Chapter 152 179. The Captain and the General

Once upon a time there was a king in Sicily who had a son.The prince married Princess Trisena.After the wedding ceremony, the prince sat in the bridal chamber frowning, as if he had something on his mind. "What's the matter with you?" asked the bride. "Teresena, my dear, I was thinking, we must make an oath: whoever dies first, the living must keep vigil in the grave for three days and three nights." "Oh, that's what you worry about!" said the bride, and taking up his sword, they kissed the cross on the hilt, and swore their oaths. A year later Trisena fell ill and died.The prince held a grand funeral for her.That evening the prince, armed with a sword and two pistols, and a bag of gold and silver coins, went into the church, and asked the sexton to lead him down to the grave.He said to the sexton:

"After the third day, you have to come to the tomb to listen to the movement. If I knock on the wall of the tomb inside, you will open the tomb; if I haven't knocked on the wall of the tomb by the third night, it means that I will not come back again." With that said, the prince took a hundred crowns out of his pocket and gave it to the sexton as a reward. After the tomb was closed, the prince lit the torch, opened the coffin, and looked at his dead wife tearfully.So the first night passed.On the second night he heard a hissing noise from behind the grave, and out came a fierce boa constrictor, followed by a brood of hatchlings.The python opened its mouth wide and swooped towards the female corpse.The prince was quick-handed, took out a pistol and shot it in the head.At this moment, the little snakes quickly turned around, wriggled and escaped.The prince was still in the tomb, but the dead snake lay beside the coffin.After a while, the little snakes came back with a small tuft of grass in each of their mouths.They crawled around the boa constrictor, put grass on the boa constrictor's wound, mouth and eyes, and rubbed the boa constrictor's body with the grass.The boa constrictor opened its eyes, wriggled, and the wound healed.It turned around and led the little snakes away.

Without hesitation, the prince picked up the grass left by the little snake, put it on his wife's mouth, and rubbed the grass all over his wife's body again.She began to breathe, and the blush gradually returned to her face.She stood up and said, "Ah, I slept soundly this time!" Hugging, the couple immediately looked for the openings through which the snakes had crawled.The hole was very large, and the two of them crawled out of the hole and came to a meadow.It is full of the magic herb that the little snake plucks.The prince also picked a handful, and took the herbs with his wife.They arrived in Paris, France, and rented a beautiful house by the Seine.

Soon, the prince decided to go into business.He hired a respectable maid to help his wife with the housework, bought a boat himself, and left her to go into business.He told his wife that he would be back in a month; at that time, when he saw his house on the boat, he fired three salutes to show that he was back. As soon as the prince had left, a captain of the Neapolitan army passed by the street and saw Trisena standing at the window.He flirts with Trisena, but she withdraws and goes back into the house.Then the captain stopped an old woman who was passing by, and said to her, "There is a lovely young lady living in this house. If you can manage to let me see her, I will give you two hundred crowns!"

The old woman found Trisena and begged her to do her a favor, saying that someone was going to rob her of her property. "I have a trunk full of things," explained the old woman, "and someone is trying to take it away. Please, madam, will you hide it in your room for me?" Trisena agreed, and the old woman asked someone to move the box to Trisena's bedroom.At night, the captain jumped out of the box, grabbed Trisena, and took her quietly aboard.They came to Naples.There, Trisena left her husband behind and lived with the captain. A month later, Trisena's husband sailed into the Seine and fired three salutes, but his wife was nowhere to be seen on the balcony.When he got home, he saw that there was no one in the house, not even a shadow of his wife.The prince sold all the goods and traveled extensively outside.Soon he was in Naples, where he was drafted into the army.

One day, the king of Naples ordered a military parade, and all the soldiers had to line up for the review.As the officers and their wives passed the reviewing stand arm in arm, the prince recognized Trisena, who was arm in arm with a captain; Trisena also recognized the prince in the ranks of soldiers, who Say to the captain, "Look, captain, my husband is standing in line of soldiers, what shall I do?" The captain looked in the direction Trisena pointed, um, yes, that soldier happened to be in his company and had just been appointed as a quartermaster sergeant.The captain invited all the sergeants in his company--staff and corporals--to his home.They had a dinner party, but Trisena was not there.When everyone was eating and drinking, the captain took a silver table knife and a silver table fork and stuffed them secretly into the pocket of the young quartermaster sergeant while no one was prepared.After a while it was discovered that a knife and a fork were missing, and a search was made, which found them on the poor sergeant.Innocent young men were sentenced to death by the military court and executed by firing squad.Coincidentally, the sergeant had a friend among the soldiers in the firing squad.He gave this friend a magic herb and said: "When you shoot at me, you have to try to make a cloud of smoke. When the soldiers leave the execution ground with their guns, you put this grass on my bed." On the mouth and the wound, you don't have to worry about other things."

The prince was shot and fell.Taking advantage of the smoke, his friend sneaked up and stuffed the herb into his mouth.After the prince came back to life, he got up and ran away with a cat on his waist. Soon the daughter of the King of Naples fell seriously ill and was dying.The doctors were helpless with her illness.Then the king issued a proclamation to the whole country: Whoever can cure my daughter's disease, if he is a bachelor, I will recruit him as a consort; if he is married, I will make him a prince. The prince disguised himself as a doctor and appeared at the gate of the palace.He walked across the hall, which was filled with restless doctors.When he came to the sick princess, the princess just took her last breath and died. "Your Majesty," said the Prince, "your daughter is dead, but I have a way of bringing her back to life.Please allow me to be alone with her. "

When the king and the others were gone, the prince took out of his pocket a little bunch of the magic herb, and put it on the dead princess' mouth and nose.The king's daughter was raised to life, and in a short time was fully restored to health. "Very well, doctor," said the king, "you are now my son-in-law." " "I am sorry, Your Majesty," the prince explained, "but I have been married." "So, what official do you want me to seal you?" "Your Majesty, I wish to be the general in command of the entire army." "Very well." The king ordered a grand celebration, congratulating two great events: first, the return of his daughter from the dead, and second, his appointment of a new general.

The general held a celebratory banquet and invited all officers (including the captain who had kidnapped his wife) to attend.The general treated him in the same way as he did, and got a gold knife and a gold fork and stuffed them into the captain's pocket.As a result, the captain's pockets were found with knives and forks, and he was thrown into prison. The general came to interrogate him. "Captain, have you ever been married?" "My lord," replied the captain, "to tell you the truth, I have never been married." "So, who is that woman with you?"

Just then Trisena walked in handcuffed and escorted by two soldiers.Seeing the general, she shouted: "You are wronged, you are wronged! This captain kidnapped me from our house, and I have never forgotten you..." But Trisena said it was in vain.The general ordered that both of them be tarred and burned to death.In this way, after experiencing all kinds of hardships, the prince ended his wandering life and became the general in command of the whole army. (Province of Agrigento)