As the child grew, new beauties opened daily in her face, till, in a few years, she surpassed all the rural lasses that the oldest people had ever seen. Her turn of wit was gentle, polite, and insinuating; she was of a ready apprehension, and soon learned every thing, so as to excel her teachers. Every holiday she danced upon the green, with a superior grace to any of her companions. Her voice was sweeter than any shepherd's pipe, and she made the songs she used to sing.

For some time she was not apprised of her own charms; when, diverting herself with her play-fellows on the green flowery border of a fountain, she was surprised with the reflection of her face; she observed how different her features and her complexion seemed from the rest of the company, and admired herself. The country flocking from day to day to obtain a sight of her, made her yet more sensible of her beauty. Her mother, who relied on the predictions of the fairy, began already to treat her as a queen, and spoiled her by flatteries. The young damsel would neither sew, nor spin, nor look after the sheep; her whole amusement was to gather flowers, to dress her hair with them, to sing and to dance in the shade.

The king of the country was a very powerful

king, and he had but one son, whose name was Florio; for which reason his father was impatient to have him married. The young prince could never bear the mentioning any of the princesses of the neighbouring nations; because a fairy had told him, that he should find a shepherdess more beautiful and more accomplished than all the princesses in the world. Therefore the king gave orders to assemble all the village nymphs of his realm who were under the age of eighteen, to make a choice of her who should appear most worthy of so great an honour. In pursuance of the order, when they came to be sorted, a vast number of virgins, whose beauty was not very extraordinary, were refused admittance; and only thirty picked out, who infinitely surpassed all others. These thirty virgins were ranged in a great hall, in the figure of a half moon, that the king and his son might have a distinct view of them together. Florella (our young damsel) appeared in the midst of her competitors, like a lily amongst marygolds; or as an orange tree in blossom shews, amongst the mountain shrubs. The king immediately declared aloud, that she deserved his crown; and Florio thought himself happy in the possession of Florella.

Our shepherdess was instantly desired to cast off her country weeds, and to accept a habit

richly embroidered with gold. In a few minutes she saw herself covered with pearls and diamonds, and a troop of ladies was appointed to serve her.

Every one was attentive to prevent her desires before she spoke, and she was lodged within the palace, in a magnificent apartment, where, instead of tapestry, there were large pannels of looking-glass from the floor to the cieling, that she might have the pleasure of seeing her beauty multiplied on all sides, and that the prince might admire her wherever he cast his eyes. Florio in a few days quitted the chace, and all the manly exercises in which before he delighted, that he might be perpetually with his mistress. The nuptials were concluded, and, soon after, the old king died. Thereupon Florella becoming queen, all the councils and the affairs of state were directed by her wisdom.

The queen-mother (whose name was Invidessa) grew jealous of her daughter-in-law. She was an artful, perverse, cruel woman; and age had so much aggravated her natural deformity, that she seemed a fury. The youth and beauty of Florella made her appear yet more frightful: she could not bear the sight of so fine a creature ; she likewise dreaded her wit and understanding, and gave herself up to all the rage of envy.

"You want the soul of a prince (would she often say to her son), or you could not have married this mean cottager. How can you be so abject as to make an idol of her? Then she is as haughty, as if she had been born in the palace where she lives. You should have followed the example of the king your father; when he thought of taking a wife, he preferred me, because I was the daughter of a monarch equal to himself. Send away this insignificant shepherdess to her hamlet, and take to your bed and throne some young princess whose birth is answerable to your own." Florio continued deaf to the instances of his mother; but, one morning, Invidessa got a billet into her hands, which Florella had written to the king; this she gave to a young courtier, who, by her instructions, shewed it to the king, pretending to have received it from his queen, with such marks of affection as were due only to his majesty. Florio (blinded by his jealousy, and the malignant insinuations of his mother) immediately ordered Florella to be imprisoned for life, in a high tower built upon the point of a rock that stood in the sea. There she wept night and day, not knowing for what supposed crime she was so severely treated by the king, who had so passionately loved her. She was permitted to see no person but an old woman,

to whom Invidessa had intrusted her, and whose business it was to insult her upon all occasions.

Now Florella called to mind the village, the cottage, the sweet privacy, and the rural pleasures she had quitted. One day, as she sat in a pensive posture, overwhelmed with grief, and to herself accused the folly of her mother, who chose rather to have her a beautiful unfortunate queen, than an ugly contented shepherdess, the old woman who was her tormentor came to acquaint her that the king had sent an executioner to take off her head, and that she must prepare to die. Florella replied, that she was ready to receive the stroke. Accordingly, the executioner (sent by the king's order at the persuasions of Invidessa) appeared with a drawn sabre in his hand, ready to perform his commission; when a woman stept in, who said she came from the queen-mother, to speak a word or two in private to Florella before she was put to death. The old woman, imagining her to be one of the ladies of the court, suffered her to deliver the message; but it was the fairy who had foretold the misfortunes of Florella at her birth, and now assumed the likeness of one of Invidessa's attendants.

She desired the company to retire a while, and then spoke thus to Florella in secret: "Are

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