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The false key, by M. Edgeworth. [and other stories].
The false key by M Edgeworth - and other stories Author:Maria Edgeworth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE KNIGHT AND THE GREYHOUND. JlHEBE was once a knight who was very fond of hunting and fighting, and often went away from home, leaving his only child, ... more »whom he loved very dearly. Besides, he had two pets, a greyhound and a falcon, which were the playfellows of the little child, and slept and ate in the same room with it. One day, while the knight was out hunting, the nurse left the room where the child was sleeping in its cradle. The faithful old greyhound was sleeping beside it, and the falcon, perched at the head of the cradle, had almost fallen asleep too. But luckily the bird was wide awake enough to see a terrible danger which threatened the child. A great serpent 62 had come out of a hole in the wall, and was creeping towards the cradle with open jaws. The falcon at once began to flap its wings so loudly as to awake the dog, who saw the serpent just in time to seize it as it was about to dart upon the sleeping child. A desperate fight then took place between the two animals, and in the end the greyhound killed the serpent, but not without being seriously hurt by its cruel enemy. In the meanwhile, the knight was riding slowly homewards to his castle, when he saw the falcon flying towards him, and fluttering round his head as if to urge him to make haste. Fearing that something must be the matter at home, he spurred his horse and galloped as fast as he could to the castle. As soon as he reached the gate, the screams of the nurse led him at once to the room where he had left his child, and there he saw a sight which filled him with rage and grief. The cradle was upset, and the poor little baby was lying on the floor covered with blood, while the greyhound stood over it,64 KNIGHT AND GREYHOUND. and was also marked with blood. The knight's first thought...« less