Gobbolino the Witch's Cat

“I wonder what it can have been?” said the knight, pretending to be very puzzled.

“I wonder, indeed!” returned the lady with her eyes full of laughter.

“Not a goldfish, I suppose?” said the knight.

“Oh, no! No! No! What amusement should I find with a goldfish in this tower? I wouldn’t thank him for a goldfish!”

“Not a pot of ferns?” said the knight.

“Oh, no! No! No! My little serving maid can bring me all the ferns I want out of the forest. I wouldn’t thank him for a pot of ferns.”

“Then it was not, I suppose, a set of ivory balls?” suggested the knight.

“Why, yes, it was!” said the lady, clapping her hands. “How clever you are to be sure! I shall have to tell the baron I cannot marry him after all, since you have guessed his present.”

“He will never guess mine!” said the knight, looking at Gobbolino. “And then you will have to marry me!”

“We shall see! We shall see!” said Lady Alice, gently stroking Gobbolino’s fur.

When he left the tower the knight pressed a silver coin into the hand of the little serving maid and whispered:

“Don’t tell the baron of my present, Rosabel!” and the little serving maid dipped a curtsey as she meekly replied:

“Oh, no, Sir Knight, that I never will!”

Gobbolino passed the rest of the day telling stories to the Lady Alice. He found her kind, and as bored as the little princess. She listened with interest to the tales he told, and laughed aloud when he blew coloured sparks out of his ears and hid himself in odd places round the tower.

The little serving maid peeped through the door and laughed too, while purple shadows crept over the forest, the stars came out, and Lady Alice pulled her harp close to the fire and began to sing.

Sitting at her feet, Gobbolino thought he had never been so contented before.

“How strange this is!” he said to himself. “Here am I, born in a witch’s cave, turned out of an orphanage, betrayed by a sea witch, the plaything of a little princess, come to end my days after all in a tower in the middle of a forest, guarded by a dragon. But it suits me very well, and if every evening is as pleasant as this one I shall be happy to remain for ever Gobbolino the prisoner cat.”

But out of loyalty to the knight he did not want the black baron to guess his present, so when the next morning Lady Alice leaned out of her tower window and cried:

“I can see the baron crossing the ford! Go down and let him in, Rosabel, and mind you do not let him know what present the knight has brought me!”

Gobbolino, who guessed that the little serving maid had broken her promises before, slipped out of the room behind her and hissed in her ear:

“If you tell the baron about me, Rosabel, I will turn you into a gingerbread doll, and the dragon will eat you up!”

“Oh, my! Oh, my!” shrieked the little maid in terror, running down the stairs.

Gobbolino had never threatened anyone before and he did not know if he really could turn anyone into a gingerbread doll if he tried. He felt very ashamed of himself as he trotted back to his fair mistress and crept under her couch.

“I didn’t mean it,” he said to himself. “I wouldn’t hurt her for the world. Bad will out, I suppose. It comes of being born a witch’s cat.”

The black baron thundered on the tower door, and the little serving maid opened it, but she would not say a word about the present the knight had brought the Lady Alice. The baron came up the stairs in a very bad temper, for Rosabel had never failed to tell him before.

“Oh, no! No! No! I mustn’t! I mustn’t!” was all she would reply.

Lady Alice received the baron very graciously, but when he came to the knight’s present she only closed her eyes and smiled.

“It wasn’t a pair of pigeons, I suppose?” the baron asked.

“Oh, dear me, no! Just look at all the pigeons there are in the forest that come to my call!” said the Lady Alice scornfully.

“It wasn’t a silver mirror?” the baron said.

“Oh, dear me, no! I have a bowl of crystal water from the spring that is better than any mirror,” said Lady Alice. “When I smile into it the smile breaks into little ripples till all the water is laughing. Ha! Ha! Ha! He! He! He! I wouldn’t thank him for a mirror!”

“It wasn’t a little black rabbit to amuse you?” said the baron.

“Oh, no indeed!” said Lady Alice, but she turned just a little pale, and soon after the baron took his leave and went away.

If he did not guess in two more days the Lady Alice would not marry him at all, and that would certainly please the knight.

The baron left behind him a handsome golden cockerel, but it crowed so loudly that the knight heard it far across the forest as he rode to the tower in the evening.

He was so sure that the baron could not guess his gift that he had not brought any other present, and so delighted that he gave the little serving maid two silver coins when he left and whispered:

“Now, mind you do not tell the baron anything about my present!”

“Oh, no, Sir Knight!” the little serving maid replied, but Gobbolino thought it as well to say the next morning: