“I make an objection.”
He goes to the young lady, who recognises him; and he shows her the ring and the kerchiefs, and asks her in marriage. She says—
“This shall be my husband; he has well deserved it.”
He was still lame, as a piece of his flesh was still wanting. They were married then. The other bridegroom went back home quite ashamed. The others lived very happily, because both had suffered much. Then I was there, now I am here.
Louise Lanusse,
St. Jean Pied de Port.
Ezkabi-Fidel.
As there are many in the world, and as we are many of us, there was a mother who had a son. They were very poor. The son wished to go off somewhere, in order to better himself, (he said); that it was not living to live like that. The mother was sorry; but what could she do? In order that her son may be better off, she lets him go. He goes then, travelling on, and on, and on. In a forest he meets with a gentleman, who asks him where he is going. He tells him that, wishing to better himself, he had gone away from home to do something. This gentleman asks him if he is willing to be his servant. He replies, “Yes.” They go off then together, and come to a beautiful place. After having entered, the gentleman gives him all the keys of the house, saying that he has a journey he must make, and that he must see the whole house—that he will find in it everything he wants to eat, and to take care of the horses in the stable. The gentleman goes away as soon as he had seen all the house and the stable. There were a lot of horses there, and in the midst of them all a white mare,[37] who said to him,
“Ay! ay! Fidel, save me, I pray you, from here, and get me outside. You will not be sorry for it.”
Fidel stops at the place whence this voice came. A moment after, the white mare says to him,
“Come near the white mare; it is she who is speaking to you.”