(Le Pigeon et la Colombe)"The Pigeon and the Dove" (as Le Pigeon et la Colombe in French) is a French literary fairy tale written by Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy and published in her book New Tales, or Fairies in Fashion (Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fees a la Mode) written in 1698. Synopsis A king and a queen had many children, but all but one daughter, Constancia, died. Then the king died, and the queen was so grief-stricken she knew she would die. She sent for a fairy to watch over the princess. The fairy promised to act as regent but warned her that the princess's fate would be hard. After the queen died, she learned the princess was threatened with the love of a giant; if she was kept safe until sixteen, she would be safe, but if she saw the giant before then, her fate would be hard. So she decreed wise laws and bore the princess off to an Arcadia, where she was raised as a shepherdess. She had one sheep she particularly loved; she named it Ruson, and it could obey her commands, although it loved a ewe more than her. One day she saw a wolf carrying Ruson off and chased after; this brought her in sight of the giant, who instantly fell in love with her. He carried her off in his wallet, along with Ruson and the wolf and other creatures. They made such a noise that the giant hung the wallet on a tree to be rid of it. Constancia cut it open and let herself and all the creatures but the wolf out. She found herself in a dark forest with no clear way; she would have died if the animals had not helped her. But finally she came to a river and found herself alone with Ruson. A prince, Constancio, found her there, and she implored a job as a shepherdess. His mother the queen was unhappy with an old shepherdess, and Constancio got the job for Constancia. Constancio was deeply distressed, because he had never been in love before, and Constancia was far too lowly in birth for him to marry; he heard her singing of love, she would not tell him who she sang of, and his jealousy made his love more fierce. He set a servant, Mirtain, to spy on her, but when Mirtain assured him that she could