It was agreed that one of these should fill the vacant seat of sovereignty of Bearn, and two of the _prudhommes_ were deputed to visit their father with the proposition.

On their arrival at his castle the sages found the children asleep, and observed with attention their infant demeanour.

Both were beautiful, strong, and healthy; and it was a difficult matter to make an election between two such attractive and innocent creatures.

They were extremely alike, and neither could be pronounced superior to the other; the _prudhommes_ were strangely puzzled, for they had been so often deceived that they felt it to be most important that they should not err this time.

As they hung in admiration over the sleeping babes, one of them remarked a circumstance that at once decided their preference, and put an end to their vacillation; one of the little heroes held his hand tightly closed; the tiny, mottled palm of the other was wide open as it lay upon his snowy breast.