daughter, and if you won't comply with my wish, I can only say it
will be the worse for you.'

Seeing that there was nothing else to be done, Masaniello set off
for his home, and arrived there looking so white and wretched
that his wife asked him at once: ‘What has happened to you, my
dear husband? Have you quarrelled with anyone, or has the poor
donkey fallen down?'

‘Neither the one nor the other,' answered her husband,' but
something far worse than either. A terrible lizard has nearly
frightened me out of my senses, for she threatened that if I did
not give her our youngest daughter, she would make me repent it.
My head is going round like a mill-wheel, and I don't know what
to do. I am indeed between the Devil and the Deep Sea. You know
how dearly I love Renzolla, and yet, if I fail to bring her to
the lizard to-morrow morning, I must say farewell to life. Do
advise me what to do.'

When his wife had heard all he had to say, she said to him: ‘How
do you know, my dear husband, that the lizard is really our
enemy? May she not be a friend in disguise? And your meeting with
her may be the beginning of better things and the end of all our
misery. Therefore go and take the child to her, for my heart
tells me that you will never repent doing so.'

Masaniello was much comforted by her words, and next morning as
soon as it was light he took his little daughter by the hand and
led her to the cave.