be, as heretofore, their governor, their father, and their kind
protector.

The beneficent heart of the good giant was quite melted with this
their kind confidence and dependence upon him, and assured them,
he should ever regard them as his children: and now, exulting in
the general joy that must attend the destruction of this savage
monster, when the whole country should find themselves freed from
the terror his rapine and desolation, he sent before to his
castle, to give intelligence to all within that happy place of the
grim monster's fall, and little Mignon's triumph; giving in charge
to the harbinger of these tidings, that it should be his first and
chiefest care to glad the gentle bosom of a fair disconsolate (who
kept herself retired and pent up within her own apartment) with
the knowledge that the inhuman monster was no more; and that
henceforth sweet peace and rural innocence might reign in all
their woods and groves. The hearts of all within the castle
bounded with joy, on hearing the report of the inhuman monster's
death, and the deliverance of all his captives, and with speedy
steps they hastened to meet their kind protector; nor did the
melancholy fair one, lest she should seem unthankful for the
general blessing, refuse to join the train.

It was not long after the messenger that Benefico, and those his
joyful friends, arrived: but the faithful Fidus alone, of all
this happy company, was tortured with the inward pangs of a sad
grief he could not conquer, and his fond heart remained still
captivated to a melting sorrow: nor could even the tender
friendship of the gentle Mignon quite remove, though it
alleviated, his sadness; but the thoughts of his loved lost amata