"
Here Leander interrupted her: "Permit me, madam," said he, "to ask you
what benefit it would be to me to be a spirit?"
"Much," replied the fairy; "you would be invisible when you pleased,
and might in an instant traverse the whole earth; you would be able to
fly without wings, to descend into the abyss of the earth without
dying, and walk at the bottom of the sea without being drowned; nor
doors, nor windows, though fast shut and locked, could hinder you from
entering anywhere; and whenever you had a mind, you might resume your
natural form."
"Oh, madam!" cried Leander, "then let me be a spirit; I am going to
travel, and should prefer it above all those other advantages you have
so generously offered me."
Gentilla thereupon stroking his face three times, "Be a spirit," said
she; and then, embracing him, she gave him a little red cap with a
plume of feathers. "When you put on this cap, you shall be invisible;
but when you take it off, you shall again become visible."
Leander, overjoyed, put his little red cap upon his head, and wished
himself in the forest, that he might gather some wild roses which he
had observed there: his body immediately became as light as thought;
he flew through the window like a bird; though, in flying over the
river, he was not without fear, lest he should fall into it, and the
power of the fairy not be able to save him.
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