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A translation of
the most original version I found up till now.
There was a miller
who left no more estate to the three
sons had than his mill,
his ass,
and his cat.
The partition was soon made. Neither scrivener
nor attorney
was sent for. They would soon have eaten up all the poor patrimony.
The eldest had the mill, the second the ass, and the youngest
nothing but the cat. The poor
young fellow was quite comfortless at having so poor a lot.
"My brothers," said he, "may get their living
handsomely enough by joining their stocks together; but for my part, when
I have eaten up my cat,
and made me a muff
of his skin, I must die of hunger."
The Cat, who heard all this, but made as
if he did not, said
to him with a grave and serious air:
"Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master.
You have nothing else to do but to give me a
bag and get a
pair of boots made for me that I may scamper through
the dirt and the brambles, and you shall see that you have not so bad
a portion in me as you imagine."
The Cat's master did not build very much
upon what he said. He had often seen him play a great many cunning
tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang
by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead;
so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in
his miserable condition. When the Cat had what he asked for he booted
himself very gallantly, and putting his bag about his neck, he held the
strings of it in his two forepaws and went into a warren
where was great abundance of rabbits. He put bran and sow-thistle into
his bag, and stretching out at length, as if he had been dead, he waited
for some young rabbits, not yet acquainted with the deceits of the world,
to come and rummage his bag for what he had put into it.
Scarce was he lain down but he had what he
wanted. A rash and foolish young rabbit jumped into his bag, and Monsieur
Puss, immediately drawing close the strings, took and killed
him without pity. Proud of his prey, he went with it
to the palace and asked
to speak with his majesty. He was shown upstairs into
the King's apartment, and, making
a low reverence, said to him:
"I have brought you, sir, a rabbit of the
warren, which my noble lord the Marquis
of Carabas" (for that was the title which puss was pleased
to give his master) "has commanded me to present to your majesty from
him."
"Tell thy master," said the king, "that I
thank him and that he does me a great deal of pleasure."
Another time he went and hid himself among
some standing corn, holding still his bag open, and when a brace of partridges
ran into it he drew the strings and so caught them both. He went and
made
a present of these to the king, as he had done before
of the rabbit which he took in the warren. The king, in like manner, received
the partridges with great pleasure, and ordered him some money for drink.
The Cat continued for two
or three months thus to carry his Majesty, from time
to time, game of his master's taking. One day in particular, when he knew
for certain that he wanted to
take the air along the river-side, with his daughter, the most beautiful
princess in the world, he said to his master:
"If you will follow my advice your fortune
is made. You have nothing else to do but go and wash yourself in the river,
in that part I shall show you, and leave the rest to me."
The Marquis of Carabas did what the Cat advised
him to, without knowing why or wherefore. While he was washing the King
passed by, and the Cat began to cry out:
"Help! help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas is
going to be drowned."
At this noise the King put his head out of
the coach-window, and, finding it was the Cat who had so often brought
him such good game, he commanded his guards to run immediately to the
assistance of his Lordship the Marquis of Carabas. While they were drawing
the poor Marquis out of the river, the Cat came up to the coach and told
the King that, while his master was washing, there came by some rogues,
who went off with his clothes, though he had cried out: "Thieves! thieves!"
several times, as loud as he could.
This cunning Cat had hidden them under a
great stone. The King immediately commanded the officers of his wardrobe
to run and fetch
one of his best suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas.
The King caressed him after a very extraordinary
manner, and as the fine clothes he had given him extremely set off his
good mien (for he was well made and very handsome in his person), the
King's daughter took a secret inclination to him, and the Marquis of Carabas
had no sooner cast two or three respectful and somewhat tender glances
but she fell in love with him to distraction. The King would needs have
him come into the coach and take part of the airing. The Cat, quite overjoyed
to see his project begin to succeed, marched on before, and, meeting with
some countrymen, who
were mowing a meadow, he said to them:
"Good people, you who are mowing, if you
do not tell the King that the meadow you mow belongs to my Lord Marquis
of Carabas, you
shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot."
The King did not fail asking of the mowers
to whom the meadow they were mowing belonged.
"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," answered
they altogether, for the Cat's threats had made them terribly afraid.
"You see, sir," said
the Marquis, "this is a meadow which never fails to yield
a plentiful harvest every year."
The
Master Cat, who went still on before, met with some
reapers,
and said to them:
"Good people, you who are reaping, if you
do not tell the King that all this corn 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, would
needs know to whom all that corn, which he then saw, did belong.
"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," replied
the reapers, and the King was very well pleased with it, as well as the
Marquis, whom he congratulated thereupon. The Master Cat, who went always
before, said the same words to all he met, and the King was astonished
at the vast estates of my Lord Marquis of Carabas.
Monsieur Puss came at last to a stately
castle, the master of which was an ogre, the richest
had ever been known; for all the lands which the King had then gone over
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.
The
ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do, and
made him sit down.
"I have been assured," said the Cat, "that
you have the gift of being able to change
yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a mind to;
you can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, or elephant, and
the like."
"That is true," answered the ogre very briskly;
"and to convince you, you shall see me now become a
lion."
Puss was so sadly terrified at the sight
of a lion so near him that he immediately got into the gutter, not without
abundance of trouble and danger, because of his boots, which were of no
use at all to him in walking upon the tiles. A little while after, when
Puss saw that the ogre had resumed his natural form, he came down, and
owned he had been very much frightened.
"I have been, moreover, informed," said
the Cat, "but I know not how to believe it, that you have also the power
to take on you the shape of the smallest animals; for example, to change
yourself into a rat or a mouse; but I must own to you I take this to be
impossible."
"Impossible!" cried the ogre; "you shall
see that presently."
And at the same time he changed himself into
a mouse, and began to run about the floor. Puss no sooner perceived this
but he fell upon
him and ate him up.
Meanwhile the King, who saw, as he passed,
this fine castle of the ogre's, had a mind to go into it. Puss, who heard
the noise of his Majesty's coach running over the draw-bridge, ran out,
and said to the King:
"Your Majesty is welcome to this castle of
my Lord Marquis of Carabas."
"What! my Lord Marquis," cried the King,
"and does this castle also belong to you? There can be nothing finer than
this court and all the stately buildings which surround it; let us go
into it, if you please."
The Marquis gave his hand to the Princess,
and followed the King, who went first. They passed into a spacious hall,
where they found a magnificent
collation, which the ogre had prepared for his friends,
who were that very day to visit him, but dared not to enter, knowing the
King was there. His Majesty was perfectly charmed with the good qualities
of my Lord Marquis of Carabas, as was his daughter, who had fallen violently
in love with him, and, seeing the vast estate he possessed, said to him,
after having drunk
five or six glasses:
"It will be owing to yourself only, my Lord
Marquis, if you are not my son-in-law."
The Marquis, making several low bows, accepted
the honor which his Majesty conferred upon him, and forthwith, that very
same day, married
the Princess.
Puss
became a great lord, and never
ran after mice any more but only for his diversion.
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