And you, my poor old horse, you could not have done us a greater service than to die just when and where you did.

Thanks to you we have escaped the wolves--two-legged ones, which are perhaps the most to be dreaded of all, as well as the ravenous brethren of this worthy lying here.

What a dainty feast the sweet, tender flesh of those plump little pullets, Isabelle and Serafina, would have been for them, to say nothing of the tougher stuff the rest of us are made of.

What a bountiful meal we should have furnished them--the murderous brutes!" While the tyrant was indulging in this soliloquy Bellombre's servant had detached the chariot from the skeleton of the poor old horse, and had harnessed to it, with considerable difficulty, the animal he had been leading, which was terrified at sight of the bleeding, mutilated carcass of the wolf lying on the snow, and the ghastly skeleton of its predecessor.

Arrived at the farm, the chariot was safely stowed away under a shed, and upon examination it was found that nothing was missing.