not ask my delicate pen to describe, the language and behavior of a
vulgar, coarse, greedy, large man with an immense mouth and teeth, which
are too frequently employed in the gobbling and crunching of raw man's
meat.

And in this circuitous way you see I have reached my present
subject, which is, Ogres. You fancy they are dead or only fictitious
characters--mythical representatives of strength, cruelty, stupidity,
and lust for blood? Though they had seven-leagued boots, you remember
all sorts of little whipping-snapping Tom Thumbs used to elude and
outrun them. They were so stupid that they gave into the most shallow
ambuscades and artifices: witness that well-known ogre, who, because
Jack cut open the hasty-pudding, instantly ripped open his own stupid
waistcoat and interior. They were cruel, brutal, disgusting, with their
sharpened teeth, immense knives, and roaring voices! but they always
ended by being overcome by little Tom Thumbkins, or some other smart
little champion.

Yes; they were conquered in the end there is no doubt. They plunged
headlong (and uttering the most frightful bad language) into some pit
where Jack came with his smart couteau de chasse and whipped their
brutal heads off. They would be going to devour maidens,

"But ever when it seemed
Their need was at the sorest,
A knight, in armor bright,
Came riding through the forest."

And down, after a combat, would go the brutal persecutor, with a lance
through his midriff. Yes, I say, this is very true and well. But you
remember that round the ogre's cave the ground was covered, for hundreds
and hundreds of yards, WITH THE BONES OF THE VICTIMS whom he had lured
into the castle. Many knights and maids came to him and perished under
his knife and teeth. Were dragons the same as ogres? monsters dwelling
in caverns, whence they rushed, attired in plate armor, wielding pikes
and torches, and destroying stray passengers who passed by their lair?
Monsters, brutes, rapacious tyrants, ruffians, as they were, doubtless
they ended by being overcome. But, before they were destroyed, they did
a deal of mischief. The bones round their caves were countless. They had
sent many brave souls to Hades, before their own fled, howling out of
their rascal carcasses, to the same place of gloom.