Кот в сапогах. Красная шапочка / Puss in Boots. Little Red Riding Hood

At this noise the king put his head out of the coach window and saw that it was the cat who had so often brought him such good game, so he commanded his guards to help 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 bathing, some rogues had stolen his clothes, even though he had cried out, “Thieves! Thieves!” several times, as loud as he could.[13] In truth, the cunning cat had hidden the clothes under a large 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 received him very courteously.[14] And, because the king’s fine clothes gave him a striking appearance (for[15] he was very handsome and well proportioned), the king’s daughter took a secret inclination to him. The Marquis of Carabas had only to look at her a couple of times and she fell head over heels in love with him.[16] The king asked him to enter the coach and join them.

The cat ran on ahead.[17] Meeting some countrymen who were mowing a meadow,[18] he said to them, “My good fellows, if you do not tell the king that the meadow you are mowing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped up like mincemeat.[19]”

The king asked the mowers whose meadow it was that they were mowing.

“It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” they answered altogether because the cat had frightened them.

“You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which always yield a plentiful harvest every year.”

The master cat, still running on ahead, met with some reapers, and said to them, “My good fellows, if you do not tell the king that all this grain belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped up like mincemeat.”

The king, who passed by a moment later, asked them whose grain it was that they were reaping.

“It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” replied the reapers, which pleased both the king and the marquis. The king congratulated him for his fine harvest. The master cat continued to run ahead and said the same words to all he met. The king was surprised at the big estates of the Lord Marquis of Carabas.

The master cat came at last to a castle, the lord of which was an ogre, the richest that had ever been known.[20] All the lands which the king had just passed by belonged to this castle. The cat, who found out 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 invited him to sit down. “I have heard,” said the cat, “that you are able to change yourself into any kind of creature. You can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, an elephant, or the like.”

“That is true,” answered the ogre; “and to convince you, I shall now become a lion.”

The cat was so terrified to see a lion so near him that he leaped onto the roof that was even more difficult for him, because his boots didn’t help him to walk on the tiles. However, the ogre resumed his natural form, and the cat came down, saying that he had been very frightened indeed.

“I have further been told,” said the cat, “that you can also transform yourself into the smallest of animals, for example, a rat or a mouse. But I can scarcely believe that. I think that that would be quite impossible.”

“Impossible!” cried the ogre. “You shall see!”

He immediately changed himself into a mouse and began to run about the floor. As soon as the cat saw this, he fell upon him and ate him up.

Meanwhile the king, who saw this fine castle of the ogre’s as he passed, decided to go inside. The cat, who heard the noise of his majesty’s coach running over the drawbridge, 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 inside, if you don’t mind.[21]”

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 feast, which the ogre had prepared for his friends, who were coming to visit him that very day, 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. Seeing the vast estate he possessed, the king said to him, after having drunk five or six glasses, “It will be your own fault, my Lord Marquis, if you do not become my son-in-law.”

The marquis, making several low bows, accepted the honor which his majesty conferred upon him,[22] and that very same day, married the princess.

The cat became a great lord, and never again ran after mice, except for entertainment.