The King loaded the marquis with a thousand attentions, and as the fine clothes he had given him set off his good looks (for he was well made and comely), the King’s daughter found him very much to her liking, and the Marquis of Carabas had no sooner cast two or three respectful and somewhat tender glances in her direction than she fell in love with him to distraction. The King insisted on his getting into the coach and taking the ride with them. The cat, overjoyed at seeing [[69]]how well his plan was beginning to succeed, ran on before, and coming upon some countrymen who were mowing a meadow, he said to them, “Good people, if you do not tell the King, who will presently pass this way, that the meadow which you are mowing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot.”
The King did not fail to ask the mowers to whom the meadow they were mowing belonged.
“To my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” they answered all together, for the cat’s threat had frightened them.
“You have here a very fine piece of land, my Lord Marquis,” said the King.
“Yes, sire,” replied the marquis, “this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year.”
The cat, who still went on before, met some reapers, and said to them, “Good people, if you do not say to the King, who will presently pass this way, that all this corn [[70]]belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot.”
The King, who passed by a moment after, wished to know to whom all that corn before him belonged.
“To my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” replied the reapers; and the King was again very well pleased with the marquis.
The cat continued to go before the carriage and say the same words to every one he met, and the King was astonished at the vast estates of my Lord Marquis of Carabas.
The cat came at last to a stately castle, the master of which was an ogre, the richest ever known; for all the lands the King had been passing through belonged to this castle. The cat, who had taken care to inform himself who this ogre was, and what he could do, asked to speak with him, saying he could not pass so near his castle without having the honor of paying his respects to him.