Scarcely had the thought passed through her mind when she felt herself caught by the leg; this time there was no illusion. She turned round quickly, and saw with alarm a grim shape, which struggled out of the earth, and flung itself upon her. At the foot of every tree she could distinguish like forms buried in the earth breast high, and writhing in agony.
Mitaine strove, but in vain, to release her leg; the shape clung to it, and its head seemed about to seize her in its jaws.
“Reality or spectre—dead or alive—I will try how you will take this;” and she struck fiercely at it with her sword. The blow fell upon the root of a tree.
“How is it that I did not see this at once? I shall never forgive myself this foolish fear. I must admit, Master Croquemitaine, that your jokes are anything but pleasant. Still, I hope you will give me something more serious to do before long, or I shall cut but a sorry figure when I come to relate my adventures.”
Observe, my children, that it is almost always thus in life: out of a hundred things which terrify you, at least ninety-five will only make you smile, if you look them boldly in the face.
The sky had gradually become covered with clouds; large drops of rain began to fall; in the distance the thunder rumbled, but so faintly, that it seemed only like the snoring of an elephant or a hippopotamus.
“The greatest danger I run is that of catching cold. The rain has already begun, and who can tell when I shall reach the Fortress of Fear? This coward of a Croquemitaine has so well concealed his abode, that one might just as well look for a pin at the bottom of the sea.”
A terrific clap of thunder was the only answer she received, and the glare of the light allowed her to distinguish at a short distance the castle, which was perched, as if balanced, on the extreme point of a mountain of eccentric form.
“So this, then, is the precious jewel which they have taken such pains to conceal from all eyes. By my faith! they were right to conceal it, for it appears to me the most hideous in the world.”
Mitaine pushed forward. For a long time she followed the course of a ruined wall, when suddenly a flash of lightning cleaving the heavens enabled her to discover a horrible monster grazing at her from its crest. It resembled the skeleton of a horse, combined with those of an ostrich, a whale, and a giraffe. Its enormous head was supported by a disproportionately long neck, and its two claws, armed with immense talons, were seeking on the top of the wall for some point of vantage whence to leap upon her.