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 MY OWN FAIRY BOOK
 
 "So tbe two went into tbc gartens together, anb talfeeb about 
 number of things." 
 
 Page 89.
 
 My Own Fairy Book, 
 
 namely certain Chronicles of 
 Pantouflia, as notably the Ad- 
 ventures of Prigio, Prince of 
 that country, and of his son, 
 Ricardo, with an Excerpt from 
 the Annals of Scotland, as touch- 
 ing Ker of Fairnilee, his sojourn 
 with the Queen of Faery; the 
 whole written by Andrew Lang 
 and adorned by Gordon Browne, 
 T. Scott, and E. A. Lemann. 
 
 Bristol: jg New York : 
 
 Arrowsmith. Longmans, Green & Co.
 
 IY OWN FAIRY BOOK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Co CbilOren . . . . ix 
 Iprtnce jpriglo. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I. HOW THE FAIRIES WERE NOT INVITED TO COURT 5 
 
 II. PRINCE PRIGIO AND HIS FAMILY IO 
 
 III. ABOUT THE FIREDRAKE 14 
 
 IV. HOW PRINCE PRIGIO WAS DESERTED BY EVERYBODY 23 
 V. WHAT PRINCE PRIGIO FOUND IN THE GARRET . 28 
 
 VI. WHAT HAPPENED TO PRINCE PRIGIO IN TOWN . 30 
 
 VII. THE PRINCE FALLS IN LOVE .... 38 
 
 VIII. THE PRINCE IS PUZZLED 43 
 
 IX. THE PRINCE AND THE FIREDRAKE ... 48 
 
 X. THE PRINCE AND THE REMORA . . . . 51 
 
 XI. THE BATTLE 54 
 
 XII. A TERRIBLE MISFORTUNE 60 
 
 XIII. SURPRISES 67 
 
 XIV. THE KING EXPLAINS 70 
 
 XV. THE KING'S CHEQUE 77 
 
 XVI. A MELANCHOLY CHAPTER . . ' . . 83 
 XVII. THE BLACK CAT AND THE BRETHREN . . 89 
 
 XVIII. THE VERY LAST 99
 
 Contents. 
 
 prince "KicarDo. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 107 
 
 I. THE TROUBLES OF KING PRIGIO . . .109 
 
 II. PRINCESS JAQUELINE DRINKS THE MOON . . I2O 
 
 III. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SHOPKEEPERS . . 132 
 
 IV. TWO LECTURES . . . , . . 142 
 
 V. PRINCE RICARDO CROSSES THE PATH OF HISTORY 154 
 
 VI. RICARDO'S REPENTANCE iyi 
 
 VII. PRINCE RICARDO AND AN OLD ENEMY . . l8o 
 VIII. THE GIANT WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHEN HE HAS 
 
 HAD ENOUGH 195 
 
 IX. PRIGIO HAS AN IDEA . . . . . 207 
 
 X. THE END 220 
 
 Gbe <3olfc of ffairmlee. 
 
 I. THE OLD HOUSE ' . 237 
 
 n. HOW RANDAL'S FATHER CAME HOME . . . 239 
 
 III. HOW JEAN WAS BROUGHT TO FAIRNILEE . . 245 
 
 IV. RANDAL AND JEAN 251 
 
 V. THE GOOD FOLK 259 
 
 VI. THE WISHING WELL 263 
 
 VII. WHERE IS RANDAL ? 
 
 2 7 
 
 VIII. THE ILL YEARS . . . . . . .277 
 
 IX. THE WHITE ROSES ...... 284 
 
 X. OUT OF FAIRYLAND 289 
 
 XI. THE FAIRY BOTTLE 296 
 
 XII. AT THE CATRAIL 300 
 
 XIII. THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE 304
 
 TO CHILDREN. 
 
 THE Author of this book is also the Editor of 
 the Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow Fairy Books. 
 He has always felt rather an impostor, 
 because so many children seem to think that 
 he made up these books out of his own head. 
 Now he only picked up a great many old 
 fairy tales, told in French, German, Greek, 
 Chim e, Red Indian, Russian, and other 
 languages, and had them translated and 
 printed, with pictures. He is glad that 
 children like them, but he must confess 
 that they should be grateful to old forgotten 
 people, long ago, who first invented these 
 tales, and who knew more about fairies than 
 we can hope to do. 
 
 My Own Fairy Book, which you now have
 
 To Children. 
 
 in your hands, was made up altogether out of 
 his own head by the Author, of course with 
 the help of the Historical Papers in the 
 kingdom of Pantouflia. About that ancient 
 kingdom very little is known. The natives 
 speak German ; but the Royal Family, as 
 usual, was of foreign origin. Just as England 
 has had Norman, Scottish, and, at present, a 
 line of German monarchs, so the kings of 
 Pantouflia are descended from an old Greek 
 family, the Hypnotidae, who came to Pantou- 
 flia during the Crusades. They wanted, 
 they explained, not to be troubled with the 
 Crusades, which they thought very injudicious 
 and tiresome. The Crest of the regal house 
 is a Dormouse, dormant, proper, on a field 
 vert, and the Motto, when translated out of 
 the original Greek, means, Anything for a 
 Quiet Life. 
 
 It may surprise the young reader that 
 princes like Prigio and Ricardo, whose feet
 
 To Children. xi 
 
 were ever in the stirrup, and whose lances were 
 always in rest, should have descended from 
 the family of the Hypnotidae, who were 
 remarkably lazy and peaceful. But these 
 heroes doubtless inherited the spirit of their 
 great ancestress, whose story is necessary to 
 be known. On leaving his native realm 
 during the Crusades, in search of some 
 secure asylum, the founder of the Pantouflian 
 monarchy landed in the island of Cyprus, 
 where, during the noon-tide heat, he lay down 
 to sleep in a cave. Now in this cave dwelt 
 a dragon of enormous size and unamiable 
 character. What was the horror of the exiled 
 prince when he was aroused from slumber 
 by the fiery breath of the dragon, and felt its 
 scaly coils about him ! 
 
 " Oh, hang your practical jokes ! " exclaimed 
 the prince, imagining that some of his courtiers 
 were playing a prank on him. 
 
 " Do you call this a joke ?" asked the
 
 To Children. 
 
 dragon, twisting its forked tail into a line with 
 his royal highness's eye. 
 
 " Do take that thing away," said the prince, 
 "and let a man have his nap peacefully." 
 
 "Kiss ME!." cried the dragon, which had 
 already devoured many gallant knights for 
 declining to kiss it. 
 
 " Give you a kiss," murmured the prince,; 
 "oh, certainly, if that's all! Anything for a 
 quiet life." 
 
 So saying, he kissed the dragon, which 
 instantly became a most beautiful princess ; 
 for she had lain enchanted as a dragon, by a 
 wicked magician, till somebody should be bold 
 enough to kiss her. 
 
 " My love ! my hero ! my lord ! how long 
 I have waited for thee ; and now I am eternally 
 thine own ! " 
 
 So murmured, in the most affectionate 
 accents, the Lady Dragonissa, as she was now 
 called.
 
 To Children. 
 
 Though wedded to a bachelor life, the 
 prince was much too well-bred to make any 
 remonstrance. 
 
 The Lady Dragonissa, a female of ex- 
 traordinary spirit, energy, and ambition, 
 took command of him and of his followers, 
 conducted them up the Danube, seized a 
 principality whose lord had gone crusading, 
 set her husband on the throne, and became in 
 course of time the mother of a little prince, 
 who, again, was great, great, great, great- 
 grandfather of our Prince Prigio. 
 
 From this adventurous Lady Dragonissa, 
 Prince Prigio derived his character for gal- 
 lantry. But her husband, it is said, was often 
 heard to remark, by a slight change of his 
 family motto : 
 
 " Anything for a Quiet Wife!" 
 
 You now know as much as the Author 
 does of the early history of Pantouflia. 
 
 As to the story called The Gold of Fairnilee,
 
 To Children. 
 
 such adventures were extremely common in 
 Scotland long ago, as may be read in many of 
 the works of Sir Walter Scott and of the 
 learned in general. Indeed, Fairnilee is the 
 very place where the fairy queen appointed to 
 meet her lover, Thomas the Rhymer. 
 
 With these explanations, the Author leaves 
 to the judgment of young readers his Own 
 Fairy Book.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO
 
 PRINCE PRI&IO 
 
 TO 
 
 ALMA 
 TH YR A 
 EDITH 
 ROSALIND 
 NORNA 
 CECILY 
 AND VIOLET
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN compiling the following History from the 
 Archives of Pantouflia, the Editor has in- 
 curred several obligations to the Learned. 
 The Return of Benson (chapter xii.) is the 
 fruit of the research of the late Mr. ALLEN 
 QUATERMAIN, while the final wish of Prince 
 Prigio was suggested by the invention or 
 erudition of a Lady. 
 
 A study of the Firedrake in South Africa 
 where he is called the NanabouUU, a diffi- 
 cult word has been published in French 
 (translated from the Basuto language) by 
 M. PAUL S^BILLOT, in the Revue des Tradi- 
 tione Populaires. For the Remora, the Editor 
 is indebted to the Voyage a la Lune of 
 M. CYRANO DE BERGRAC.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 the Dairies were not 3nvited to "Court. 
 
 N C E upon a time there reigned in 
 Pantouflia a king and a queen. With 
 almost everything else to make them 
 happy, they wanted one thing : they 
 had no children. This vexed the king 
 even more than the queen, who was 
 very clever and learned, and who had hated 
 dolls when she was a child. However, she too, 
 in spite of all the books she read and all the 
 pictures she painted, would have been glad 
 enough to be the mother of a little prince. The 
 king was anxious to consult the fairies, but the 
 queen would not hear of such a thing. She did
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 not believe in fairies : she said that they had 
 never existed ; and that she maintained, though 
 The History of the Royal Family was full of 
 chapters about nothing else. 
 
 Well, at long and at last they had a little 
 boy, who was generally regarded as the finest 
 baby that had ever been seen. Even her 
 majesty herself remarked that, though she 
 could never believe all the courtiers told her, 
 yet he certainly was a fine child a very fine 
 child. 
 
 Now, the time drew near for the christening 
 party, and the king and queen were sitting at 
 breakfast in their summer parlour talking over 
 it. It was a splendid room, hung with portraits 
 of the royal ancestors. There was Cinderella, the 
 grandmother of the reigning monarch, with her 
 little foot in her glass slipper thrust out before 
 her. There was the Marquis de Carabas, who, 
 as everyone knows, was raised to the throne as 
 prince consort after his marriage with the 
 daughter of the king of the period. On the 
 arm of the throne was seated his celebrated 
 cat, wearing boots. There, too, was a portrait 
 of a beautiful lady, sound asleep : this was 
 Madame La Belle au Bois-dormant, also an 
 ancestress of the royal family. Many other 
 pictures of celebrated persons were hanging 
 on the walls. 
 
 " You have asked all the right people, my 
 dear ? " said the king.
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 " Everyone who should be asked," answered 
 the queen. 
 
 " People are so touchy on these occasions," 
 said his majesty. " You have not forgotten any 
 of our aunts ? " 
 
 " No ; the old cats ! " replied the queen ; for 
 the king's aunts were old-fashioned, and did not 
 approve of her, and she knew it. 
 
 " They are very kind old ladies in their way," 
 said the king; "and were nice to me when I 
 was a boy." 
 
 Then he waited a little, and remarked : 
 
 "The fairies, of course, you have invited? 
 It has always been usual, in our family, on an 
 occasion like this ; and I think we have neglected 
 them a little of late." 
 
 " How can you be so absurd ? " cried the 
 queen. " How often must I tell you that there 
 are no fairies ? And even if there were but, 
 no matter ; pray let us drop the subject." 
 
 " They are very old friends of our family, my 
 <iear, that's all," said the king timidly. " Often 
 and often they have been godmothers to us. 
 One,- in particular, was most kind and most 
 serviceable to Cinderella I., my own grand- 
 mother." 
 
 " Your grandmother ! " interrupted her ma- 
 jesty. " Fiddle-de-dee ! If anyone puts such 
 nonsense into the head of my little Prigio " 
 
 But here the baby was brought in by the 
 nurse, and the queen almost devoured it with
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 kisses. And so the fairies were not invited ! 
 It was an extraordinary thing, but none of the 
 nobles could come to the christening party 
 when they learned that the fairies had not been 
 asked. Some were abroad ; several were ill ; a 
 few were in prison among the Saracens; others 
 were captives in the dens of ogres. The end of 
 it was that the king and queen had to sit down 
 alone, one at each end of a very long table, 
 arrayed with plates and glasses for a hundred 
 guests for a hundred guests who never 
 came ! 
 
 " Any soup, my dear ? " shouted the king, 
 through a speaking-trumpet; when, suddenly, 
 the air was filled with a sound like the rustling 
 of the wings of birds. 
 
 Flitter, flitter, flutter, went the noise ; and 
 when the queen looked up, lo and behold ! on 
 every seat was a lovely fairy, dressed in green, 
 each with a most interesting-looking parcel in her 
 hand. Don't you like opening parcels ? The 
 king did, and he was most friendly and polite 
 to the fairies. But the queen, though she saw 
 them distinctly, took no notice of them. You 
 see, she did not believe in fairies, nor in her 
 own eyes, when she saw them. So she talked 
 across the fairies to the king, just as if they 
 had not been there ; but the king behaved as 
 politely as if they were real which, of course, 
 they were. 
 
 When dinner was over, and when the nurse
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 had brought in the baby, all the fairies gave 
 him the most magnificent presents. One offered 
 a purse which could never be empty ; and one a 
 pair of seven-leagued boots ; and another a cap 
 of darkness, that nobody might see the prince 
 when he put it on; and another a wishing-cap; 
 and another a carpet, on which, when he sat, 
 he was carried wherever he wished to find 
 himself. Another made him beautiful for 
 ever; and another, brave ; and another, lucky: 
 but the last fairy of all, a cross old thing, 
 crept up and said, " My child, you shall be too 
 clever ! " 
 
 This fairy's gift would have pleased the queen, 
 if she had believed in it, more than anything 
 else, because she was so clever herself. But 
 she took no notice at all ; and the fairies went 
 each to her own country, and none of them 
 stayed there at the palace, where nobody be- 
 lieved in them, except the king, a little. But 
 the queen tossed all their nice boots and caps, 
 carpets, purses, swords, and all, away into a 
 dark lumber-room ; for, of course, she thought 
 that they were all nonsense, and merely old rub- 
 bish out of books, or pantomime " properties.'*
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 prince ^rigio and, his 
 
 "ELL, the little prince grew up. I think 
 I 've told you that his name was Prigio 
 did I not ? Well, that was his name. 
 You cannot think how clever he was. He 
 argued with 
 his nurse as 
 
 soon as he could 
 
 speak, which was 
 
 very soon. He 
 
 argued that he did 
 
 not like to be 
 
 washed, because , 
 
 the soap got into 
 
 his eyes. How- 
 ever, when he was 
 
 told all about the 
 
 pores of the skin, 
 
 and how they 
 
 could not be 
 
 healthy if he was 
 
 not washed, he at once ceased to resist, for 
 
 he was very reasonable. He argued with his 
 
 father that he did not see why there should 
 
 be kings who were rich, while beggars were
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 poor ; and why the king who was a little 
 greedy should have poached eggs and plum- 
 cake at afternoon tea, while many other persons 
 went without dinner. The king was so sur- 
 prised and hurt at these remarks that he boxed 
 the prince's ears, saying, " I '11 teach you to be 
 too clever, my lad." Then he remembered the 
 awful curse of the oldest fairy, and was sorry for 
 the rudeness of the queen. And when the prince, 
 after having his ears boxed, said that " force was 
 no argument," the king went away in a rage. 
 
 Indeed, I cannot tell you how the prince 
 was hated by all ! He would go down into 
 the kitchen, and show the cook how to make 
 soup. He would visit the poor people's cot- 
 tage, and teach them how to make the beds, 
 and how to make plum pudding out of turnip- 
 tops, and venison cutlets out of rusty bacon. 
 He showed the fencing-master how to fence, 
 and the professional cricketer how to bowl, and 
 instructed the rat-catcher in breeding terriers. 
 He set sums to the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, and assured the Astronomer Royal 
 that the sun does not go round the earth 
 which, for my part, I believe it does. The 
 young ladies of the court disliked dancing with 
 hitn, in spite of his good looks, because he was 
 always asking, " Have you read this ? " and 
 " Have you read that ? " and when they said 
 they hadn't, he sneered ; and when they said 
 they had, he found them out.
 
 PRINCE PR1GLO. 
 
 He found out all his tutors and masters in the 
 same horrid way ; correcting the accent of his 
 French teacher, and trying to get his German 
 tutor not to eat peas with his knife. He also 
 endeavoured to teach the queen-dowager, his 
 grandmother, an art with which she had long 
 been perfectly familiar ! In fact, he knew 
 everything better than anybody else ; and the 
 
 worst of it was that he did : and he never was 
 in the wrong, and he always said, "Didn't I 
 tell you so ? " And, what was more, he had ! 
 
 As time went on, Prince Prigio had two 
 younger brothers, whom everybody liked. 
 They were not a bit clever, but jolly. Prince 
 Alphonso, the third son, was round, fat, good-
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. IS 
 
 humoured, and as brave as a lion. Prince 
 Enrico, the second, was tall, thin, and a little 
 sad, but never too clever. Both were in love 
 with two of their own cousins (with the ap- 
 proval of their dear parents) ; and all the 
 world said, " What nice, unaffected princes 
 they are ! " But Prigio nearly got the country 
 into several wars by being too clever for the 
 foreign ambassadors. Now, as Pantouflia was- 
 a rich, lazy country, which hated fighting, this 
 was very unpleasant, and did not make people 
 love Prince Prigio any better.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 tAbout the ^iredralie. 
 
 all the people who did not like Prigio, 
 his own dear papa, King Grognio, dis- 
 liked him most. For the king knew he 
 was not clever himself. When he was 
 in the counting-house, counting out his 
 money, and when he happened to say, 
 *' Sixteen shillings and fourteen and twopence 
 are three pounds, fifteen," it made him wild to 
 hear Prigio whisper, " One pound, ten and two- 
 pence," which, of course, it is. And the king 
 was afraid that Prigio would conspire, and get 
 made king himself which was the last thing 
 Prigio really wanted. He much preferred to 
 idle about, and know everything without seem- 
 ing to take any trouble. 
 
 Well, the king thought and thought. How 
 was he to get Prigio out of the way, and make 
 Enrico or Alphonso his successor ? He read 
 in books about it ; and all the books showed 
 that, if a king sent his three sons to do anything, 
 it was always the youngest who did it, and got 
 the crown. And he wished he had the chance. 
 Well, it arrived at last.
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 There was a very hot summer ! It began to 
 be hot in March. All the rivers were dried up. 
 The grass did not grow. The corn did not 
 grow. The 
 thermom- 
 eters ex- 
 ploded with 
 heat. The 
 barometers 
 stood at 
 SET FAIR. 
 The people 
 were much 
 distressed, 
 and came 
 and broke 
 the palace 
 dows as 
 usually do 
 things go 
 in Pantouflia. 
 
 The king con- 
 sulted the learned 
 men about the 
 Court, who told him that probably a 
 
 FlREDRAKE 
 
 was in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Now, the Firedrake is a beast, or bird, about 
 the bigness of an elephant. Its body is made 
 of iron, and it is always red-hot. A more ter-
 
 1 6 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 rible and cruel beast cannot be imagined ; for, 
 if you go near it, you are at once broiled by 
 the Firedrake. 
 
 But the king was not ill-pleased : " for," 
 thought he, "of course my three sons must 
 go after the brute, the eldest first ; and, as 
 usual, it will kill the first two, and be beaten 
 by the youngest. It is a little hard on Enrico, 
 poor boy ; but anything to get rid of that 
 Prigio ! " 
 
 Then the king went to Prigio, and said that 
 his country was in danger, and that he was 
 determined to leave the crown to whichever of 
 them would bring him the horns (for it has 
 horns) and tail of the Firedrake. 
 
 " It is an awkward brute to tackle," the king 
 said, "but you are the oldest, my lad; go where 
 glory waits you ! Put on your armour, and be 
 off with you ! " 
 
 This the king said, hoping that either the 
 Firedrake would roast Prince Prigio alive 
 (which he could easily do, as I have said ; for 
 he is all over as hot as a red-hot poker), or that, 
 if the prince succeeded, at least his country 
 would be freed from the monster. 
 
 But the prince, who was lying on the sofa 
 doing sums in compound division, for fun, said 
 in the politest way : 
 
 "Thanks to the education your majesty has 
 given me, I have learned that the Firedrake, 
 like the siren, the fairy, and so forth, is a fabu-
 
 1 8 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 lous animal which does not exist. But even 
 granting, for the sake of argument, that there 
 is a Firedrake, your majesty is well aware that 
 there is no kind of use in sending me. It is 
 always the eldest son who goes out first, and 
 comes to grief on these occasions, and it is 
 always the third son that succeeds. Send 
 Alphonso " (this was the youngest brother), 
 " and he will do the trick at once. At least, if 
 he fails, it will be most unusual, and Enrico 
 can try his luck." 
 
 Then he went back to his arithmetic and his 
 slate, and the king had to send for Prince 
 Alphonso and Prince Enrico. They both came 
 in very warm ; for they had been whipping tops, 
 and the day was unusually hot. 
 
 "Look here," said the king, "just you two 
 younger ones look at Prigio ! You see how hot 
 it is, and how coolly he takes it, and the country 
 suffering; and all on account of a Firedrake, 
 you know, which has apparently built his 
 nest not far off. Well, I have asked that 
 lout of a brother of yours to kill it, and he 
 says " 
 
 " That he does not believe in Firedrakes," 
 interrupted Prigio. "The weather's warm 
 enough without going out hunting ! " 
 
 " Not believe in Firedrakes ! " cried Alphonso. 
 " I wonder what you do believe in ! Just let me 
 get at the creature ! " for he was as brave as a 
 lion. " Hi ! Page, my chain-armour, helmet,
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 19 
 
 lance, and buckler ! A Molinda ! A Molinda ! " 
 which was his war-cry. 
 
 The page ran to get the armour; but it 
 was so uncommonly hot that he 
 dropped it, and put his fingers 
 in his mouth, crying! 
 
 " You had better put on flan- 
 nels, Alphonso, for this kind of 
 work," said Prigio. "And if I 
 were you, I'd take a light 
 garden-engine, full of water, to 
 squirt at the enemy." 
 
 " Happy thought ! " said 
 Alphonso. " I will ! " And off 
 he went, kissed his dear Molinda, 
 bade her keep a lot of dances for him (there 
 was to be a dance when he had killed the 
 Firedrake), and then he rushed to the field ! 
 
 But he never came back any more ! 
 
 Everyone wept bitterly everyone but Prince 
 Prigio ; for he thought it was a practical joke, 
 and said that Alphonso had taken the oppor- 
 tunity to start off on his travels and see the 
 world. 
 
 "There is some dreadful mistake, sir," said 
 Prigio to the king. " You know as well as 
 I do that the youngest son has always suc- 
 ceeded, up to now. But I entertain great 
 hopes of Enrico ! " 
 
 And he grinned; for he fancied it was all 
 nonsense, and that there were no Firedrakes. 
 3
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 Enrico was present when Prigio was consoling 
 the king in this unfeeling way. 
 
 " Enrico, my boy," said his majesty, " the 
 task awaits you, and the honour. When you 
 come back with the horns and tail of the Fire- 
 drake, you shall be crown prince ; and Prigio 
 shall be made an usher at the Grammar School 
 it is all he is fit for." 
 
 Enrico was not quite so confident as Alphonso 
 had been. He insisted on making his will ; 
 and he wrote a poem about the pleasures 
 and advantages of dying young. This is 
 part of it : 
 
 The violet is a blossom sweet, 
 
 That droops before the day is done 
 Slain by thine overpowering heat, 
 Sun ! 
 
 And I, like that sweet purple flower, 
 
 May roast, or boil, or broil, or bales, 
 If burned by thy terrific power, 
 Firedrake ! 
 
 This poem comforted Enrico more or less, 
 and he showed it to Prigio. But the prince 
 only laughed, and said that the second line of 
 the last verse was not very good ; for violets do 
 not " roast, or boil, or broil, or bake." 
 
 Enrico tried to improve it, but could not. 
 So he read it to his cousin, Lady Kathleena, 
 just as it was ; and she cried over it (though I
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 don't think she understood it); and Enrico 
 cried a little, too. 
 
 However, next day he started, with a spear, 
 a patent refrigerator, and a lot of the bottles 
 people throw at fires to put them out. 
 
 But he never came back again ! 
 
 After shedding torrents of tears, the king 
 summoned Prince Prigio to his presence. 
 
 " Dastard ! " he said. " Poltroon ! Your turn, 
 which should have come first, has arrived at 
 last. You must fetch me the horns and the tail 
 of the Firedrake. Probably you will be grilled, 
 thank goodness; but who will give me back 
 Enrico and Alphonso ? " 
 
 "Indeed, your majesty," said Prigio, "you 
 must permit me to correct your policy. Your 
 only reason for dispatching your sons in pursuit 
 of this dangerous but I believe fabulous animal, 
 was to ascertain which of us would most wor- 
 thily succeed to your throne, at the date long 
 may it be deferred ! of your lamented decease. 
 Now, there can be no further question about 
 the matter. I, unworthy as I am, represent the 
 sole hope of the royal family. Therefore to 
 send me after the Firedrake were* both dan- 
 gerous and unnecessary. Dangerous, because, 
 if he treats me as you say he did my brothers 
 my unhappy brothers, the throne of Pantou- 
 flia will want an heir. But, if I do come back 
 alive why, I cannot be more the true heir than 
 
 * Subjunctive mood ! He was a great grammarian !
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 I am at present ; now can I ? Ask the Lord 
 Chief Justice, if you don't believe me." 
 
 These arguments were so clearly and un- 
 deniably correct that the king, unable to answer 
 them, withdrew into a solitary place where he 
 could express himself with freedom, and give 
 rein to his passions.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 prince ^rigio was deserted fy 
 
 'EANWHILE, Prince Prigio had to suffer 
 many unpleasant things. Though he 
 was the crown prince (and though his 
 arguments were unanswerable), every- 
 body shunned him for a coward. The 
 queen, who did not believe in Firedrakes, 
 alone took his side. He was not only avoided 
 by all, but he had most disagreeable scenes 
 with his own cousins, Lady Molinda and Lady 
 Kathleena. In the garden Lady Molinda 
 met him walking alone, and did not bow to 
 him. 
 
 " Dear Molly," said the prince, who liked 
 her, "how have I been so unfortunate as to 
 offend you ? " 
 
 " My name, sir, is Lady Molinda," she said, 
 very proudly; "and you have sent your own 
 brother to his grave ! " 
 
 " Oh, excuse me," said the prince, " I am 
 certain he has merely gone off on his travels. 
 He'll come back when he's tired: there are 
 no Firedrakes; a French writer says they 
 are 'purement fabuleux,' purely fabulous, you 
 know."
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 25 
 
 v f 
 
 "Prince Alphonso has gone on his travels, 
 and will come back when he is tired! And 
 was he then tired of me?" cried poor 
 Molinda, bursting into tears, and forgetting 
 her dignity. 
 
 " Oh ! I beg your pardon, I never noticed ; 
 I 'm sure I am very sorry," cried the prince, 
 who, never having been in love himself, never 
 thought of other people. And he tried to take 
 Molinda's hand, but she snatched it from him 
 and ran away through the garden to the palace, 
 leaving Prince Prigio to feel foolish, for once, 
 and ashamed. 
 
 As for Lady Kathleena, she swept past him 
 like a queen, without a word. So the prince, 
 for all his cleverness, was not happy. 
 
 After several days had gone by, the king 
 returned from the solitary place where he had 
 been speaking his mind. He now felt calmer 
 and better ; and so at last he came back to the 
 palace. But on seeing Prince Prigio, who was 
 lolling in a hammock, translating Egyptian 
 hieroglyphs into French poetry for his mother, 
 the king broke out afresh, and made use of the 
 most cruel and impolite expressions. 
 
 At last, he gave orders that all the Court 
 should pack up and move to a distant city; and 
 that Prince Prigio should be left alone in the 
 palace by himself. For he was quite unendur- 
 able, the king said, and he could not trust his 
 own temper when he thought of him. And he
 
 26 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 grew so fierce, that even the queen was afraid 
 of him now. 
 
 The poor queen cried a good deal; Prigio 
 being her favourite son, on account of his 
 acknowledged ability and talent. But the rest 
 of the courtiers were delighted at leaving Prince 
 Prigio behind. For his part, he, very good- 
 naturedly, showed them the best and shortest 
 road to Falkenstein, the city where they were 
 going ; and easily proved that neither the chief 
 secretary for geography, nor the general of the 
 army, knew anything about the matter which, 
 indeed, they did not. 
 
 The ungrateful courtiers left Prigio with hoots 
 and yells, for they disliked him so much that 
 they forgot he would be king one day. He 
 therefore reminded them of this little fact in 
 future history, which made them feel uncomfort- 
 able enough, and then lay down in his hammock 
 and went to sleep. 
 
 When he wakened, the air was cold and the 
 day was beginning to grow dark. Prince Prigio 
 thought he would go down and dine at a tavern 
 in the town, for no servants had been left with 
 him. But what was his annoyance when he 
 found that his boots, his sword, his cap, 'his 
 cloak all his clothes, in fact, except those he 
 wore, had been taken away by the courtiers, 
 merely to spite him ! His wardrobe had been 
 ransacked, and everything that had not been 
 carried off had been cut up, burned, and
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. .27 
 
 destroyed. Never was such a spectacle of 
 wicked mischief. It was as if hay had been 
 made of everything he possessed. What was 
 worse, he had not a penny in his pocket to buy 
 new things ; and his father had stopped his 
 allowance of fifty thousand pounds a month. 
 
 Can you imagine anything more cruel and 
 unjtist than this conduct ? for it was not the 
 prince's fault that he was so clever. The cruel 
 fairy had made him so. But, even if the prince 
 had been born clever (as may have happened to 
 you), was he to be blamed for that ? The other 
 people were just as much in fault for being born 
 so stupid ; but the world, my dear children, can 
 never be induced to remember this. If you 
 are clever, you will find it best not to let people 
 know it if you want them to like you. 
 
 Well, here was the prince in a pretty plight. 
 Not a pound in his pocket, not a pair of boots 
 to wear, not even a cap to cover his head from 
 the rain ; nothing but cold meat to eat, and 
 never a servant to answer the bell.
 
 28 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 What prince ^rigio found, in tie garret. 
 
 'HE prince walked from room to room of 
 the palace ; but, unless he wrapped him- 
 self up in a curtain, there was nothing 
 for him to wear when he went out in 
 the rain. At last he climbed up a 
 turret-stair in the very oldest part of the 
 castle, where he had never been before; and 
 at the very top was a little round room, a 
 kind of garret. The prince pushed in the door 
 with some difficulty not that it was locked, but 
 the handle was rusty, and the wood had swollen 
 with the damp. The room was very dark ; 
 only the last grey light of the rainy evening 
 came through a slit of a window, one of those 
 narrow windows that they used to fire arrows 
 out of in old times. 
 
 But in the dusk the prince saw a heap of 
 all sorts of things lying on the floor and on 
 the table. There were two caps ; he put one 
 on an old, grey, ugly cap it was, made of 
 felt. There was a pair of boots ; and he 
 kicked off his slippers, and got into them. 
 They were a good deal worn, but fitted as if
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 2Q 
 
 they had been made for him. On the table 
 was a purse with just three gold coins old 
 ones, too in it ; and this, as you may fancy, 
 the prince was very well pleased to put in his 
 pocket. A sword, with a sword-belt, he buckled 
 about his waist ; and the rest of the articles, 
 a regular collection of odds and ends, he left 
 just where they were lying. Then he ran 
 downstairs, and walked out of the hall door.
 
 30 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 'What happened to prince ^rigio in %own. 
 
 |Y this time the prince was very hungry. 
 The town was just three miles off; 
 but he had such a royal appetite, that 
 he did not like to waste it on bad 
 cookery, and the people of the royal 
 town were bad cooks. 
 " I wish I were in ' The Bear,' at Gluck- 
 stein," said he to himself; for he remembered 
 that there was a very good cook there. But, 
 then, the town was twenty-one leagues away 
 sixty-three long miles ! 
 
 No sooner had the prince said this, and 
 taken just three steps, than he found himself at 
 the door of the " Bear Inn " at Gluckstein ! 
 
 "This is the most extraordinary dream,'^ 
 said he to himself; for he was far too clever, of 
 course, to believe in seven-league boots. Yet 
 he had a pair on at that very- moment, and it 
 was they which had carried him in three strides 
 from the palace to Gluckstein ! 
 
 The truth is, that the prince, in looking about 
 the palace for clothes, had found his way into 
 that very old lumber-room where the magical 
 gifts of the fairies had been thrown by his
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 clever mother, who did not believe in them. 
 But this, of course, the prince did not know. 
 
 Now you should be told that seven-league 
 boots only take those prodigious steps when 
 you say you want to go a long distance. Other- 
 wise they would be very inconvenient when 
 you only want to cross the room, for example. 
 Perhaps this has not been explained to you by 
 your governess ? 
 
 Well, the prince walked into " The Bear," 
 and it seemed odd to him that nobody took any 
 notice of him. And yet his face was as well 
 known as that of any man in Pantouflia ; for 
 everybody had seen it, at least in pictures. 
 He was so puzzled by not being attended to 
 as usual, that he quite forgot to take off his cap. 
 He sat down 
 at a table, 
 however, 
 and shouted 
 "Kellner!" 
 at which all 
 the waiters 
 jumped, and 
 looked round 
 in every di- 
 rection, but 
 nobody came 
 
 to him. At first he thought they were too 
 busy, but presently another explanation occurred 
 to him
 
 32 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 " The king," said he to himself, " has threat- 
 ened to execute anybody who speaks to me, or 
 helps me in any way. Well, I don't mean to 
 starve in the midst of plenty, anyhow ; here 
 goes ! " 
 
 The prince rose, and went to the table in the 
 midst of the room, where a huge roast turkey 
 had just been placed. He helped himself to 
 half the breast, some sausages, chestnut stuffing, 
 bread sauce, potatoes, and a bottle of red wine 
 Burgundy. He then went back to a table in a 
 corner, where he dined very well, nobody 
 taking any notice of him. When he had 
 finished, he sat watching the other people 
 dining, and smoking his cigarette. As he was 
 sitting thus, a very tall man, an officer in the 
 uniform of the Guards, came in, and, walking 
 straight to the prince's table, said : " Kellner, 
 clean this table, and bring in the bill of fare." 
 
 With these words, the officer sat down 
 suddenly in the prince's lap, as if he did not see 
 him at all. He was a heavy man, and the 
 prince, enraged at the insult, pushed him away 
 and jumped to his feet. As he did so, his cap 
 dropped off. The officer fell on his knees at 
 once, crying : 
 
 " Pardon, my prince, pardon ! I never saw 
 you ! " 
 
 This was more than the prince could be 
 expected to believe. 
 
 " Nonsense ! Count Frederick von Matter-
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 33 
 
 horn," he said; "you must be intoxicated. 
 Sir ! you have insulted your prince and your 
 superior officer. Consider yourself under arrest ! 
 You shall be sent to a prison to-morrow." 
 
 On this, the poor officer appealed piteously to 
 everybody in the tavern. They all declared that 
 they had not seen the prince, nor ever had an 
 idea that he was doing them the honour of 
 being in the neighbourhood of their town. 
 
 More and more offended, and convinced that 
 there was a conspiracy to annoy and insult 
 him, the prince shouted for the landlord, called 
 for his bill, threw down his three pieces of gold 
 without asking for change, and went into the 
 street. 
 
 " It is a disgraceful conspiracy," he said. 
 " The king shall answer for this ! I shall write 
 to the newspapers at once ! " 
 
 He was not put in a better temper by the 
 way in which people hustled him in the street. 
 They ran against him exactly as if they did not 
 see him, and then staggered back in the greatest 
 surprise, looking in every direction for the 
 person they had jostled. In one of these 
 encounters, the prince pushed so hard against a 
 poor old beggar woman that she fell down. As 
 he was usually most kind and polite, he pulled 
 off his cap to beg her pardon, when, behold, 
 the beggar woman gave one dreadful scream, 
 and fainted ! A crowd was collecting, and the 
 prince, forgetting that he had thrown down all
 
 34 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 his money in the tavern, pulled out his purse. 
 Then he remembered what he had done, and 
 expected to find it empty ; but, lo, there were 
 three pieces of gold in it ! Overcome with 
 surprise, he thrust the money into the woman's 
 hand, and put on his cap again. In a moment 
 the crowd, which had been staring at him, 
 rushed away in every direction, with cries of 
 terror, declaring that there was a magician in 
 the town, and a fellow who could appear and 
 disappear at pleasure ! 
 
 By this time, you or I, or anyone who was 
 not so extremely clever as Prince Prigio, would 
 have understood what was the matter. He 
 had put on, without knowing it, not only the 
 seven-league boots, but the cap of darkness, 
 and had taken Fortunatus's purse, which could 
 never be empty, however often you took all the 
 money out. All those and many other delightful 
 wares the fairies had given him at his christen- 
 ing, and the prince had found them in the dark 
 garret. But the prince was so extremely wise, 
 and learned, and scientific, that he did not 
 believe in fairies, nor in fairy gifts. 
 
 " It is indigestion," he said to himself: "those 
 sausages were not of the best ; and that Bur- 
 gundy was extremely strong. Things are not 
 as they appear." 
 
 Here, as he was arguing with himself, he was 
 nearly run over by a splendid carriage and six, 
 the driver of which never took the slightest
 
 36 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 notice of him. Annoyed at this, the prince 
 leaped up behind, threw down the two footmen, 
 who made no resistance, and so was carried to 
 the door of a magnificent palace. He was 
 determined to challenge the gentleman who was 
 in the carriage ; but, noticing that he had a 
 very beautiful young lady with him, whom he 
 had never seen before, he followed them into the 
 house, not wishing to alarm the girl, and mean- 
 ing to speak to the gentleman when he found 
 him alone. 
 
 A great ball was going on; but, as usual, 
 nobody took any notice of the prince. He 
 walked among the guests, being careful not to 
 jostle them, and listening to their conversation. 
 
 It was all about himself! Everyone had 
 heard of his disgrace, and almost everyone cried 
 " Serve him right ! " They said that the airs 
 he gave himself were quite unendurable that 
 nothing was more rude than to be always in the 
 right that cleverness might be carried far too 
 far that it was better even to be born stupid 
 (" Like the rest of you," thought the prince) ; 
 and, in fact, nobody had a good word for him. 
 
 Yes, one had ! It was the pretty lady of the 
 carriage. I never could tell you how pretty she 
 was. She was tall, with cheeks like white roses 
 blushing : she had dark hair, and very large 
 dark-grey eyes, and her face was the kindest in 
 the world ! The prince first thought how nice 
 and good she looked, even before he thought
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 37 
 
 how pretty she looked. She stood up for Prince 
 Prigio when her partner would speak ill of him. 
 She had never seen the prince, for she was but 
 newly come to Pantouflia ; but she declared that 
 it was his misfortune, not his fault, to be so 
 clever. "And, then, think how hard they made 
 him work at school ! Besides," said this kind 
 young lady, " I hear he is extremely handsome, 
 and very brave ; and he has a good heart, for he 
 was kind, I have heard, to a poor boy, and did 
 all his examination papers for him, so that the 
 boy passed first in everything. And now he is 
 Minister for Education, though he can't do a 
 line of Greek prose ! " 
 
 The prince blushed at this, for he knew his 
 conduct had not been honourable. But he at 
 once fell over head and ears in love with the 
 young lady, a thing he had never done in his 
 life before, because he said " women were so 
 stupid ! " You see he was so clever ! 
 
 Now, at this very moment when the prince, 
 all of a sudden, was as deep in love as if he had 
 been the stupidest officer in the room an 
 extraordinary thing happened! Something 
 seemed to give a whirr ! in his brain, and in 
 one instant he knew all about it ! He believed 
 in fairies and fairy gifts, and understood that his 
 cap was the cap of darkness, and his shoes the 
 seven-league boots, and his purse the purse of 
 Fortunatus ! He had read about those things in 
 historical books : but now he believed in them. 
 4 *
 
 3 8 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 tye prince Stalls in -Love. 
 
 "E understood all this, and burst out 
 laughing, which nearly frightened an 
 old lady near him out of her wits. 
 Ah ! how he wished he was only in 
 evening dress, that he might dance with 
 the charming young lady. But there he 
 was, dressed just as if he were going out to hunt, 
 if anyone could have seen him. So, even if 
 he took off his cap of darkness, and became 
 visible, he was no figure for a ball. Once he 
 would not have cared, but now he cared very 
 much indeed. 
 
 But the prince was not clever for nothing. 
 He thought for a moment, then went out of the 
 room, and, in three steps of the seven-league 
 boots, was at his empty, dark, cold palace again. 
 He struck a light with a flint and steel, lit a 
 torch, and ran upstairs to the garret. The 
 flaring light of the torch fell on the pile of 
 "rubbish," as the queen would have called it, 
 which he turned over with eager hands. Was 
 there yes, there was another cap! There it 
 lay, a handsome green one with a red feather.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 39 
 
 The prince pulled off the cap of darkness, put 
 on the other, and said : 
 
 "/ wish I were dressed in my best suit of white 
 and gold, with the royal Pantouflia diamonds ! " 
 
 In one moment there he was in white and 
 gold, the greatest and most magnificent dandy 
 in the whole world, and the handsomest 
 man ! 
 
 "How about my boots, I wonder," said 
 the prince; for his seven-league boots were 
 stout riding -boots, not good to dance in, 
 whereas now he was in elegant shoes of silk 
 and gold. 
 
 He threw down the wishing cap, put on the 
 other the cap of darkness and made three 
 strides in the direction of Gluckstein. But he 
 was only three steps nearer it than he had been, 
 and the seven-league boots were standing be- 
 side him on the floor ! 
 
 " No," said the prince ; " no man can be in 
 two different pairs of boots at one and the same 
 time ! That 's mathematics ! " 
 
 He then hunted about in the lumber-room 
 again till he found a small, shabby, old Persian 
 carpet, the size of a hearthrug. He went to 
 his own room, took a portmanteau in his hand, 
 sat down on the carpet, and said : 
 
 " I wish I were in Gluckstein." 
 
 In a moment there he found himself; for 
 this was that famous carpet which Prince 
 Hussein bought long ago, in the market at
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 Bisnagar, and which the fairies had brought, 
 with the other pre- 
 sents, to the christen- 
 ing of Prince Prigio. 
 When he arrived at 
 the house where the 
 ball was going on, he 
 put the magical car- 
 pet in the portmanteau, 
 and left it in the cloak- 
 room, receiving a num- 
 bered ticket in ex- 
 change. Then he 
 
 marched in all his glory (and, of course, with- 
 out the cap of darkness) into the room where 
 they were dancing. Everybody made place for 
 him, bowing down to the ground, and the loyal 
 band struck up The Prince's March : 
 
 Heaven bless our Prince Prigio ! 
 What is there he doesn't know ? 
 Greek, Swiss, German (High and Low), 
 And the names of the mountains in Mexico, 
 Heaven bless the prince ! 
 
 He used to be very fond of this march, and the 
 words some people even said he had made 
 them himself. But now, somehow, he didn't 
 much like it. He went straight to the Duke of 
 Stumpfelbahn, the Hereditary Master of the 
 Ceremonies, and asked to be introduced to the 
 beautiful young lady. She was the daughter of 
 the new English Ambassador, and her name
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 41 
 
 was Lady Rosalind. But she nearly fainted 
 when she heard who it was that wished to 
 dance with her, for she was not at all parti- 
 cularly clever ; and the prince had such a bad 
 character for snubbing girls, and asking them 
 difficult questions. However, it was impossible 
 to refuse, and so she danced with the prince, 
 and he danced very well. Then they sat out in 
 the conservatory, among the flowers, where 
 nobody came near them ; and then they danced 
 again, and then the Prince took her down to 
 supper. And all the time he never once said, 
 " Have you read this ? " or " Have you read 
 that ? " or, " What ! you never heard of 
 Alexander the Great ? " or Julius Caesar, or 
 Michael Angelo, or whoever it might be 
 horrid, difficult questions he used to ask. That 
 was the way he used to go on : but now he only 
 talked to the young lady about herself; and she 
 quite left off being shy or frightened, and asked 
 him all about his own country, and about the 
 Firedrake shooting, and said how fond she 
 was of hunting herself. And the prince said : 
 
 " Oh, if you wish it, you shall have the horns 
 and tail of a Firedrake to hang up in your hall, 
 to-morrow evening ! " 
 
 Then she asked if it was not very dangerous 
 work, Firedrake hunting; and he said it was 
 nothing, when you knew the trick of it : and he 
 asked her if she would but give him a rose out 
 of her bouquet ; and, in short, he made himself
 
 42 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 so agreeable and unaffected, that she thought 
 him very nice indeed. 
 
 For, even a clever person can be nice when 
 he likes above all, when he is not thinking about 
 himself. And now the prince was thinking of 
 nothing in the world but the daughter of the 
 English Ambassador, and how to please her- 
 He got introduced to her father too, and quite 
 won his heart ; and, at last, he was invited to 
 dine next day at the Embassy. 
 
 In Pantouflia, it is the custom that a ball 
 must not end while one of the royal family 
 goes on dancing. This ball lasted till the light 
 came in, and the birds were singing out of 
 doors, and all the mothers present were sound 
 
 asleep. Then 
 nothing would 
 satisfy the 
 prince, but that 
 they all should 
 go home sing- 
 ing through 
 the streets ; in 
 fact, there never 
 had been so merry a dance in all Pantouflia. 
 The prince had made a point of dancing with 
 almost every girl there : and he had suddenly 
 become the most beloved of the royal family. 
 But everything must end at last ; and the prince, 
 putting on the cap of darkness and sitting on 
 the famous carpet, flew back to his lonely castle.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 43 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Zbc prince is 
 
 }RINCE PRIGIO did not go to bed. It 
 was bright daylight, and he had promised 
 to bring the horns and tail of a Fire- 
 drake as a present to a pretty lady. 
 He had said it was easy to do this ; 
 but now, as he sat and thought over it, 
 he did not feel so victorious. 
 
 " First," he said, "where is the Firedrake? " 
 He reflected for a little, and then ran upstairs 
 to the garret. 
 
 " It should be here ! " he cried, tossing the 
 fairies' gifts about ; " and, by George, here 
 it is!" 
 
 Indeed, he had found the spyglass of carved 
 ivory which Prince Ali, in the Arabian Nights, 
 bought in the bazaar in Schiraz. Now, this 
 glass was made so that, by looking through it, 
 you could see anybody or anything you wished, 
 however far away. Prigio's first idea was to 
 look at his lady. " But she does not expect to 
 be looked at," he thought ; " and I won't ! " 
 On the other hand, he determined to look at 
 the Firedrake ; for, of course, he had no delicacy 
 about spying on him, the brute.
 
 44 
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 The prince clapped the glass to his eye, 
 stared out of window, and there, sure enough, 
 he saw the Firedrake. He was floating about 
 in a sea of molten lava, on the top of a volcano. 
 There he was, swimming and diving for pleasure, 
 tossing up the flaming waves, and blowing 
 fountains of fire out of his nostrils, like a whale 
 spouting ! 
 
 The prince did not like the looks of him. 
 
 " With all my cap of darkness, and my shoes 
 of swiftness, and my sword of sharpness, I 
 never could get near that beast," he said ; "and 
 if I did stalk him, I could not hurt him. Poor 
 little Alphonso ! poor Enrico ! what plucky 
 fellows they were! I fancied that there was 
 no such thing as a Firedrake: he's not in the
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 45 
 
 Natural History books; and I thought the boys 
 were only making fun, and would be back soon, 
 safe and sound. How horrid being too clever 
 makes one ! And now, what am I to do ? " 
 
 What was he to do, indeed ? And what would 
 you have done ? Bring the horns and tail he 
 must, or perish in the adventure. Otherwise, 
 how could he meet his lady ? why, she would 
 think him a mere braggart. 
 
 The prince sat down, and thought and 
 thought ; and the day went on, and it was 
 now high noon. 
 
 At last he jumped up and rushed into the 
 library, a room where nobody ever went except 
 himself and the queen. There he turned the 
 books upside down, in his haste, till he found 
 an old one, by a French gentleman, Monsieur 
 Cyrano de Bergerac. It was an account of a 
 voyage to the moon, in which there is a great 
 deal of information about matters not generally 
 known ; for few travellers have been to the moon. 
 In that book, Prince Prigio fancied he would 
 find something he half remembered, and that 
 would be of use to him. And he did ! So you 
 see that cleverness, and minding your book, 
 have some advantages, after all. For here the 
 prince learned that there is a very rare beast 
 called a Remora, which is at least as cold as 
 the Firedrake is hot ! 
 
 " Now," thought he, " if I can only make these 
 two fight, why the Remora may kill the Fire-
 
 -/!C-
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 47 
 
 drake, or take the heat out of him, at least, so 
 that I may have a chance." 
 
 Then he seized the ivory glass, clapped it to 
 his eye, and looked for the Remora. Just the 
 tip of his nose, as white as snow and as smooth 
 as ice, was sticking out of a chink in a frozen 
 mountain, not far from the burning mountain 
 of the Firedrake. 
 
 " Hooray ! " said the prince softly to himself; 
 and he jumped like mad into the winged shoes 
 of swiftness, stuck on the cap of darkness, girdled 
 himself with the sword of sharpness, and put a 
 good slice of bread, with some cold tongue, in 
 a wallet, which he slung on his back. Never 
 you fight, if you can help it, except with plenty 
 of food to keep you going and in good heart. 
 Then off he flew, and soon he reached the 
 volcano of the Firedrake.
 
 48 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 %he prince and tie tfiredralie. 
 
 was dreadfully hot, even high up in the 
 air, where the prince hung invisible. Great 
 burning stones were tossed up by the vol- 
 cano, and nearly hit him several times. 
 Moreover, the steam and smoke, and the 
 flames which the Firedrake spouted like 
 foam from his nostrils, would have daunted 
 even the bravest man. The sides of the hill, 
 too. were covered with the blackened ashes of 
 his victims, whom he had roasted when they 
 came out to kill him. The garden-engine of 
 poor little Alphonso was lying in the valley, all 
 broken and useless. But the Firedrake, as 
 happy as a wild duck on a lonely lock, was 
 rolling and diving in the liquid flame, all 
 red-hot and full of frolic. 
 " Hi ! " shouted the prince. 
 The Firedrake rose to the surface, his horns 
 as red as a red crescent-moon, only bigger, and 
 lashing the fire with his hoofs and his blazing 
 tail. 
 
 " Who's there ? " he said in a hoarse, angry 
 voice. "Just let me get at you ! "
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 49 
 
 " It's me," answered the prince. It was the 
 first time he had forgotten his grammar, but he 
 was terribly excited. 
 
 " What do you want ? " grunted the beast. 
 " I wish I could see you " ; and, horrible to 
 relate, he rose on a pair of wide, flaming wings, 
 and came right at the prince, guided by the 
 sound of his voice. 
 
 Now, the prince had never heard that Fire- 
 drakes could fly ; indeed, he had never believed 
 in them at all, till the night before. For a 
 moment he was numb with terror ; then he flew 
 down like a stone to the very bottom of the hill 
 and shouted : 
 
 "Hi!" 
 
 "Well," grunted the Firedrake, "what's the 
 matter ? Why can't you give a civil answer to 
 a civil question ? " 
 
 " Will you go back to your hole and swear, 
 on your honour as a Firedrake, to listen quietly?" 
 
 " On my sacred word of honour," said the 
 beast, casually scorching an eagle that flew by 
 into ashes. The cinders fell, jingling and crack- 
 ling, round the prince in a little shower. 
 
 Then the Firedrake dived back, with an awful 
 splash of flame, and the mountain roared round 
 him. 
 
 The prince now flew high above him, and 
 cried : 
 
 "A message from the Remora. He says 
 you are afraid to fight him."
 
 50 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 " Don't know him," grunted the Firedrake. 
 
 " He sends you his glove," said Prince Prigio, 
 " as a challenge to mortal combat, till death do 
 you part." 
 
 Then he dropped his own glove into the fiery 
 lake. 
 
 " Does he ? " yelled the Firedrake. " Just let 
 me get at him ! " and he scrambled out, all red- 
 hot as he was. 
 
 "I'll go and tell him you're coming," said 
 the prince ; and with two strides he was over 
 the frozen mountain of the Remora.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 prince and the femora. 
 
 he had been too warm be- 
 fore, the prince was too cold 
 now. The hill of the Remora 
 was one solid mass of frozen 
 steel, and the cold rushed 
 out of it like the breath of 
 some icy beast, which indeed 
 it was. All around were 
 things like marble statues of 
 men in armour : they were 
 the dead bodies of the 
 knights, horses and all, who 
 had gone out of old to fight the Remora, and 
 who had been frosted up by him. The prince 
 felt his blood stand still, and he grew faint ; 
 but he took heart, for there was no time to 
 waste. Yet he could nowhere see the Remora. 
 " Hi ! " shouted the prince. 
 Then, from a narrow chink at the bottom of 
 the smooth, black hill, a chink no deeper than 
 that under a door, but a mile wide, stole out a 
 hideous head ! 
 
 It was as flat as the head of a skate-fish, it
 
 .52 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 was deathly pale, and two chill-blue eyes, 
 dead-coloured like stones, looked out of it. 
 
 Then there came a whisper, like the breath 
 of the bitter east wind on a wintry day : 
 
 " Where are you, and how can I come to you ?" 
 
 " Here I am ! " said the prince from the top 
 of the hill. 
 
 Then the flat, white head set itself against 
 the edge of the chink from which it had peeped, 
 and slowly, like the movement of a sheet of 
 ice, it slipped upwards and curled upwards, and 
 up, and up ! There seemed no end to it at all ; 
 and it moved horribly, without feet, holding on 
 by its own frost to the slippery side of the 
 frozen hill. Now all the lower part of the black 
 hill was covered with the horrid white thing 
 coiled about it in smooth, flat shiny coils ; and 
 still the head was higher than the rest ; and still 
 the icy cold came nearer and nearer, like Death. 
 
 The prince almost fainted : everything seemed 
 to swim ; and in one moment more he wculd 
 have fallen stiff on the mountain-top, and the 
 white head would have crawled over him, and 
 the cold coils would have slipped over him 
 and turned him to stone. And still the thing 
 clipped up, from the chink under the mountain. 
 
 But the prince made a great effort ; he moved, 
 and in two steps he was far away, down in the 
 valley where it was not so very cold. 
 
 " Hi ! " he shouted, as soon as his tongue 
 -could move within his chattering teeth.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 53 
 
 There came a clear, hissing answer, like 
 frozen words dropping round him : 
 
 " Wait till I come down. What do you 
 want ? " 
 
 Then the white folds began to slide, like 
 melting ice, from the black hill. 
 
 Prince Prigio felt the air getting warmer 
 behind him, and colder in front of him. 
 
 He looked round, and there were the trees 
 beginning to blacken in the heat, and the grass 
 looking like a sea of fire along the plains ; for 
 the Firedrake was coming ! 
 
 The prince just took time to shout, M The 
 Firedrake is going to pay you a visit ! " and 
 then he soared to the top of a neighbouring 
 hill, and looked on at what followed.
 
 54 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 tye Battle. 
 
 ]TT was an awful sight to behold ! When the 
 (1 Remora heard the name of the Firedrake, 
 (^f his hated enemy, he slipped with wonder- 
 ful speed from the cleft of the mountain 
 into the valley. On and on and on he 
 poured over rock and tree, as if a frozen river 
 could slide downhill ; on and on, till there were 
 miles of him stretching along the valley miles 
 of the smooth-ribbed, icy creature, crawling and 
 slipping forwards. The green trees dropped 
 their leaves as he advanced ; the birds fell 
 down dead from the sky, slain by his frosty 
 breath ! But, fast as the Remora stole forward, 
 the Firedrake came quicker yet, flying and 
 clashing his fiery wings. At last they were 
 within striking distance; and the Firedrake, 
 stooping from the air, dashed with his burn- 
 ing horns and flaming feet slap into the body 
 of the Remora. 
 
 Then there rose a steam so dreadful, such a 
 white yet fiery vapour of heat, that no one who 
 had not the prince's magic glass could have 
 seen what happened. With horrible grunts 
 and roars the Firedrake tried to burn his way
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 55 
 
 right through the flat body of the Remora, and 
 to chase him to his cleft in the rock. But the 
 Remora, hissing terribly, and visibly melting 
 away in places, yet held his ground ; and the 
 prince could see his cold white folds climbing 
 slowly up the hoofs of the Firedrake up and 
 up, till they reached his knees, and the great 
 burning beast roared like a hundred bulls with 
 the pain. Then up the Firedrake leaped, and 
 hovering on his fiery wings, he lighted in the 
 midst of the Remora's back, and dashed into 
 it with his horns. But the flat, cruel head 
 writhed backwards, and, slowly bending over 
 on itself, the wounded Remora slid greedily to 
 fasten again on the limbs of the Firedrake. 
 
 Meanwhile, the prince, safe on his hill, was 
 lunching on the loaf and the cold tongue he 
 had brought with him. 
 
 "Go it, Remora! Go it, Firedrake! you're 
 gaining. Give it him, Remora ! " he shouted 
 in the wildest excitement. 
 
 Nobody had ever seen such a battle; he had 
 it all to himself, and he never enjoyed anything 
 more. He hated the Remora so much, that he 
 almost wished the Firedrake could beat it ; for 
 the Firedrake was the more natural beast of 
 the pair. Still, he was alarmed when he saw 
 that the vast flat body of the Remora was now 
 slowly .coiling backwards, backwards, into the 
 cleft below the hill; while a thick wet mist 
 showed how cruelly it had suffered. But the
 
 56 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 Firedrake, too, was in an unhappy way; for 
 his legs were now cold and black, his horns 
 were black also, though his body, especially 
 near the heart, glowed still like red-hot iron. 
 
 " Go it, Remora ! " cried the prince : " his 
 legs are giving way ; he's groggy on his pins! 
 One more effort, and he won't be able to 
 move ! " 
 
 Encouraged by this advice, the white, slip- 
 pery Remora streamed out of his cavern again, 
 more and more of him uncoiling, as if the 
 mountain were quite full of him. He had lost 
 strength, no doubt: for the steam and mist 
 went up from him in clouds, and the hissing of 
 his angry voice grew fainter; but so did the roars 
 of the Firedrake. Presently they sounded more 
 like groans ; and at last the Remora slipped up 
 his legs above the knees, and fastened on his 
 very heart of fire. Then the Firedrake stood 
 groaning like a black bull, knee-deep in snow ; 
 and still the Remora climbed and climbed. 
 
 "Go it now, Firedrake ! " shouted the prince; 
 for he knew that if the Remora won, it would 
 be too cold for him to draw near the place, and 
 cut off the Firedrake's head and tail. 
 
 "Go it, Drake! he's slackening!" cried the 
 prince again ; and the brave Firedrake made 
 one last furious effort, and rising on his wings, 
 dropped just on the spine of his enemy. 
 
 The wounded Remora curled back his head 
 again on himself, and again crawled, steaming
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 57 
 
 terribly, towards his enemy. But the struggle 
 was too much for the gallant Remora. The 
 flat, cruel head moved slower ; the steam from 
 his thousand wounds grew fiercer; and he gently 
 breathed his last just as the Firedrake, too, fell 
 over and lay exhausted. With one final roar, 
 like the breath of a thousand furnaces, the 
 Firedrake expired. 
 
 The prince, watching from the hill-top, could 
 scarcely believe that these two awful scourges of 
 Nature, which had so long devastated his 
 country, were actually dead. But when he 
 had looked on for half-an-hour, and only a 
 river ran where the Remora had been, while 
 the body of the Firedrake lay stark and cold, 
 he hurried to the spot. 
 
 Drawing the sword of sharpness, he hacked 
 off, at two blows, the iron head and the tail of 
 the Firedrake. They were a weary weight to 
 carry ; but in a few strides of the shoes of 
 swiftness he was at his castle, where he threw 
 down his burden, and nearly fainted with 
 excitement and fatigue. 
 
 But the castle clock struck half-past seven ; 
 dinner was at eight, and the poor prince 
 crawled on hands and knees to the garret. 
 Here he put on the wishing-cap ; wished for a 
 pint of champagne, a hot bath, and his best 
 black velvet and diamond suit. In a moment 
 these were provided; he bathed, dressed, drank 
 a glass of wine, packed up the head and tail of
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 59 
 
 the Firedrake, sat down on the flying carpet, 
 and knocked at the door of the English Ambas- 
 sador as the clocks were striking eight in 
 Gluckstein. 
 
 Punctuality is the politeness of princes ; and a 
 prince is polite when he is in love ! 
 
 The prince was received at the door by a 
 stout porter and led into the hall, where several 
 butlers met him, and he laid the mortal remains 
 of the Firedrake under the cover of the flying 
 carpet. 
 
 Then he was led upstairs, and he made his 
 bow to the pretty lady, who, of course, made 
 him a magnificent courtesy. She seemed pret- 
 tier and kinder than ever. The prince was so 
 happy, that he never noticed how something 
 went wrong about the dinner. The ambas- 
 sador looked about, and seemed to miss 
 someone, and spoke in a low voice to one of 
 the servants, who answered also in a low voice, 
 and what he said seemed to displease the 
 ambassador. But the prince was so busy in 
 talking to his lady, and in eating his dinner 
 too, that he never observed anything unusual. 
 He had never been at such a pleasant dinner !
 
 60 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Misfortune. 
 
 "HEN the ladies left, and the prince 
 and the other gentlemen were alone, 
 the ambassador appeared more gloomy 
 than ever. At last he took the prince 
 into a corner, on pretence of showing 
 him a rare statue. 
 " Does your royal highness not know," he 
 asked, "that you are in considerable danger? " 
 " Still ? " said the prince, thinking of the 
 Firedrake. 
 
 The ambassador did not know what he 
 meant, for he had never heard of the fight, 
 but he answered gravely: 
 " Never more than now." 
 Then he showed the prince two proclamations, 
 which had been posted all about the town. 
 Here is the first : 
 
 TO ALL LOYAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 Whereas, 
 
 Our eldest son, Prince Prigio, hath of late 
 been guilty of several high crimes and mis- 
 demeanours. 
 
 First : By abandoning the post of danger 
 against the Firedrake, whereby our beloved
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 6 1 
 
 sons, Prince Alphonso and Prince Enrico, 
 have perished, and been overdone by that 
 monster. 
 
 Secondly : By attending an unseemly revel in 
 the town of Gluckstein, where he brawled in 
 the streets. 
 
 Thirdly : By trying to seduce away the 
 hearts of our loyal subjects in that city, and 
 to blow up a party against our crown and 
 our peace. 
 
 This is to give warning, 
 
 That whoever consorts with, comforts, aids, 
 or abets the said Prince Prigio, is thereby a 
 partner in his treason ; and
 
 62 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 That a reward of FIVE THOUSAND PURSES 
 will be given to whomsoever brings the said 
 prince, alive, to our Castle of Falkenstein. 
 
 GROGNIO R. 
 
 And here is the second proclamation : 
 
 REWARD. 
 THE FIREDRAKE. 
 Whereas, 
 
 Our dominions have lately been devastated 
 by a Firedrake (the Salamander Furiosus of 
 Buffon) ; 
 
 This is to advise all, 
 
 That whosoever brings the horns and tail of 
 the said Firedrake to our Castle of Falken- 
 stein, shall receive FIVE THOUSAND PURSES, 
 the position of Crown Prince, with the usual 
 perquisites, and the hand of the king's niece, 
 the Lady Molinda. 
 
 GROGNIO R. 
 
 " H'm," said the prince ; " I did not think 
 his majesty wrote so well ; " and he would 
 have liked to say, " Don't you think we might 
 join the ladies ? " 
 
 "But, sir," said the ambassador, "the streets 
 are lined with soldiers ; and I know not how 
 you have escaped them. Here, under my roof, 
 you are safe for the moment ; but a prolonged 
 stay excuse my inhospitality could not but 
 strain the harmonious relations which prevail
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 63 
 
 between the Government of Pantouflia and that 
 which I have the honour to represent." 
 
 "We don't want to fight; and no more, I 
 think, do you," said the prince, smiling. 
 
 "Then how does your royal highness mean 
 to treat the proclamations ? " 
 
 " Why, by winning these ten thousand 
 purses. I can tell you 1,000,000 is worth 
 having," said the prince. " I '11 deliver up the 
 said prince, alive, at Falkenstein this very 
 night; also the horns and tail of the said 
 Firedrake. But I don't want to marry my 
 Cousin Molly." 
 
 ' May I remind your royal highness that 
 Falkenstein is three hundred miles away? 
 Moreover, my head butler, Benson, disappeared 
 from the house before dinner, and I fear he went 
 to warn Captain Kopzoffski that you are here ! " 
 
 "That is nothing," said the prince; "but, 
 my dear Lord Kelso, may I not have the 
 pleasure of presenting Lady Rosalind with a 
 little gift, a Philippine which I lost to her last 
 night, merely the head and tail of a Firedrake 
 which I stalked this morning ? " 
 
 The ambassador was so astonished that he 
 ran straight upstairs, forgetting his manners, 
 and crying : 
 
 "Linda! Linda! come down at once ; here's 
 a surprise for you ! " 
 
 Lady Rosalind came sweeping down, with a 
 smile on her kind face. She guessed what it,
 
 64 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 was, though the prince had said nothing about 
 it at dinner. 
 
 " Lead the way, your royal highness ! " cried 
 the ambassador ; and the prince offering Lady 
 Rosalind his arm, went out into the hall, where 
 he saw neither his carpet nor the horns and 
 tail of the Firedrake ! 
 
 He turned quite pale, and said : 
 
 " Will you kindly ask the servants where the 
 little Persian prayer-rug and the parcel which I 
 brought with me have been placed ? " 
 
 Lord Kelso rang the bell, and in came all 
 the servants, with William, the under-butler, 
 at their head. 
 
 " William," said his lordship, " where have 
 you put his royal highness's parcel and his 
 carpet ? " 
 
 "Please, your lordship," said William, "we 
 think Benson have took them away with him." 
 
 "And where is Benson ? " 
 
 " We don't know, your lordship. We think 
 he have been come for ! " 
 
 " Come for by whom ? " 
 
 William stammered, and seemed at a loss for 
 a reply. 
 
 " Quick ! answer ! what do you know about 
 it?" 
 
 William said at last, rather as if he were 
 making a speech : 
 
 " Your royaliness, and my lords and ladies, 
 jt was like this. His royaliness corned in with
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 a. rug over his arm, and summat under it. And 
 he lays it down on that there seat, and Thomas 
 shows him into the droring-room. Then 
 Benson says : ' Dinner '11 be ready in five 
 minutes ; how tired I do feel ! ' Then he takes 
 the libbuty of sitting hisself down on his royal- 
 mess's rug, and he says, asking your pardon, 
 ' I 've had about enough of service here. I 'm 
 about tired, and I thinks of bettering myself. I 
 wish I was at the king's court, and butler.' 
 But before the words was out of his mouth, off 
 he flies like a shot through the open door, and 
 his royaliness's parcel with him. I run to the 
 door, and there he was, flying right hover the 
 town, in a northerly direction. And that 's all 
 I know ; for T would not tell a lie, not if it was
 
 66 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 hever so. And me, and Thomas as didn't see 
 it, and cook, we thinks as how Benson was 
 come for. And cook says as she don't wonder 
 at it, neither; for a grumblinger, more ill- 
 
 conditioneder " 
 
 " Thank you, William," said Lord Kelso ; 
 " that will do ; you can go, for the present."
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 67 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Surprises. 
 
 'HE prince said nothing, the ambassador 
 said nothing, Lady Rosalind said never 
 a word till they were in the drawing- 
 room. It was a lovely warm evening, 
 and the French windows were wide 
 open on the balcony, which looked over 
 the town and away north to the hills. Below 
 them flowed the clear, green water of the 
 Gluckthal. And still nobody said a word. 
 At last the prince spoke : 
 " This is a very strange story, Lord 
 Kelso ! " 
 
 " Very, sir ! " said the ambassador. 
 " But true," added the prince ; " at least, 
 there is no reason in the nature of things why 
 it shouldn't be true." 
 
 " I can hardly believe, sir, that the conduct 
 of Benson, whom I always found a most 
 
 respectable man, deserved " 
 
 " That he should be ' come for,' " said the 
 prince. " Oh, no ; it was a mere accident, ad> 
 might have happened to any of us who chanced 
 to sit down on my carpet." 
 
 And then the prince told them, shortly, all 
 6
 
 68 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 about it : how the carpet was one of a number 
 of fairy properties, which had been given him 
 at his christening ; and how so long a time had 
 gone by before he discovered them ; and how, 
 probably, the carpet had carried the butler 
 where he had said he wanted to go namely, to 
 the king's Court at Falkenstein. 
 
 " It would not matter so much," added the 
 prince, " only I had relied on making my peace 
 with his majesty, my father, by aid of those 
 horns and that tail. He was set on getting 
 them ; and if the Lady Rosalind had not ex- 
 pressed a wish for them, they would to-day 
 have been in his possession." 
 
 " Oh, sir, you honour us too highly," mur- 
 mured Lady Rosalind ; and the prince blushed 
 and said : 
 
 " Not at all ! Impossible ! " 
 
 Then, of course, the ambassador became 
 quite certain that his daughter was admired 
 by the crown prince, who was on bad terms 
 with the king of the country; and a more 
 uncomfortable position for an ambassador 
 however, they are used to them. 
 
 " What on earth am I to do with the young 
 man ? " he thought. " He can't stay here for 
 ever ; and without his carpet he can't get away, 
 for the soldiers have orders to seize him as soon 
 as he appears in the street. And in the mean- 
 time Benson will be pretending that he killed 
 the Firedrake for he must have got to Falken-
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 69 
 
 stein by now, and they will be for marrying 
 him to the king's niece, and making my butler 
 crown prince to the kingdom of Pantouflia ! It 
 is dreadful ! " 
 
 Now all this time the prince was on the 
 balcony, telling Lady Rosalind all about how 
 he got the Firedrake done for, in the most 
 modest way; for, as he said: "/ didn't kill 
 him : and it is really the Remora, poor fellow, 
 who should marry Molly ; but he 's dead." 
 
 At this very moment there was a whizz 
 in the air; something shot past them, and, 
 through the open window, the king, the 
 queen, Benson, and the mortal remains of 
 the Firedrake were shot into the ambassador's 
 drawing room !
 
 70 . PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ^he c King Explains. 
 
 H E first who recovered his voice and 
 presence of mind was Benson. 
 
 " Did your lordship ring for coffee ? " 
 he asked, quietly ; and when he was 
 told "Yes," he bowed and withdrew, 
 with majestic composure. 
 When he had gone, the prince threw himself 
 at the king's feet, crying : 
 
 " Pardon, pardon, my liege ! " 
 " Don't speak to me, sir ! " answered the 
 king, very angrily ; and the poor prince threw 
 himself at the feet of the queen. 
 
 But she took no notice of him whatever, no 
 more than if he had been a fairy ; and the prince 
 heard her murmur, as she pinched her royal 
 arms: 
 
 "I shall waken presently; this is nothing 
 out of the way for a dream. Dr. Rumpfmo 
 ascribes it to imperfect nutrition." 
 
 All this time, the Lady Rosalind, as pale as a 
 marble statue, was leaning against the side of 
 the open window. The prince thought he could 
 do nothing wiser than go and comfort her, so
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 7 1 
 
 he induced her to sit down on a chair in the 
 balcony, for he felt that he was not wanted in 
 the drawing-room ; and soon they were talking 
 happily about the stars, which had begun to 
 appear in the summer night. 
 
 Meanwhile, the ambassador had induced the 
 king to take a seat ; but there was no use in 
 talking to the queen. 
 
 " It would be a miracle," she said to herself, 
 " and miracles do not happen ; therefore this 
 has not happened. Presently, I shall wake up 
 in my own bed at Falkenstein." 
 
 Now, Benson, William, and Thomas brought 
 in the coffee, but the queen took no notice. 
 When they went away, the rest of the company 
 slipped off quietly, and the king was left alone 
 with the ambassador ; for the queen could hardly 
 be said to count. 
 
 " You want to know all about it, I suppose?" 
 said his majesty in a sulky voice. " Well, you 
 have a right to it, and I shall tell you. We 
 were just sitting down to dinner at Falkenstein, 
 rather late, hours get later every year, I think 
 when I heard a row in the premises, and the 
 captain of the guard, Colonel McDougal, came 
 and told us that a man had arrived with the 
 horns and tail of the Firedrake, and was claim- 
 ing the reward. Her majesty and I rose and 
 went into the outer court, where we found, 
 sitting on that carpet with a glass of beer in 
 his hand, a respectable-looking upper servant,
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 73 
 
 whom I recognised as your butler. He in- 
 formed us that he had just killed the beast, 
 and showed us the horns and tail, sure 
 enough ; there they are ! The tail is like the 
 iron handle of a pump, but the horns are 
 genuine. A pair were thrown up by a volcano, 
 in my great-grandfather's time, Giglio I.* 
 Excellent coffee this, of yours ! " 
 
 The ambassador bowed. 
 
 "Well, we asked him where he killed the 
 Firedrake, and he said in a garden near Gluck- 
 stein. Then he began to speak about the 
 reward, and the 'perkisits,' as he called them, 
 which it seems he had read about in my procla- 
 mation. Rather a neat thing; drew it up 
 myself," added his majesty. 
 
 " Very much to the point," said the ambas- 
 sador, wondering what the king was coming to. 
 
 " Glad you like it," said the king, much 
 pleased. " Well, where was I ? Oh, yes; your 
 man said he had killed the creature in a garden, 
 quite near Gluckstein. I didn't much like 
 the whole affair : he is an alien, you see ; and 
 then there was my niece, Molinda poor girl, 
 she was certain to give trouble. Her heart is 
 buried, if I may say so, with poor Alphonso. 
 But the queen is a very remarkable woman 
 very remarkable " 
 
 * The History of this Prince may be read in a treatise 
 called The Rose and the Ring, by M. A. TITMARSH. London, 
 1855.
 
 74 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 " Very ! " said the ambassador, with perfect 
 truth. 
 
 "'Caitiff!' she cries to your butler," his 
 majesty went on ; " 'perjured knave, thou liest 
 in thy throat ! Gluckstein is a hundred leagues 
 from here, and how sayest thou that thou slewest 
 the monster, and earnest hither in a few hours' 
 space ? ' This had not occurred to me, I am 
 a plain king, but I at once saw the force of her 
 majesty's argument. * Yes,' said I ; ' how did 
 you manage it ? ' But he your man, I mean 
 was not a bit put out. ' Why, your majesty/ 
 says he, ' I just sat down on that there bit of 
 carpet, wished I was here, and here I ham. 
 And I 'd be glad, having had the trouble, and 
 my time not being my own, to see the colour 
 of them perkisits, according to the proclamation.' 
 On this her majesty grew more indignant, if 
 possible. ' Nonsense ! ' she cried ; ' a story out 
 of the Arabian Nights is not suited for a modern 
 public, and fails to win aesthetic credence.' 
 These were her very words." 
 
 " Her majesty's expressions are ever choice 
 and appropriate," said the ambassador. 
 
 " 'Sit down there, on the carpet, knave,' she 
 went on ; ' ourself and consort' meaning me 
 'will take our places by thy side, and / shall 
 wish us in Gluckstein, at thy master's ! When 
 the experiment has failed, thy head shall from 
 thy shoulders be shorn ! ' So your man merely 
 said, ' Very well, mum, your majesty, I mean/
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 75 
 
 and sat down. The queen took her place at 
 the edge of the carpet ; I sat between her and 
 the butler, and she said, 'I wish I were in 
 Gluckstein ! ' Then we rose, flew through the 
 air at an astonishing pace, and here we are ! 
 So I suppose the rest of the butler's tale is true, 
 which I regret; but a king's word is sacred, 
 and he shall take the place of that sneak, Prigio. 
 But as we left home before dinner, and asyours 
 is over, may I request your lordship to believe 
 that I should be delighted to take something 
 cold ? " 
 
 The ambassador at once ordered a sumptuous 
 collation, to which the king did full justice ; and 
 his majesty was shown to the royal chamber, 
 as he complained of fatigue. The queen accom- 
 panied him, remarking that she was sound 
 asleep, but would waken presently. Neither of 
 them said " Good-night" to the prince. Indeed, 
 they did not see him again, for he was on the 
 balcony with Lady Rosalind. They found a 
 great deal to say to each other, and at last the 
 prince asked her to be his wife ; and she said 
 that if the king and her father gave their per- 
 mission why, then she would ! After this she 
 went to bed ; and the prince, who had not slept 
 at all the night before, felt very sleepy also. 
 But he knew that first he had something^that 
 must be done. So he went into the drawing- 
 room, took his carpet, and wished to be now 
 where do you suppose ? Beside the dead body
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 of the Firedrake ! There he was in a moment; 
 and dreadful the body looked, lying stark and 
 cold in the white moonshine. Then the prince 
 cut off its four hoofs, put them in his wallet, and 
 with these he flew back in a second, and met 
 the ambassador just as he came from ushering 
 the king to bed. Then the prince was shown 
 his own room, where he locked up the hoofs, 
 the carpet, the cap of darkness, and his other 
 things in an iron box ; and so he went to bed 
 and dreamed of his Lady Rosalind.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 77 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 %he Ring's "{Cheque. 
 
 "HEN they all awakened next morning, 
 their first ideas were confused. It is 
 often confusing to wake in a strange 
 bed, much more so when you have flown 
 through the air, like the king, the queen, 
 and Benson the butler. For her part, 
 the queen was the most perplexed of all ; for she 
 did undeniably wake, and yet she was not at 
 home, where she had expected to be. How- 
 ever, she was a determined woman, and stood 
 to it that nothing unusual was occurring. The 
 butler made up his mind to claim the crown 
 princeship and the hand of the Lady Molinda ; 
 because, as he justly remarked to William, here 
 was such a chance to better himself as might not 
 soon come in his way again. As for the king, 
 he was only anxious to get back to Falkenstein, 
 and have the whole business settled in a consti- 
 tutional manner. The ambassador was not 
 sorry to get rid of the royal party ; and it was 
 proposed that they should all sit down on the 
 flying carpet, and wish themselves at home 
 again. But the queen would not hear of it:
 
 78 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 she said it was childish and impossible ; so the 
 carriage was got ready for her, and she started 
 without saying a word of good-bye to anyone. 
 The king, Benson, and the prince were not so 
 particular, and they simply flew back to Falken- 
 stein in the usual way, arriving there at 11.35 
 a week before her majesty. 
 
 The king at once held a Court ; the horns and 
 tail of the monster were exhibited amidst general 
 interest, and Benson and the prince were invited 
 to state their claims. 
 
 Benson's evidence was taken first. He 
 declined to say exactly where or how he killed 
 the Firedrake. There might be more of them 
 left, he remarked, young ones, that would 
 take a lot of killing, and he refused to part 
 with his secret. Only he claimed the reward, 
 which was offered, if you remember, not to the 
 man who killed the beast, but to .him who 
 brought its horns and tail. This was allowed 
 by the lawyers present to be very sound law ; 
 and Benson was cheered by the courtiers, who 
 decidedly preferred him to Prigio, and who, be- 
 sides, thought he was going to be crown prince. 
 As for Lady Molinda, she was torn by the most 
 painful feelings; for, much as she hated Prigio, 
 she could not bear the idea of marrying Benson. 
 Yet one or the other choice seemed certain. 
 
 Unhappy lady ! Perhaps no girl was ever 
 more strangely beset by misfortune! 
 
 Prince Prigio was now called on to speak.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 79 
 
 He admitted that the reward was offered for 
 bringing the horns and tail, not for killing the 
 monster. But were the king's intentions to go 
 for nothing ? When a subject only meant well, 
 of course he had to suffer; but when a king 
 said one thing, was he not to be supposed to 
 have meant another? Any fellow with a waggon 
 could bring the horns and tail; the difficult 
 thing was to kill the monster. If Benson's 
 claim was allowed, the royal prerogative of 
 saying one thing and meaning something else 
 was in danger. 
 
 On hearing this argument, the king so far 
 forgot himself as to cry, " Bravo, well said ! " 
 and to clap his hands, whereon all the courtiers 
 shouted and threw up their hats. 
 
 The prince then said that whoever had killed 
 the monster could, of course, tell where to find 
 him, and could bring his hoofs. He was ready 
 to do this himself. Was Mr. Benson equally 
 ready ? On this being interpreted to him for 
 he did not speak Pantouflian Benson grew 
 pale with horror, but fell back on the proclama- 
 tion. He had brought the horns and tail, 
 and so he must have the perquisites, and the 
 Lady Molinda ! 
 
 The king's mind was so much confused by 
 this time, that he determined to leave it to the 
 Lady Molinda herself. 
 
 " Which of them will you have, my dear ? " 
 he asked, in a kind voice.
 
 80 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 But poor Molinda merely cried. Then his 
 majesty was almost driven to say that he would 
 give the reward to whoever produced the hoofs 
 by that day week. But no sooner had he said 
 this than the prince brought them out of his 
 wallet, and displayed them in open Court. This 
 ended the case; and Benson, after being enter- 
 tained with sherry and sandwiches in the 
 steward's room, was sent back to his master. 
 And I regret to say that his temper was not at 
 all improved by his failure to better himself. 
 On the contrary, he was unusually cross and .dis- 
 agreeable for several days; but we must, perhaps, 
 make some allowance for his disappointment. 
 
 But if Benson was irritated, and suffered 
 from the remarks of his fellow-servants, I do 
 not think we can envy Prince Prigio. Here he 
 was, restored to his position indeed, but by no 
 means to the royal favour. For the king dis- 
 liked him as much as ever, and was as angry as 
 ever about the deaths of Enrico and Alphonso. 
 Nay, he was even more angry; and, perhaps, not 
 without reason. He called up Prigio before 
 the whole Court, and thereon the courtiers 
 cheered like anything, but the king cried : 
 
 " Silence ! McDougal, drag the first roan that 
 shouts to the serpent-house in the zoological 
 gardens, and lock him up with the rattlesnakes ! " 
 
 After that the courtiers were very quiet. 
 
 " Prince," said the king as Prigio bowed 
 before the throne, "you are restored to your
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 8 1 
 
 position, because I cannot break my promise. 
 But your base and malevolent nature is even 
 more conspicuously manifest in your selfish 
 success than in your previous dastardly con- 
 tempt of duty. Why, confound you ! " cried 
 the king, dropping the high style in which he 
 had been speaking, and becoming the father, 
 not the monarch, "why, if you could kill the 
 Firedrake, did you let your poor little brothers 
 go and be b b b broiled ? Eh ! what do you 
 say, you sneak ? * You didn't believe there 
 were any Fired rakes ? ' That just comes of 
 your eternal conceit and arrogance ! If you 
 were clever enough to kill the creature and I 
 admit that you were clever enough to know 
 that what everybody said must be true. ' You 
 have not generally found it so ?' Well, you have 
 this time, and let it be a lesson to you ; not 
 that there is much comfort in that, for it is not 
 likely you will ever have such another chance " 
 exactly the idea that had occurred to Benson. 
 
 Here the king wept, among the tears of the 
 lord chief justice, -the poet laureate (who had 
 been awfully frightened when he heard of the 
 rattlesnakes), the maids of honour, the chaplain 
 royal, and everyone but Colonel McDougal, 
 a Scottish soldier of fortune, who maintained 
 a military reserve. 
 
 When his majesty had recovered, he said to 
 Prigio (who had not been crying, he was too 
 much absorbed) :
 
 PRINCE FRIGID. 
 
 " A king's word is his bond. Bring me a pen, 
 somebody, and my cheque-book." 
 
 The royal cheque-book, bound in red morocco, 
 was brought in by eight pages, with ink and a 
 pen. His majesty then filled up and signed 
 the following satisfactory document (Ah ! 
 my children, how I wish Mr. Arrowsmith would 
 do as much for me ! ) : 
 
 No. W. g 961047. FALKENSTEIN, July 10, 1768. 
 
 Tte Bant of Panlouflk 
 
 FALKENSTEIN BRANCH. 
 
 tO Prince (Prigio _______ ......... __ .................. OP 
 
 Ten Thousand (Purses. 
 
 ^1,000,000 | 
 
 Grognio (R. 
 
 " There ! " said his majesty, crossing his 
 cheque and throwing sand over it, for blotting- 
 paper had not yet been invented ; " there, take 
 that, and be off with you ! " 
 
 Prince Prigio was respectfully but rapidly 
 obeying his royal command, for he thought he 
 had better cash the royal cheque as soon as 
 possible, when his majesty yelled : 
 
 "Hi! here! come back! I forgot something; 
 you've got to marry Molinda ! "
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 83 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 e/f ^Melancholy "Chapter. 
 
 r HE prince had gone some way, when the 
 king called after him. How he wished 
 he had the seven-league boots on, or 
 that he had the cap of darkness in his 
 pocket ! If he had been so lucky, he 
 would now have got back to Gluckstein, 
 and crossed the border with Lady Rosalind. A 
 million of money may not seem much, but a pair 
 of young people who really love each other could 
 live happily on less than the cheque he had in his 
 pocket. However, the king shouted very loud, 
 as he always did when he meant to be obeyed, 
 and the prince sauntered slowly back again. 
 
 " Prigio ! " said his majesty, "where were 
 you off to ? Don't you remember that this is 
 your wedding-day ? My proclamation offered, 
 not only the money (which you have), but the 
 hand of the Lady Molinda, which the Court 
 chaplain will presently make your own. I con- 
 gratulate you, sir ; Molinda is a dear girl." 
 
 " I have the highest affection and esteem for 
 my cousin, sir," said the prince, " but "
 
 8 4 
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 " I '11 never marry him ! " cried poor Molinda, 
 kneeling at the throne, where her streaming 
 eyes and hair made a pretty and touching pic- 
 ture. " Never ! I despise him ! " 
 
 " I was about to say, sir," the prince went 
 on, " that I cannot possibly have the pleasure 
 of wedding my cousin." 
 
 " The family gibbet, I presume, is in 
 good working order ? " asked the king 
 of the family executioner, a tall gaunt man 
 in black and scarlet, who was only em- 
 ployed in the case of members of the blood 
 royal. 
 
 " Never better, sire," said the man, bowing 
 with more courtliness than his profession in- 
 dicated.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 " Very well," said the king ; " Prince Prigio, 
 you have your choice. There is the gallows, 
 here is Lady Molinda. My duty is painful, but 
 clear. A king's word cannot be broken. Molly, 
 or the gibbet ! " 
 
 The prince bowed respectfully to Lady 
 Molinda : 
 
 "Madam, my cousin," said he, "your 
 clemency will excuse my answer, and you will 
 not misinterpret the apparent discourtesy of 
 my conduct. I am compelled, most unwillingly, 
 to slight your charms, and 
 to select the Extreme Rigour 
 of the Law. Executioner, 
 lead on ! Do your duty ; 
 for me, Prigio est pret;" 
 for this was his motto, and 
 meant that he was ready. 
 
 Poor Lady Molinda could 
 not but be hurt by the 
 prince's preference for death 
 over marriage to her, little 
 as she liked him. 
 
 "Is life, then, so worthless ? 
 and is Molinda so terrible a 
 person that you prefer those 
 arms," and she pointed to 
 the gibbet, "to these?" here she held out 
 her own, which were very white, round and 
 pretty: for Molinda was a good-hearted girl, 
 she could not bear to see Prigio put to
 
 86 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 death ; and then, perhaps, she reflected that 
 there are worse positions than the queenship of 
 Pantouflia. For Alphonso was gone crying 
 would not bring him back. 
 
 "Ah, Madam ! " said the prince, " you are 
 forgiving " 
 
 " For you are brave ! " said Molinda, feeling 
 quite a respect for him. 
 
 " But neither your heart nor mine is ours to 
 give. Since mine was another's, I understand 
 too well the feeling of yours ! Do not let us buy 
 life at the price of happiness and honour." 
 
 Then, turning to the king the prince 
 said: 
 
 " Sir, is there no way but by death or mar- 
 riage ? You say you cannot keep half only of 
 your promise ; and that, if I accept the reward, 
 I must also unite myself with my unwilling 
 cousin. Cannot the whole proclamation be 
 annulled, and will you consider the bargain 
 void if I tear up this flimsy scroll ? " 
 
 And here the prince fluttered the cheque for 
 1,000,000 in the air. 
 
 For a moment the king was tempted ; but 
 then he said to himself: 
 
 " Never mind, it 's only an extra penny on 
 the income-tax." Then, " Keep your dross," 
 he shouted, meaning the million ; " but let me 
 
 keep my promise. To chapel at once, or " 
 
 and he pointed to the executioner. " The word 
 of a king of Pantouflia is sacred."
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 87 
 
 "And so is that of a crown prince," answered 
 Prigio ; " and mine is pledged to a lady." 
 
 " She shall be a mourning bride," cried the 
 king savagely, " unless " here he paused for a 
 moment "unless you bring me back Alphonso 
 and Enrico, safe and well ! " 
 
 The prince thought for the space of a flash 
 of lightning. 
 
 " I accept the alternative," he said, " if your 
 majesty will grant me my conditions." 
 
 " Name them ! " said the king. 
 
 " Let me be transported to Gluckstein, left 
 there unguarded, and if, in three days, I do not 
 return with my brothers safe and well, your 
 majesty shall be spared a cruel duty. Prigio 
 of Pantouflia will perish by his own hand." 
 
 The king, -whose mind did not work very 
 quickly, took some minutes to think over it. 
 Then he saw that by granting the prince's con- 
 ditions, he would either recover his dear sons, 
 or, at least, get rid of Prigio, without the un- 
 pleasantness of having him executed. For, 
 though some kings have put their eldest sons 
 to death, and most have wished to do so, they 
 have never been better loved by the people for 
 their Roman virtue. 
 
 " Honour bright ? " said the king at last. 
 
 " Honour bright ! " answered the prince, and 
 for the first time in many months, the royal 
 father and son shook hands. 
 
 " For you, madam," said Prigio in a stately
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 way to Lady Molinda," in less than a week I 
 trust we shall be taking our vows at the same 
 altar, and that the close of the ceremony which 
 finds us cousins will leave us brother and 
 sister." 
 
 Poor Molinda merely stared ; for she could 
 not imagine what he meant. In a moment he 
 was gone ; and having taken, by the king's 
 permission, the flying carpet, he was back at 
 the ambassador's house in Gluckstein.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 89 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 e ^BlacJt -Gat and tie ^Brethren! 
 
 O was glad to see the prince, if it was 
 not Lady Rosalind ? The white roses of 
 her cheeks turned to red roses in a 
 moment, and then back to white again, 
 they were so alarmed at the change. So 
 the two went into the gardens together, 
 and talked about a number of things ; but at 
 last the prince told her that, before three days 
 were over, all would be well, or all would be 
 over with him. For either he would have 
 brought his brothers back, sound and well, to 
 Falkenstein, or he would not survive his dis- 
 honour. 
 
 "It is no more than right," he said; "for 
 had I gone first, neither of them would have 
 been sent to meet the monster after I had 
 fallen. And I should have fallen, dear Rosa^ 
 lind, if I had faced the Firedrake before I 
 knew you." 
 
 Then when she .asked him why, and what 
 good she had done him, he told her all the 
 story ; and how, before he fell in love with her, 
 he didn't believe in fairies, or Firedrakes, or
 
 90 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 caps of darkness, or anything nice and impos- 
 sible, but only in horrid useless facts, and 
 chemistry, and geology, and arithmetic, and 
 mathematics, and even political economy. 
 And the Firedrake would have made a 
 mouthful of him, then. 
 
 So she was delighted when she heard this, 
 almost as much delighted as she was afraid 
 that he might fail in the most difficult adven- 
 ture. For it was one thing to egg on a Remora 
 to kill a Firedrake, and quite another to find 
 the princes if they were alive, and restore 
 them if they were dead ! 
 
 But the prince said he had his plan, and 
 he stayed that night at the ambassador's. 
 Next morning he rose very early, before 
 anyone else was up, that he might not have to 
 say " Good-bye " to Lady Rosalind. Then he 
 flew in a moment to the old lonely castle, 
 where nobody went for fear of ghosts, ever 
 since the Court retired to Falkenstein. 
 
 How still it was, how deserted; not a sign 
 of life, and yet the prince was looking every- 
 where for some living thing. He hunted the 
 castle through in vain, and then went out to 
 the stable-yard; but all the dogs, of course, 
 had been taken away, and the farmers had 
 offered homes to the poultry. At last, stretched 
 at full length in a sunny place, the prince found 
 a very old, half-blind, miserable cat. The poor 
 creature was lean, and its fur had fallen off in
 
 '
 
 Q2 PRINCE PRIG 10. 
 
 patches ; it could no longer catch birds, nor 
 even mice, and there was nobody to give it 
 milk. But cats do not look far into the future ; 
 and this old black cat Frank was his name 
 had got a breakfast somehow, and was happy 
 in the sun. The prince stood and looked at 
 him pityingly, and he thought that even a sick 
 old cat was, in some ways, happier than most 
 men. 
 
 " Well," said the prince at last, " he could 
 not live long anyway, and it must be done. 
 He will feel nothing." 
 
 Then he drew the sword of sharpness, and 
 with one turn of his wrist cut the cat's head 
 clean off. 
 
 It did not at once change into a beautiful young 
 lady, as perhaps you expect ; no, that was im- 
 probable, and, as the prince was in love already, 
 would have been vastly inconvenient. The dead 
 cat lay there, like any common cat. 
 
 Then the prince built up a heap of straw, 
 with wood on it; and there he laid poor 
 puss, and set fire to the pile. Very soon 
 there was nothing of old black Frank left but 
 ashes ! 
 
 Then the prince ran upstairs to the fairy 
 cupboard, his heart beating loudly with excite- 
 ment. The sun was shining through the 
 arrow-shot window ; all the yellow motes were 
 dancing in its rays. The light fell on the 
 strange heaps of fairy things talismans and
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 93 
 
 spells. The prince hunted about here and 
 there, and at last he discovered six ancient 
 water-vessels of black leather, each with a 
 silver plate on it, and on the plate letters en- 
 graved. This was what was written on the 
 plates : 
 
 AQVA. DE. FONTE. LEONVM.* 
 
 "Thank heaven!" said the prince. "I 
 thought they were sure to have brought it ! " 
 
 Then he took one of the old black-leather 
 bottles, and ran downstairs again to the place 
 where he had burned the body 
 of the poor old sick cat. 
 
 He opened the bottle, and 
 poured a few drops of the water 
 on the ashes and the dying 
 embers. 
 
 Up there sprang a tall, white 
 flame of fire, waving like a 
 tongue of light; and forth from 
 the heap jumped the most 
 beautiful, strong, funny, black 
 cat that ever was seen! 
 
 It was Frank as he had been in the vigour of 
 his youth ; and he knew the prince at once, and 
 rubbed himself against him and purred. 
 
 The prince lifted up Frank and kissed his 
 nose for joy ; and a bright tear rolled down on 
 Frank's face, and made him rub his nose with 
 his paw in the most comical manner. 
 * Water from the Fountain of Lions.
 
 94 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 Then the prince set him down, and he ran 
 round and round after his tail ; and, lastly, 
 cocked his tail up, and marched proudly after 
 the prince into the castle. 
 
 "Oh, Frank!" said Prince Prigio, "no cat 
 since the time of Puss in Boots was ever so well 
 taken care of as you shall be. For if the fairy 
 water from the Fountain of Lions can bring you 
 back to life why, there is a chance for Alphonso 
 and Enrico ! " 
 
 Then Prigio bustled about, got ready some 
 cold luncheon from the store-room, took all his 
 fairy things that he was likely to need, sat down 
 with them on the flying carpet, and wished 
 himself at the mountain of the Firedrake. 
 
 " I have the king now," he said ; " for if I 
 can't find the ashes of my brothers, by Jove ! 
 I'll! " 
 
 Do you know what he meant to do, if he 
 could not find his brothers ? Let every child 
 guess. 
 
 Off he flew ; and there he was in a second, 
 just beside poor Alphonso's garden -engine. 
 Then Prigio, seeing a little heap of grey ashes 
 beside the engine, watered them with the fairy 
 water; and up jumped Alphonso, as jolly as 
 ever, his sword in his hand. 
 
 " Hullo, Prigio ! " cried he ; " are you come 
 after the monster too ? I 've been asleep, and 
 I had a kind of dream that he beat me. But the 
 pair of us will tackle him. How is Molinda ? "
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 95 
 
 ''Prettier than ever," said Prigio ; "but 
 anxious about you. However, the Firedrake's 
 dead and done for; so never mind him. But I 
 left Enrico somewhere about. Just you sit 
 down and wait a minute, till I fetch him." 
 
 The prince said this, because he did not wish 
 Alphonso to know that he and Enrico had not 
 had quite the best of it in the affair with the 
 monster. 
 
 "All right, old fellow," says Alphonso; "but 
 have you any luncheon with you ? Never was 
 so hungry in my life ! " 
 
 Prince Prigio had thought of this, and he 
 brought out some cold sausage (to which 
 Alphonso was partial) and some bread, with 
 which the younger prince expressed himself 
 satisfied. Then Prigio went up the hill some 
 way, first warning Alphonso not to sit on his 
 carpet for fear of accidents like that which 
 happened to Benson. In a hollow of the hill, 
 sure enough there was the sword of Enrico, the 
 diamonds of the hilt gleaming in the sun. And 
 there was a little heap of grey ashes. 
 
 The prince poured a few drops of the water 
 from the Fountain of Lions on them, and up, of 
 course, jumped Enrico, just as Alphonso had 
 done. 
 
 " Sleepy old chap you are, Enrico," said the 
 prince ; " but come on, Alphonso will have 
 finished the grub unless we look smart." 
 
 So back they came, in time to. get their share
 
 96 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 of what was going ; and they drank the Remora's 
 very good health, when Prigio told them about 
 the fight. But neither of them ever knew that 
 they had been dead and done for; because 
 Prigio invented a story that the mountain was 
 enchanted, and that, as long as the Firedrake 
 lived, everyone who came there fell asleep. He 
 did tell them about the flying carpet, however, 
 which of course did not much surprise them, 
 because they had read all about it in the Arabian 
 Nights and other historical works. 
 
 " And now I '11 show you fun ! " said Prigio ; 
 and he asked them both to take their seats on 
 the carpet, and wished to be in the valley of the 
 Remora. 
 
 There they were in a moment, among the old 
 knights whom, if you remember, the .Remora 
 had frozen into stone. There was quite a troop 
 of them, in all sorts of armour Greek and 
 Roman, and Knight Templars like Front de 
 Bosuf and Brian du Bois Gilbert all the brave 
 warriors that had tried to fight the Remora 
 since the world began. 
 
 Then Prigio gave each of his brothers some 
 of the water in their caps, and told them to 
 go round pouring a drop or two on each frozen 
 knight. And as they did it, lo and behold ! 
 each knight came alive, with his horse, and 
 lifted his sword and shouted: 
 
 " Long live Prince Prigio 1 "
 
 98 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 in Greek, Latin, Egyptian, French, German, 
 and Spanish, all of which the prince perfectly 
 understood, and spoke like a native. 
 
 So he marshalled them in order, and sent 
 them off to ride to Falkenstein and cry : 
 
 " Prince Prigio is coming ! " 
 
 Off they went, the horses' hoofs clattering, 
 banners flying, sunshine glittering on the spear- 
 points. Off they rode to Falkenstein; and 
 when the king saw them come galloping in, I 
 can tell you he had no more notion of hanging 
 Prigio.
 
 PRINCE PRIG 10. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII, 
 tye Ver iast. 
 
 r HE princes returned to Gluckstein on the 
 1 carpet, and went to the best inn, where 
 they dined together and slept. Next morn- 
 ing they, and the ambassador, who had 
 been told all the story, and Lady Rosa- 
 lind, floated comfortably on the carpet, 
 back to Falkenstein, where the king wept like 
 anything on the shoulders of Alphonso and 
 Enrico. They could not make out why he cried 
 so, nor why Lady Molinda and Lady Kathleena 
 cried ; but soon they were all laughing and 
 happy again. But then would you believe he 
 could be so mean ? he refused to keep his 
 royal promise, and restore Prigio to his crown- 
 princeship ! Kings are like that. 
 
 But Prigio, very quietly asking for the head 
 of the Firedrake, said he'd pour the magic 
 water on that, and bring the Firedrake back to 
 life again, unless his majesty behaved rightly. 
 This threat properly frightened King Grognio, 
 and he apologised. Then the king shook hands
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 with Prigio in public, and thanked him, and said 
 he was proud of him. As to Lady Rosalind, the 
 old gentleman quite fell in love with her, and 
 he sent at once to the Chaplain Royal to get 
 into his surplice, and marry all the young 
 people off at once, without waiting for wed- 
 ding-cakes, and milliners, and all the rest 
 of it. 
 
 Now, just as they were forming a procession 
 to march into church, who should appear but 
 the queen ! Her majesty had been travelling 
 by post all the time, and, luckily, had heard of 
 none of the doings since Prigio, Benson, and 
 the king left Gluckstein. I say luckily because 
 if she had heard of them, she would not have 
 believed a word of them. But when she saw 
 Alphonso and Enrico, she was much pleased, 
 and said : 
 
 " Naughty boys ! Where have you been 
 hiding? The king had some absurd story
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 about your having been killed by a fabulous 
 monster. Bah ! don't tell me. I always said 
 you would come back after a little trip didn't 
 I, Prigio ? " 
 
 "Certainly, madam," said Prigio; "and I 
 said so, too. Didn't I say so ? " And all the 
 courtiers cried: "Yes, you did;" but some 
 added, to themselves, "He always says, 'Didn't 
 I say so?'" 
 
 Then the queen was introduced to Lady 
 Rosalind, and she said it was " rather a short 
 engagement, but she supposed young people 
 understood their own affairs best." And they 
 do ! So the three pairs were married, with the 
 utmost rejoicings ; and her majesty never, her 
 whole life long, could be got to believe that 
 anything unusual had occurred. 
 
 The honeymoon of Prince Prigio and the 
 Crown Princess Rosalind was passed at the 
 castle, where the prince had been deserted by 
 the Court. But now it was delightfully fitted 
 up; and Master Frank marched about the house 
 with his tail in the air, as if the place belonged 
 to him. 
 
 Now, on the second day of their honeymoon, 
 the prince and princess were sitting in the 
 garden together, and the prince said, " Are you 
 quite happy, my dear ? " and Rosalind said, 
 "Yes; quite." 
 
 But the prince did not like the tone of her 
 voice, and he said:
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 "No, there's something; do tell me what 
 it is." 
 
 "Well," said Rosalind, putting her head on 
 his shoulder, and speaking very low, " I want 
 everybody to love you as much as I do. No, 
 not quite so very much, but I want them to 
 like you. Now they can't, because they are 
 afraid of you ; for you are so awfully clever. 
 Now, couldn't you take the wishing cap, and 
 wish to be no cleverer than other people ? Then 
 everybody would like you ! " 
 
 The prince thought a minute, then he 
 said : 
 
 " Your will is law, my dear ; anything to 
 please you. Just wait a minute ! " 
 
 Then he ran upstairs, for the last time, 
 to the fairy garret, and he put on the wishing 
 cap. 
 
 ** No," thought he to himself, " I won't wish 
 that. Every man has one secret from his wife, 
 and this shall be mine." 
 
 Then he said aloud : " I WISH TO SEEM NO 
 
 CLEVERER THAN OTHER PEOPLE," 
 
 Then he ran downstairs again, and the 
 princess noticed a great difference in him 
 (though, of course, there was really none at all), 
 and so did everyone. For the prince remained 
 as clever as ever he had been ; but, as nobody 
 observed it, he became the most popular prince, 
 and finally the best-beloved king who had ever 
 sat on the throne of Pantouflia.
 
 PRINCE PRIGIO. 
 
 I0 3 
 
 But occasionally Rosalind would say, " I do 
 believe, my dear, that you are really as clever 
 as ever ! " 
 
 And he was I
 
 PRINCE RICARDO OF 
 PANTOUFLIA 
 
 BEING THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE PRIGIO'S SON.
 
 PRINCE 
 
 GUY CAMPBELL. 
 
 My dear Guy, 
 
 You wanted to know more about Prince 
 Prigio, who won the Lady Rosalind, and killed 
 the Firedrake and the Remora by aid of his 
 Fairy gifts. Here you have some of his later 
 adventures, and you will learn from this story 
 the advantages of minding your book. 
 
 Yours always,
 
 EXPLAINING MATTERS. 
 
 ERE may be children whose 
 education has been so neg- 
 lected that they have not 
 read Prince Prigio. As 
 this new story is about 
 Prince Prigio's son, 
 Ricardo, you are to learn that Prigio was 
 the child and heir of Grognio, King of 
 Pantouflia. The fairies gave the little Prince 
 cleverness, beauty, courage; but one wicked 
 fairy added, "You shall be too clever." His 
 mother, the queen, hid away in a cupboard 
 all the fairy presents, the Sword of Sharp- 
 ness, the Seven-League Boots, the Wishing 
 Cap, and many other useful and delightful 
 gifts, in which her Majesty did not believe ! 
 But after Prince Prigio had become universally 
 disliked and deserted, because he was so 
 very clever and conceited, he happened to 
 find all the fairy presents in the old turret
 
 lo8 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 chamber where they had been thrown. By 
 means of these he delivered his country from 
 a dreadful Red-Hot Beast, called the Fire- 
 drake, and, in addition to many other 
 triumphs, he married the good and beautiful 
 Lady Rosalind. His love for her taught him 
 not to be conceited, though he did not cease 
 to be extremely clever and fond of reading. 
 
 When this new story begins the Prince has 
 succeeded to the crown, on the death of King 
 Grognio, and is unhappy about his own son, 
 Prince Ricardo, who is not clever, and who 
 hates books ! The story tells of Ricardo's 
 adventures : how he tried to bring back Prince 
 Charlie to England, how he failed ; how he 
 dealt with the odious old Yellow Dwarf; how 
 he was aided by the fair magician, the Princess 
 Jaqueline ; how they both fell into a dreadful 
 trouble ; how King Prigio saved them ; and 
 how Jaqueline's dear and royal papa was 
 discovered; with the end of all these adven- 
 tures. The moral of the story will easily be 
 discovered by the youngest reader, or, if not, 
 it does not much matter.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 tye ^roubles of %ing %rigio. 
 
 'M sure I don't know what to 
 do with that boy ! " said King 
 Prigio of Pantouflia. 
 
 " If you don't know, my 
 dear," said Queen Rosalind, 
 his illustrious consort, 
 " I can't see what is 
 to be done. You are 
 so clever." 
 
 The king and queen 
 were sitting in the royal 
 library, of which the 
 shelves were full of the most delightful fairy 
 books in all languages, all equally familiar to
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 King Prigio. The queen could not read 
 most of them herself, but the king used to 
 read them aloud to her. A good many 
 years had passed seventeen, in fact since 
 Queen Rosalind was married, but you would 
 not think it to look at her. Her grey eyes 
 were as kind and soft and beautiful, her dark 
 hair as dark, and her pretty colour as like a 
 white rose blushing, as on the day when she 
 was a bride. And she was as fond of the king 
 as when he was only Prince Prigio, and he was 
 as fond of her as on the night when he first met 
 her at the ball. 
 
 " No, I don't know what to do with Dick," 
 said the king. 
 
 He meant his son, Prince Ricardo, but he 
 called him Dick in private. 
 
 " I believe it's the fault of his education," his 
 Majesty went on. " We have not brought him 
 up rightly. These fairy books are at the bottom 
 of his provoking behaviour," and he glanced 
 round the shelves. " Now, when 7 was a boy, 
 my dear mother tried to prevent me from 
 reading fairy books, because she did not believe 
 in fairies." 
 
 " But she was wrong, you know," said the 
 queen. " Why, if it had not been for all these 
 fairy presents, the Cap of Darkness and all the 
 rest of them, you never could have killed the 
 Fire-beast and the Ice-beast, and you never 
 could have married me," the queen added, in a
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 happy whisper, blushing beautifully, for that 
 was a foolish habit of hers. 
 
 " It is quite true," said the king, " and there- 
 fore I thought it best to bring Dick up on fairy 
 books, that he might know what is right, and 
 have no nonsense about him. But perhaps the 
 thing has been overdone ; at all events, it is 
 not a success. I wonder if fathers and sons will 
 ever understand each other, and get on well 
 together ? There was my poor father, King Grog- 
 nio, he wanted me to 'take to adventures, like 
 other princes, fighting Firedrakes, and so forth ; 
 and I did not care for it, till you set me on," and 
 he looked very kindly at her Majesty. " And now, 
 here 's Dick," the monarch continued, " I can't 
 hold him back. He is always after a giant, or 
 a dragon, or a magician, as the case may be ; 
 he will certainly be ploughed for his examina- 
 tion at College. Never opens a book. What 
 does he care, off after every adventure he can 
 hear about ? An idle, restless youth ! Ah, my 
 poor country, when I am gone, what may not 
 be your misfortunes under Ricardo ! " 
 
 Here his Majesty sighed, and seemed plunged 
 in thought. 
 
 " But you are not going yet, my dear," said 
 the queen. " Why you are not forty ! And 
 young people will be young people. You were 
 quite proud when poor Dick came home with 
 his first brace of gigantic fierce birds, killed off 
 his own sword, and with such a pretty princess
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 he had rescued dear Jaqueline ? I'm sure 
 she is like a daughter to me. I cannot do with- 
 out her." 
 
 " I wish she were a daughter-in-law ; I wish 
 Dick would take a fancy to marry her," said the 
 king. " A nicer girl I never saw." 
 
 " And so accomplished," added Queen Rosa- 
 lind. " That girl can turn herself into any- 
 thing a mouse, a fly, a lion, a wheelbarrow, 
 a church ! I never knew such talent for magic. 
 Of course she had the best of teachers, the 
 Fairy Paribanou herself ; but very few girls, in 
 our time, devote so many hours to practice as 
 dear Jaqueline. Even now, when she is out of 
 the schoolroom, she still practises her scales. 
 I saw her turning little Dollie into a fish and 
 back again in the bath-room last night. The 
 child was delighted." 
 
 In these times, you must know, princesses 
 learned magic, just as they learn the piano 
 nowadays ; but they had their music lessons 
 too, dancing, calisthenics, and the use of the 
 globes. 
 
 " Yes, she's a dear, good girl," said the king ; 
 " yet she looks melancholy. I believe, myself, 
 that if Ricardo asked her to marry him, she 
 would not say 'No.' But that's just one of the 
 things I object to most in Dick. Round the 
 world he goes, rescuing ladies from every kind 
 of horror from dragons, giants, cannibals, 
 magicians ; and then, when a girl naturally
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 113 
 
 expects to be married to him, as is usual, off he 
 rides ! He has no more heart than a flounder. 
 Why, at his age I 
 
 " At his age, my dear, you were so hard- 
 hearted that you were quite a proverb. Why, 
 I have been told that you used to ask girls 
 dreadful puzzling questions, like ' Who was 
 Cassar Borgia ? ' ' What do you know of Edwin 
 and Morcar ? ' and so on." 
 
 " I had not seen you then," said the king. 
 
 " And Ricardo has not seen her, whoever she 
 may be. Besides, he can't possibly marry all 
 of them. And I think a girl should consider 
 herself lucky if she is saved from a dragon or 
 a giant, without expecting to be married next 
 day." 
 
 " Perhaps ; but it is usual," said the king, 
 " and their families expect it, and keep sending 
 ambassadors to know what Dick's intentions 
 are. I would not mind it all so very much if 
 he killed the monsters off his own sword, as he 
 did that first brace, in fair fight. But ever 
 since he found his way into that closet where 
 the fairy presents lie, everything has been made 
 too easy for him. It is a royal road to glory, or 
 giant-slaying made easy. In his Cap of Dark- 
 ness a poor brute of a dragon can't see him. 
 In his Shoes of Swiftness the giants can't 
 catch him. His Sword of Sharpness would cut 
 any oak asunder at a blow ! " 
 
 " But you were very glad of them when you
 
 H4 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 made the Ice-beast and the Fire-beast fight and 
 kill each other," said the queen. 
 
 " Yes, my dear ; but it wanted some wit, if I 
 may say so, to do that, and Dick just goes at it 
 hammer and tongs : anybody could do it. It 's 
 intellect I miss in Ricardo. How am I to know 
 whether he could make a good fight for it with- 
 out all these fairy things ? I wonder what the 
 young rogue is about to-day ? He'll be late for 
 dinner, as usual, I daresay. I can't stand want 
 of punctuality at meals," remarked his Majesty, 
 which is a sign that he was growing old after all ; 
 for where is the fun of being expected always to 
 come home in time for dinner when, perhaps, 
 you are fishing, and the trout are rising 
 splendidly ? 
 
 " Young people will be young people," said 
 the queen. " If you are anxious about him, 
 why don't you look for him in the magic 
 crystal?" 
 
 Now the magic crystal was a fairy present, a 
 great ball of glass in which, if you looked, you 
 saw the person you wanted to see, and what he 
 was doing, however far away he might be, if he 
 was on the earth at all.* 
 
 " I '11 just take a look at it," said the king ; 
 " it only wants three-quarters of an hour to 
 dinner-time." 
 
 His Majesty rose, and walked to the crystal 
 
 * You can buy these glasses now from the Psychical 
 Society, at half-a-crown and upwards.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 115 
 
 globe, which was in a stand, like other globes. 
 He stared into it, he turned it round and 
 round, and Queen Rosalind saw him grow quite 
 pale as he gazed. 
 
 " I don't see him anywhere," said the king, 
 "and I have looked everywhere. I do hope 
 nothing has happened to the boy. He is so 
 careless. If he dropped his Cap of Darkness 
 in a fight with a giant, why who knows what 
 might occur ? " 
 
 " Oh, 'Gio, how you frighten me!" said the. 
 queen. 
 
 King Prigio was still turning the crystal 
 globe. 
 
 " Stop ! " he cried ; " I see a beautiful 
 princess, fastened by iron chains to a rock 
 beside the sea, in a lonely place. They must 
 have fixed her up as a sacrifice to a sea-monster, 
 like what's-her-name." 
 
 This proves how anxious he was, or, being so 
 clever and learned, he would have remembered 
 that her name was Andromeda. 
 
 " I bet Dick is not far off, where there is an 
 adventure on hand. But where on earth can 
 he be ? . . . My word ! " suddenly exclaimed 
 the monarch, in obvious excitement. 
 
 "What is it, dear?" cried the queen, with 
 all the anxiety of a mother. 
 
 " Why, the sea where the girl is, has turned 
 all red as blood ! " exclaimed the king. " Now 
 it is all being churned up by the tail of a
 
 Il6 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 tremendous monster. He is a whopper ! He 's 
 coming on shore; the girl is fainting. He's 
 out on shore ! He is extremely poorly, blood 
 rushing from his open jaws. He's dying ! 
 And, hooray ! here 's Dick coming out of his 
 enormous mouth, all in armour set with sharp 
 spikes, and a sword in his hand. He's covered 
 with blood, but he's well and hearty. He must 
 have been swallowed by the brute, and cut him 
 up inside. Now he's cutting the beast's head 
 off. Now he's gone to the princess; a very 
 neat bow he has made her. Dick's manners 
 are positively improving! Now he's cutting 
 her iron chains off with the Sword of Sharp- 
 ness. And now he's made her another bow, 
 and he's actually taking leave of her. Poor 
 thing ! How disappointed she is looking. And 
 she 's so pretty, too. I say, Rosalind, shall I shout 
 to him through the magic horn, and tell him to 
 bring her home here, on the magic carpet ? " 
 
 " I think not, dear ; the palace is quite full," 
 said the queen. But the real reason was that 
 she wanted Ricardo to marry her favourite 
 Princess Jaqueline, and she did not wish the 
 new princess to come in the way. 
 
 " As you like," said the king, who knew what 
 was in her mind very well. " Besides, I see 
 her own people coming for her. I 'm sorry 
 for her, but it can't be helped, and Dick is 
 half-way home by now on the Shoes of 
 Swiftness. I daresay he will not keep dinner
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 1 1? 
 
 waiting after all. But what a fright the boy 
 has given me ! " 
 
 At this moment a whirring in the air and 
 a joyous shout were heard. It was Prince 
 Ricardo flying home on his Seven - league 
 Boots. 
 
 "Hi, Ross!" he shouted, "just weigh this 
 beast's head. I've had a splendid day with a 
 sea-monster. Get the head stuffed, will you ? 
 We'll have it set up in the billiard-room." 
 
 " Yes, Master Dick I mean your Royal 
 Highness," said Ross, a Highland keeper, who 
 had not previously been employed by a Reign- 
 ing Family. " It's a fine head, whatever," he 
 added, meditatively. 
 
 Prince Ricardo now came beneath the library 
 window, and gave his parents a brief account 
 of his adventure. 
 
 " I picked the monster up early in the morn- 
 ing," he said, "through the magic telescope, 
 father." 
 
 " What country was he in ? " said the king. 
 
 " The country people whom I met called it 
 Ethiopia. They were niggers." 
 
 " And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, 
 Ricardo ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I don't know. Asia, perhaps," 
 answered the prince. 
 
 The king groaned. 
 
 " That boy will never understand our foreign 
 relations. Ethiopia in Asia ! " he said to him-
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 1 19 
 
 self, but he did not choose to make any remark 
 at the moment. 
 
 The prince ran upstairs to dress. On the 
 stairs he met the Princess Jaqueline. 
 
 " Oh, Dick ! are you hurt ? " she said, turning 
 very pale. 
 
 " No, not I ; but the monster is. I had a 
 capital day, Jack ; rescued a princess, too." 
 
 " Was she was she very pretty, Dick ?" 
 
 " Oh ! I don't know. Pretty enough, I dare- 
 say. Much like other girls. Why, you look 
 quite white ! What 's the matter ? Now you 
 look all right again;" for, indeed, the Princess 
 Jaqueline was blushing. 
 
 "I must dress. I'm ever so late," he said, 
 hurrying upstairs ; and the princess, with a 
 little sigh, went down to the royal drawing- 
 room.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 princess tfaqueline ^Drinks the Moon. 
 
 FT^ HEN dinner was 
 y over and the ladies had 
 \JI left the room, the king 
 <D af*\ tried to speak seriously 
 to Prince Ricardo. 
 This was a thing 
 which he disliked 
 doing very much. 
 
 " There 's very little 
 use in preaching," his 
 Majesty used to say, "to 
 a man, or rather a boy, 
 of another generation. My 
 taste was for books ; I only 
 took to adventures because I was obliged to 
 do it. Dick's taste is for adventures ; I only 
 wish some accident would make him take to 
 books. But everyone must get his experience for 
 himself; and when he has got it, he is lucky 
 if it is not too late. I wish I could see him in 
 love with some nice girl, who would keep him 
 at home."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 The king did not expect much from talking 
 seriously to Dick. However, he began by 
 asking questions about the day's sport, which 
 Ricardo answered with modesty. Then his 
 Majesty observed that, from all he had ever 
 read or heard, he believed Ethiopia, where the 
 fight was, to be in Africa, not in Asia. 
 
 " I really wish, Ricardo, that you would 
 attend to your geography a little more. It is 
 most necessary to a soldier that he should know 
 where his enemy is, and if he has to fight the 
 Dutch, for instance, not to start with his army 
 for Central Asia." 
 
 " I could always spot them through the magic 
 glass, father," said Dick ; " it saves such a 
 lot of trouble. I hate geography." 
 
 " But the glass might be lost or broken, or 
 the Fairies might take it away, and then where 
 are you ?" 
 
 "Oh, you would know where to go, or Mr. 
 Belsham." 
 
 Now Mr. Belsham was his tutor, from Oxford. 
 
 " But I shall not always be here, and when 
 I die " 
 
 "Don't talk of dying, sire," said Dick. "Why, 
 you are not so very old ; you may live for years 
 yet. Besides, I can't stand the notion. You 
 must live for ever ! " 
 
 " That sentiment is unusual in a Crown 
 Prince," thought the king ; but he was pleased 
 for all that. 
 
 9
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 "Well, to oblige you, I'll try to struggle 
 against old age," he said ; " but there are always 
 accidents. Now, Dick, like a good fellow, 
 and to please me, work hard all to-morrow 
 till the afternoon. I'll come in and help you. 
 And there's always a splendid evening rise of 
 trout in the lake just now, so you can have 
 your play after your work. You '11 enjoy it 
 more, and I daresay you are tired after a long 
 day with the big game. It used to tire me, 
 I remember." 
 
 " I am rather tired," said Dick ; and indeed 
 he looked a little pale, for a day in the inside of a 
 gigantic sea-monster is fatiguing, from the heat 
 and want of fresh air which are usually found 
 in such places. "I think I'll turn in; good- 
 night, my dear old governor," he said, in an 
 affectionate manner, though he was not usually 
 given to many words. 
 
 Then he went and kissed his mother and the 
 Princess Jaqueline, whom he engaged to row 
 him on the lake next evening, while he fished. 
 
 " And don't you go muffing them with the 
 landing-net, Jack, as you generally do," said 
 his Royal Highness, as he lit his bedroom 
 candle. 
 
 " I wish he would not call me Jack," said the 
 princess to the queen. 
 
 " It 's better than Lina, my dear," said her 
 Majesty, who in late life had become fond of 
 her little joke ; " that always sounds as if some-
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 123 
 
 one else was fatter, and I hope there is not 
 someone else." 
 
 The princess was silent, and fixed her eyes 
 on her book. 
 
 Presently the king came in, and played a game 
 with Lina at picquet. When they were all 
 going to bed, he said : 
 
 "Just come into the study, Lina. I want 
 you to write a few letters for me." 
 
 The princess followed him and took her seat 
 at the writing table. The letters were very short. 
 One was to Herr Schnipp, tailor to the king 
 and royal family; another was to the royal 
 swordmaker, another to the bootmaker, another 
 to the optician, another to the tradesman who 
 supplied the august family with carpets and 
 rugs, another to his Majesty's hatter. They 
 were all summoned to be at the palace early 
 next morning. Then his Majesty yawned, apolo- 
 gised, and went to bed. 
 
 The princess also went to her room, or bower 
 as it was then called, but not to sleep. 
 
 She was unhappy that Dick did not satisfy 
 his father, and that he was so careless, and 
 also about other things. 
 
 "And why does the king want all these tailors 
 and hatters so suddenly, telescope-makers and 
 swordmakers and shoemakers, too ? " she asked 
 herself, as she stood at the window watching 
 the moon. 
 
 " I could find out. I could turn myself into
 
 124 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 a dog or a cat, and go into the room where he 
 is giving his orders. But that is awkward, for 
 when the servants see Rip " (that was the dog) 
 " in two places at once, they begin to think the 
 palace is haunted, and it makes people talk. Be- 
 sides, I know it is wrong to listen to what one is 
 not meant to hear. It is often difficult to be a 
 magician and a good girl. The temptations are 
 so strong, stronger than most people allow for." 
 
 So she remained, with the moon shining on 
 her pretty yellow hair and her white dress, 
 wondering what the king intended to do, and 
 whether it was something that Dick would not 
 like. 
 
 " How stupid of me," she said at length, 
 " after all the lessons I have had. Why, I can 
 drink the moon /" 
 
 Now, this is a way of knowing what anyone 
 else is thinking of and intends to do, for the 
 moon sees and knows everything. Whether it 
 is quite fair is another matter ; but, at all events, 
 it is not listening. And anyone may see that, if 
 you are a magician, like the Princess Jaqueline, 
 a great many difficult questions as to what is 
 right and wrong at once occur which do not 
 trouble other people. King Prigio's secret, why 
 he sent for the tailor and the other people, was 
 his own secret. The princess decided that she 
 would not find it out by turning herself into 
 Rip or the cat (whose name was Semiramis), 
 and, so far, she was quite right. But she was
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 125 
 
 very young, and it never occurred to her that it 
 was just as wrong to find out what the king 
 meant by drinking the moon as by listening in 
 disguise. As she grew older she learned to 
 know better; but this is just the danger of 
 teaching young girls magic, and for that very 
 reason it has been given up in most countries. 
 
 However, the princess did not think about 
 right and wrong, unluckily. She went to the 
 bookcase and took down her Cornelius Agrippa, 
 in one great tall black volume, with silver clasps 
 which nobody else could open ; for, as the 
 princess said, there are books which it would 
 never do to leave lying about where the servants 
 or anybody could read them. Nobody could 
 undo the clasps, however strong or clever he 
 might be ; but the princess just breathed on 
 them and made a sign, and the book flew open 
 at the right place Book IV., chapter vi., about 
 the middle of page 576, 
 
 The magic spell was in Latin, of course; but 
 the princess knew Latin very well, and soon 
 she had the magic song by heart. Then she 
 closed the book and put it back on the shelf. 
 Then she threw open the window and drew 
 back the curtains, and put out all the lights 
 except two scented candles that burned with a 
 white fire under a round mirror with a silver 
 frame, opposite the window. And into that 
 mirror the moon shone white and full, filling 
 all the space of it, so that the room was
 
 126 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 steeped in a strange silver light. Now the 
 whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and 
 trembling ; and as it trembled it sounded and 
 rang with a low silver music, as if it were filled 
 with the waves of the sea. 
 
 Then the princess took a great silver basin, 
 covered with strange black signs and figures 
 raised in the silver. She poured water into the 
 basin, and as she poured it she sang the magic 
 spell from the Latin book. It was something 
 like this, in English : 
 
 " Oh Lady Moon, on the waters riding, 
 On shining waters, in silver sheen, 
 Show me the secret the heart is hiding, 
 Show me the truth of the thought, oh Queen ! 
 
 " Oh waters white, where the moon is riding, 
 
 That knows what shall be and what has been, 
 Tell me the secret the heart is hiding, 
 
 Wash me the truth of it, clear and clean ! " 
 
 As she sang the water in the silver basin foamed 
 and bubbled, and then fell still again ; and the 
 princess knelt in the middle of the room, and 
 the moon and the white light from the mirror 
 of the moon fell in the water. 
 
 Then the princess raised the basin, and 
 stooped her mouth to it and drank the water, 
 spilling a few drops, and so she drank the moon 
 and the knowledge of the moon. Then the moon 
 was darkened without a cloud, and there was 
 darkness in the sky for a time, and all the dogs
 
 The Princess drinks the Moon.
 
 128 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 in the world began to howl. When the moon 
 shone again, the princess rose and put out the 
 two white lights, and drew the curtains ; and 
 presently she went to bed. 
 
 " Now I know all about it," she said. " It is 
 clever ; everything the king does is clever, and 
 he is so kind that I daresay he does not mean 
 any harm. But it seems a cruel trick to play on 
 poor Ricardo. However, Jaqueline is on the 
 watch, and I '11 show them a girl can do more 
 than people think," as, indeed, she could. 
 
 After meditating in this way, the princess fell 
 asleep, and did not waken till her maid came 
 to call her. 
 
 "Oh! your Royal Highness, what's this on 
 the floor ?" said the faithful Rosina, as she was 
 arranging the princess's things for her to get up. 
 
 "Why, what is it ?" asked the princess. 
 
 " Ever so many four, five, six, seven little 
 shining drops of silver lying on the carpet, as 
 if they had melted and fallen there ! " 
 
 "They have not hurt the carpet ?" said the 
 princess. " Oh dear ! the queen won't be 
 pleased at all. It was a little chemical experi- 
 ment I was trying last night." 
 
 But she knew very well that she must have 
 dropped seven drops of the enchanted water. 
 
 " No, your Royal Highness, the carpet is not 
 harmed," said Rosina ; " only your Royal 
 Highness should do these things in the labora- 
 tory. Her Majesty has often spoke about it."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 129 
 
 "You are quite right," said the princess; 
 "but as there is no harm done, we'll say 
 nothing about it this time. And, Rosina, you 
 may keep the silver drops for yourself." 
 
 "Your Royal Highness is always very kind," 
 said Rosina, which was true ; but how much better 
 and wiser it is not to begin to deceive ! We 
 never know how far we may be carried, and so 
 Jaqueline found out. 
 
 For when she went down to breakfast, there 
 was the king in a great state of excitement, for 
 him. 
 
 " It's most extraordinary," said his Majesty. 
 
 "What is?" asked the-queen. 
 
 " Why, didn't you notice it ? No, you had 
 gone to bed before it happened. But I was 
 taking a walk in the moonlight, on the balcony, 
 and I observed it carefully." 
 
 " Observed what, my dear ? " asked the queen, 
 who was pouring out the tea. 
 
 " Didn't you see it, Dick? Late as usual, you 
 young dog ! " the king remarked as Ricardo 
 entered the room. 
 
 "See what, sir?" said Dick. 
 
 "Oh, you were asleep hours before, now I 
 think of it ! But it was the most extraordinary 
 thing, an unpredicted eclipse of the moon! 
 You must have noticed it, Jaqueline ; you sat 
 up later. How the dogs howled ! " 
 
 " No ; I mean yes," murmured poor Jaque- 
 line, who of course had caused the whole affair
 
 130 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 by her magic arts, but who had forgotten, in 
 the excitement of the moment, that an eclipse 
 of the moon, especially if entirely unexpected, 
 is likely to attract very general attention. 
 Jaquelme could not bear to tell a fib, especially 
 to a king who had been so kind to her ; besides, 
 fibbing would not alter the facts. 
 
 " Yes, I did see it," she admitted, blushing. 
 " Had it not been predicted ?" 
 
 "Not a word about it whispered anywhere," 
 said his Majesty. " I looked up the almanack 
 at once. It is the most extraordinary thing I 
 ever saw, and I 've seen a good many." 
 
 " The astronomers must be duffers," said 
 Prince Ricardo. " I never thought there was 
 much in physical science of any sort ; most 
 dreary stuff. Why, they say the earth goes 
 round the sun, whereas any fool can see it is 
 just the other way on." 
 
 King Prigio was struck aghast by these 
 sentiments in the mouth of his son and heir, 
 the hope of Pantouflia. But what was the king 
 to say in reply ? The astronomers of Pantou- 
 flia, who conceived that they knew a great deal, 
 had certainly been taken by surprise this time. 
 Indeed, they have not yet satisfactorily ex- 
 plained this eclipse of the moon, though they 
 have written volumes about it. 
 
 "Why, it may be the sun next!" exclaimed his 
 Majesty. "Anything may happen. The very 
 laws of gravitation themselves may go askew!"
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 131 
 
 At this moment the butler, William, who had 
 been in the queen's family when she was a girl, 
 entered, and announced : 
 
 " Some of the royal tradesmen, by appoint- 
 ment, to see your Majesty." 
 
 So the king, who had scarcely eaten any 
 breakfast, much to the annoyance of the queen, 
 who was not agitated by eclipses, went out and 
 joined the tailors and the rest of them.
 
 132 
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 j[be ^Adventure of the Shopkeepers. 
 
 T^ I C K went on with his 
 breakfast. He ate cold 
 pastry, and poached 
 eggs, and ham, and 
 rolls, and raspberry jam, and 
 hot cakes; and he drank two 
 cups of coffee. Mean- 
 while the king had joined 
 
 the tradesmen who attended 
 by his orders. They were all 
 met in the royal study, where 
 the king made them a most 
 splendid bow, and requested 
 them to be seated. But they 
 declined to sit in his sacred presence, and 
 the king observed that, in that case he must 
 stand up. 
 
 " I have invited you here, gentlemen," he 
 said, "on a matter of merely private import- 
 ance, but I must request that you will be entirely 
 silent as to the nature of your duties. It is 
 difficult, I know, not to talk about one's work, 
 but in this instance I am sure you will oblige me.''
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 133 
 
 " Your Majesty has only to command," said 
 Herr Schnipp. " There have been monarchs, in 
 neighbouring kingdoms, who would have cut off 
 all our heads after we had done a bit of secret 
 business; but the merest word of your Majesty 
 is law to your loving subjects." 
 
 The other merchants murmured assent, for 
 King Prigio was really liked by his people. He 
 was always good-tempered and polite. He never 
 went to war with anybody. He spent most of 
 the royal income on public objects, and of course 
 there were scarcely any taxes to speak of. 
 Moreover, he had abolished what is called 
 compulsory education, or making everybody go 
 to school whether he likes it or not ; a most 
 mischievous and tyrannical measure ! " A 
 fellow who can't teach himself to read," said 
 the king, "is not worth teaching." 
 
 For all these reasons, and because they were 
 so fond of the queen, his subjects were ready 
 to do anything in reason for King Prigio. 
 
 Only one tradesman, bowing very deep and 
 blushing very much, said : 
 
 " Your Majesty, will you hear me for one 
 moment ? " 
 
 " For an hour, with pleasure, Herr Schmidt," 
 said the monarch. 
 
 " It is an untradesman-like and an unusual 
 thing to decline an order; and if your Majesty 
 asked for my heart's blood, I am ready to shed 
 it, not to speak of anything in the line of my
 
 134 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 business namely, boot and shoe making. But 
 keep a secret from my wife, I fairly own to 
 your Majesty that I can not." 
 
 Herr Schmidt went down on his knees and 
 wept. 
 
 " Rise, Herr Schmidt," said the king, taking 
 him by the hand. " A more honourable and 
 chivalrous confession of an amiable weakness, 
 if it is to be called a weakness, I never heard. 
 Sir, you have been true to your honour and 
 your prince, in face of what few men can bear, 
 the chance of ridicule. There is no one here, 
 I hope, but respects and will keep the secret of 
 Herr Schmidt's confession?" 
 
 The assembled shopkeepers could scarcely 
 refrain from tears. 
 
 " Long live King Prigio the Good ! " they 
 exclaimed, and vowed that everything should 
 be kept dark. 
 
 " Indeed, sire," said the swordmaker, " all 
 the rest of us are bachelors." 
 
 " That is none the worse for my purpose, 
 gentlemen," said his Majesty ; " but I trust 
 that you will not long deprive me of sons 
 and subjects worthy to succeed to such 
 fathers. And now, if Herr Schmidt will 
 kindly find his way to the buttery, where 
 refreshments are ready, I shall have the 
 pleasure of conducting you to the scene of 
 your labours." 
 
 Thus speaking, the king, with another magni-
 
 Herr Schmidt went down on his knees.
 
 136 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 ficent bow, led the way upstairs to a little 
 turret-room, in a deserted part of the palace. 
 Bidding the tradesmen enter, he showed them 
 a large collection of miscellaneous things : an 
 old cap or two, a pair of boots of a sort long 
 out of fashion, an old broadsword, a shabby 
 old Persian rug, an ivory spyglass, and other 
 articles. These were, in fact, the fairy 
 presents, which had been given to the 
 king at his christening, and by aid of 
 which (and his natural acuteness) he had, 
 in his youth, succeeded in many remarkable 
 adventures. 
 
 The caps were the Wishing Cap and the Cap 
 of Darkness. The rug was the famous carpet 
 which carried its owner through the air where- 
 ever he wished to go. The sword was the 
 Sword of Sharpness. The ivory glass showed 
 you anyone you wanted to see, however far off. 
 The boots were the Seven-league Boots, which 
 Hop-o'-my-Thumb stole from the Ogre about 
 1697. There were other valuable objects, but 
 these were the most useful and celebrated. Of 
 course the king did not tell the tradesmen what 
 they were. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," said his Majesty, "you 
 see these old things. For reasons which I 
 must ask you to excuse me for keeping to 
 myself, I wish you to provide me with objects 
 exactly and precisely similar to these, with all 
 the look of age."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 137 
 
 The tradesmen examined the objects, each 
 choosing that in his own line of business. 
 
 " As to the sword, sire," said the cutler, " it 
 is an Andrea Ferrara, a fine old blade. By a 
 lucky accident, I happen to have one at home, 
 in a small collection of ancient weapons, exactly 
 like it. This evening it shall be at your Majesty's 
 disposal." 
 
 " Perhaps, Herr Schnitzler, you will kindly 
 write an order for it, as I wish no one of you 
 to leave the palace, if you can conveniently 
 stay, till your business is finished." 
 
 "With pleasure, your Majesty," says the cutler. 
 
 " As to the old rug," said the upholsterer, 
 " I have a Persian one quite identical with it 
 at home, at your Majesty's service." 
 
 " Then you can do like Herr Schnitzler," who 
 was the cutler. 
 
 " And I," said the hatter, " have two old caps 
 just like these, part of a bankrupt theatrical 
 stock." 
 
 " We are most fortunate," said the king. 
 "The boots, now I come to think of it, are 
 unimportant, at least for the present. Perhaps 
 we can borrow a pair from the theatre." 
 
 " As for the glass," said the optician, " if 
 your Majesty will allow me to take it home 
 with me 
 
 " I am afraid I cannot part with it," said the 
 king ; " but that, too, is unimportant, or not 
 very pressing." 
 
 10
 
 138 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 Then he called for a servant, to order luncheon 
 for the shopkeepers, and paper for them to write 
 their orders on. But no one was within hearing, 
 and in that very old part of the palace there 
 were no bells. 
 
 "Just pardon me for an instant, while I run 
 downstairs," said his Majesty; "and, it seems 
 a strange thing to ask, but may I advise you 
 not to sit down on that carpet ? I have a 
 reason for it." 
 
 In fact, he was afraid that someone might 
 sit down on it, and wish he was somewhere 
 else, and be carried away, as was the nature of 
 the carpet. 
 
 King Prigio was not absent a minute, for he 
 met William on the stairs ; but when he came 
 back, there was not one single person in the 
 turret-room ! 
 
 "Where on earth are they?" cried the 
 king, rushing through all the rooms in that 
 part of the castle. He shouted for them, 
 and looked everywhere ; but there was not a 
 trace of tailor, hatter, optician, swordmaker, 
 upholsterer. 
 
 The king hastened to a window over the gate, 
 and saw the sentinels on duty. 
 
 "Hi!" he called. 
 
 And the sentinels turned round, looked up, 
 and saluted. 
 
 " Have you seen anyone go out ?" he cried. 
 
 " No one, sire," answered the soldiers.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 1 39 
 
 The king, who began to guess what had 
 happened, hurried back to the turret-room. 
 
 There were all the tradesmen with parcels 
 under their arms. 
 
 "What means this, gentlemen?" said his 
 Majesty, severely. " For what reason did you 
 leave the room without my permission ?" 
 
 They all knelt down, humbly imploring his 
 compassion. 
 
 " Get up, you donkeys!" said the king, for- 
 getting his politeness. " Get up, and tell me 
 where you have been hiding yourselves." 
 
 The hatter came forward, and said : 
 
 " Sire, you will not believe me ; indeed, I can 
 scarcely believe it myself! " 
 
 " Nor none of us can't," said the sword- 
 maker. " We have been home, and brought 
 the articles. All orders executed with punctu- 
 ality and dispatch," he added, quoting his own 
 advertisement without thinking of it. 
 
 On this the swordmaker took out and ex- 
 hibited the Andrea Ferrara blade, which was 
 exactly like the Sword of Sharpness. 
 
 The upholsterer undid his parcel, and there 
 was a Persian rug, which no one could tell from 
 the magical carpet. 
 
 The hatter was fumbling with the string of 
 his parcel, when he suddenly remembered, what 
 the king in his astonishment had not noticed, 
 that he had a cap on himself. He pulled it off 
 in a hurry, and the king at once saw that it was
 
 140 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 his Wishing Cap, and understood all about the 
 affair. The hatter, in his absence, had tried on 
 the Wishing Cap, and had wished that he him- 
 self and his friends were all at home and back 
 again with their wares at the palace. And what 
 he wished happened, of course, as was natural. 
 
 In a moment the king saw how much talk 
 this business would produce in the country, and 
 he decided on the best way to stop it. 
 
 Seizing the Wishing Cap, he put it on, wished 
 all the tradesmen, including the shoemaker, 
 back in the town at their shops, and also 
 wished that none of them should remember 
 anything about the whole affair. 
 
 In a moment he was alone in the turret-room. 
 As for the shopkeepers, they had a kind of idea 
 that they had dreamed something odd ; but, as 
 it went no further, of course they did not talk 
 about it, and nobody was any the wiser. 
 
 " Owl that I am ! " said King Prigio to him- 
 self. " I might have better wished for a 
 complete set of sham 'fairy things which would 
 not work. It would have saved a great deal 
 of trouble ; but I am so much out of the habit 
 of using the cap, that I never thought of it. 
 However, what I have got will do very well." 
 
 Then, putting on the Cap of Darkness, that 
 nobody might see him, he carried all the real 
 fairy articles away, except the Seven-league 
 Boots, to his own room, where he locked them 
 up, leaving in their place the sham Wishing
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 Cap, the sham Cap of Darkness, the sham 
 Sword of Sharpness, and the carpet which was 
 not a magic carpet at all. 
 
 His idea was, of course, that Ricardo would 
 start on an expedition confiding in his fairy 
 things, and he would find that they did not act. 
 Then he would be left to his own cleverness 
 and courage to get him out of the scrape. 
 That would teach him, thought the king, to 
 depend on himself, and to set a proper value 
 on cleverness and learning, and minding his 
 book. 
 
 Of course he might have locked the things 
 up, and forbidden Ricardo to touch them, but 
 that might have seemed harsh. And, as you 
 may easily imagine, with all the powers at his 
 command, the king fancied he could easily 
 rescue Ricardo from any very serious danger 
 at the hands of giants or magicians or mon- 
 sters. He only wanted to give him a fright or 
 two, and make him respect the judgment of 
 older and wiser people than himself.
 
 142 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Two "Lectures. 
 
 *" O R several days Prince 
 Ricardo minded his books, 
 and, according to his tutors, made 
 considerable progress in polite learning. 
 Perhaps he ought not to be praised too 
 highly for this, because, in fact, he saw 
 no means of distinguishing himself by 
 adventures just at that time. Every 
 morning he would climb the turret 
 and sweep the horizon, 
 and even much beyond 
 the horizon, with the 
 ivory spy-glass. But look as 
 he would, he saw no monsters 
 preying on human - kind any 
 where, nor princesses in dis- 
 tress. To be sure he saw 
 plenty of poor people in distress, and, being 
 a good-hearted, though careless, lad, Dick 
 would occasionally fly off with the Purse of 
 Fortunatus in his pocket, and give them as 
 much money as they needed it cost him 
 nothing. But this was not the kind of adven-
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. , 143 
 
 ture which he enjoyed. Dragons for his 
 money ! 
 
 One day the Princess Jaqueline took a curious 
 plan of showing Ricardo how little interest, 
 after all, there is in performing the most won- 
 derful exploits without any real difficulty or 
 danger. They were drifting before a Ifght 
 breeze on a hill lake ; Ricardo was fishing, and 
 Jaqueline was sculling a stroke now and then, 
 just to keep the boat right with the wind. 
 Ricardo had very bad sport, when suddenly the 
 trout began to rise all over the lake. Dick got 
 excited, and stumbled about the boat from stern 
 to bow, tripping over Jaqueline's feet, and 
 nearly upsetting the vessel in his hurry to 
 throw his flies over every trout he saw feeding. 
 But, as too often occurs, they were taking one 
 particular fly which was on the water, and would 
 look at nothing else. 
 
 "Oh, bother them!" cried Ricardo. "I 
 can't find a fly in my book in the least like that 
 little black one they are feeding on !" 
 
 He tried half-a-dozen different fly -hooks, 
 but all to no purpose ; he lost his temper, 
 got his tackle entangled in Jaqueline's hair 
 and then in the landing - net ; and, though 
 such a big boy, he was nearly crying with 
 vexation. 
 
 The Princess Jaqueline, with great pains and 
 patience, disentangled the casting line, first from 
 her hair, which Ricardo was anxious to cut (the
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 145 
 
 great stupid oaf, her pretty hair !) then from 
 the landing-net; but Dick had grown sulky. 
 
 "It's no use," he said; "I have not a fly 
 that will suit. Let's go home," and he threw 
 a tin can at a rising trout. 
 
 " Now, Dick," said Jaqueline, " you know I 
 can help you. I did not learn magic for nothing. 
 Just you look the other way for a minute or two, 
 and you will find the right fly at the end of your 
 line." 
 
 Dick turned his head away (it is not proper 
 to look on at magical arts), and then in a 
 moment, saw the right hook on his cast ; 
 but Jaqueline was not in the boat. She had 
 turned herself into an artificial fly (a small 
 black gnat), and Dick might set to his sport 
 again. 
 
 " What a trump that girl is," he said aloud. 
 " Clever, too ! " and he began casting. He got 
 a trout every cast, great big ones, over a pound, 
 and soon he had a basketful. But he began to 
 feel rather bored. 
 
 "There's not much fun taking them," he 
 said, "when they are so silly." 
 
 At that very moment he noticed that the fly 
 was off his cast, and Jaqueline was sitting at 
 the oars. 
 
 " You see, Ricardo," she said, " I was right 
 after all. There is not much pleasure in 
 sport that is easy and certain. Now, apply 
 this moral to dragon - killing with magic in-
 
 146 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 struments. It may be useful when one is 
 obliged to defend oneself, but surely a prince 
 ought not to give his whole time to nothing 
 else!" 
 
 Dick had no answer ready, so he only 
 grumbled : 
 
 " You 're always preaching at me, Jack ; 
 everybody always is. I seem to have been born 
 just to be preached at." 
 
 Some people are ; and it does grow rather 
 tedious in the long run. But perhaps what 
 Jaqueline said may have made some impres- 
 sion on Ricardo, for he stuck to his books for 
 weeks, and was got into decimal fractions and 
 Euclid. 
 
 All this, of course, pleased the king very 
 much, and he began to entertain hopes of 
 Ricardo's becoming a wise and learned prince, 
 and a credit to his illustrious family. 
 
 Things were not always to go smoothly, far 
 from it ; and it was poor Jaqueline who fell into 
 trouble next. She had been very ready to 
 lecture Dick, as we saw, and took a good deal 
 of credit to herself for his steadiness. But 
 one day King Prigio happened to meet Jaque- 
 line's maid, Rosina, on the stairs; and as Rosina 
 was a pretty girl, and the king was always kind 
 to his dependents, he stopped to have a chat 
 with her. 
 
 "Why, Rosina, what a pretty little silver 
 cross you are wearing," he said, and he lifted a
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 1 47 
 
 curious ornament which hung from a chain on 
 Rosina's neck. It consisted of seven drops of 
 silver, set like this : 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 ooo 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 " May I look at it ?" his Majesty asked, and 
 Rosina, all in a flutter, took it off and gave it 
 to him. " H'm ! " said the king. " Very 
 curious and pretty ! May I ask you where 
 you got this, Rosina ? " 
 
 Now Rosina generally had her answer ready, 
 and I am very sorry to say that she did not 
 always speak the truth when she could think of 
 anything better. On this occasion she was 
 anxious to think of something better, for fear 
 of getting Jaqueline into a scrape about the 
 chemical experiment in her bedroom. But 
 Rosina was fluttered, as we said, by the royal 
 kindness, and she could think of nothing but 
 to curtsy, and say : 
 
 " Please, your Majesty, the princess gave me 
 the drops." 
 
 " Very interesting," said the king. " There 
 is a little white moon shining in each of them ! 
 I wonder if they shine in the dark ?" 
 
 He opened the door of a cupboard which had 
 no windows, where the housemaid kept her mops 
 and brooms, and shut himself in. Yes, there was
 
 "H'mf" said the king. "Very curious and pretty!"
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 149 
 
 no mistake ; the darkness was quite lighted up 
 with the sheen of the seven little moons in the 
 silver. The king looked rather grave. 
 
 " If you can trust me with this cross till to- 
 morrow, Rosina, I should like to have it ex- 
 amined and analysed. This is no common 
 silver." 
 
 Of course Rosina could only curtsy, but she 
 was very much alarmed about the consequences 
 to her mistress. 
 
 After luncheon, the king asked Jaqueline to 
 come into his study, as he often did, to help 
 him with his letters. When they had sat down, 
 his Majesty said : 
 
 " My dear Jaqueline, I never interfere with 
 your pursuits, but I almost doubt whether 
 Cornelius Agrippa is a good book for a very 
 young lady to read. The Fairy Paribanou, I 
 am sure, taught you nothing beyond the 
 ordinary magical accomplishments suited to 
 your rank ; but there are a great many things 
 in the Cornelius which I think you should 
 not study till you are older and wiser." 
 
 " What does your Majesty mean ? " said poor 
 Jaqueline, feeling very uncomfortable ; for the 
 king had never lectured her before. 
 
 " Why," said his Majesty, taking the silver 
 cross out of his pocket, " did you not give this to 
 Rosina ?" 
 
 " Yes, sire, I did give her the drops. She 
 had them made up herself."
 
 150 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 " Then give it back to her when you see her 
 next. I am glad you are frank, Jaqueline. 
 And you know, of course, that the drops are 
 not ordinary silver ? They are moon silver, 
 and that can only be got in one way, so far as 
 I know, at least when one spills the water 
 when he, or she, is drinking the moon. Now, 
 there is only one book which tells how that can 
 be done, and there is only one reason for doing 
 it ; namely, to find out what is some other 
 person's secret. I shall not ask you whose secret 
 you wanted to find out, but I must request you 
 never to do such a thing again without con- 
 sulting me. You can have no reason for it, 
 such as a great king might have whose 
 enemies are plotting against his country." 
 
 "Oh, sire, I will tell you everything!" cried 
 Jaqueline. 
 
 " No, don't ; I don't want to know. I am 
 sure you will make no use of your informa- 
 tion which you think I should not approve 
 of. But there is another thing that 
 eclipse of the moon ! Oh, Jaqueline, was 
 it honourable, or fair to the astronomers 
 and men of science, to say nothing about 
 it ? Their European reputations are seriously 
 injured." 
 
 Poor Jaqueline could only cry. 
 
 " Never mind," said his Majesty, comforting 
 her. " There is no great harm done yet, and 
 perhaps they would not believe you if you did
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 151 
 
 explain ; but just think, if some people ceased 
 to believe in Science, what would they have left 
 to believe in ? But you are young, of course, 
 and cannot be expected to think of every- 
 thing." 
 
 "I never thought about it at all," wept 
 Jaqueline. 
 
 " ' Evil is wrought by want of thought,' " 
 said the king, quoting the poet. " Now run 
 away, dry your tears, and I think you had 
 better bring me that book, and I '11 put it back 
 in one of the locked-up shelves. Later, when 
 you are older, we shall see about it." 
 
 The princess flew to her room, and returned 
 with her book. And the king kissed her, and 
 told her to go and see if her Majesty meant to 
 take a drive. 
 
 "I'll never deceive him again, never . . . 
 unless it is quite necessary," said the princess 
 to herself. " Indeed, it is not so easy to deceive 
 the king. What a lot he has read ! " 
 
 In fact, King Prigio had been very studious 
 when a young man, before he came to the 
 throne. 
 
 "Poor child!" thought the king. "No 
 doubt she was trying her fortune, wondering 
 if Ricardo cares for her a little. Of course 
 I could not let her tell me that, poor 
 child ! " 
 
 In this guess, as we know, his Majesty was 
 mistaken, which seldom happened to him.
 
 152 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 " I wonder who she is?" the king went on, 
 speaking to himself. "That great booby, 
 Ricardo, saved her from wild birds, which were 
 just going to eat her. She was fastened to a 
 mountain top, but where? that's the question. 
 Ricardo never has any notion of geography. It 
 was across the sea, he noticed that; but which 
 sea, Atlantic, Pacific, the Black Sea, the 
 Caspian, the Sea of Marmora, the Red Sea, the 
 Indian Ocean, the German Ocean, the Mediter- 
 ranean ? Her ornaments were very peculiar ; 
 there was a broad gold sun on her breast. 
 I must look at them again some day. She 
 said she was being sacrificed to wild birds 
 (which her people worshipped), because there 
 was some famine, or war, or trouble in the 
 country. She said she was a Daughter of the 
 
 Sun ; but that, of course, is absurd, unless 
 
 By Jove ! I believe I have it," said the king, 
 and he went into the royal library and was 
 looking for some old Spanish book, when his 
 secretary came and said that the Russian 
 Ambassador was waiting for an interview with 
 his Majesty. 
 
 "Dismal old Muscovite!" sighed the king. 
 "A monarch has not a moment to himself for 
 his private studies. Ah, Prigio ! why wert thou 
 not born to a private station ? But Duty before 
 everything," and wreathing his royal counte- 
 nance in smiles, his Majesty prepared to give 
 Count Snoreonski an audience.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 153 
 
 It was all about the attitude of Pantouflia in 
 the event of a Polish invasion of Russia. The 
 king reassured Count Snoreonski, affirming that 
 Pantouflia, while deeply regretting the disturbed 
 relations between two States in whose welfare 
 she was deeply interested, would ever preserve 
 an attitude of benevolent neutrality, unless her 
 own interests were threatened. 
 
 " I may give your message to my august 
 mistress, the Czarina ? " said the ambas- 
 sador. 
 
 " By all means, adding an expression of my 
 tender interest in her Majesty's health and wel- 
 fare," said the king, presenting the count at the 
 same time with a magnificent diamond snuffbox 
 containing his portrait. 
 
 The old count was affected to tears, and 
 withdrew, while King Prigio said : 
 
 " I have not lost a day ;' I have made an 
 amiable but very stupid man happy." 
 
 Such are, or rather such were, the toils of 
 monarchs !
 
 154 
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 prince Ricardo Crosses the ^atb of 
 
 *-- >- -^ SAY, Jack," said Prince 
 Ricardo one morning, "here's 
 a queer letter for me ! " 
 
 King Prigio had gone to a 
 distant part of his domin- 
 ions, on business of impor- 
 tance, and the young people 
 were sitting in the royal study. 
 The letter, which 
 Ricardo handed to 
 Jaqueline, was writ- 
 ten on a great broad 
 sheet of paper, folded 
 up without any en- 
 velope, as was the 
 custom then, and was 
 sealed with a huge seal in 
 red wax. 
 
 I don't know the arms," Ricardo 
 said. 
 
 " Oh, Ricardo, how you do neglect your 
 Heraldry ! Old Green Stocking is in despair 
 over your ignorance."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 155 
 
 Now Green Stocking was the chief herald of 
 Pantouflia, just like Blue Mantle in England. 
 
 " Why, these are the Royal Arms of England, 
 you great ignorant Dick ! " 
 
 " But Rome isn't in England, is it ? and 
 the post-mark is 'Roma': that's Rome in 
 some lingo, I expect. It is in Latin, anyhow, 
 I know. Mortuns est Romce 'He died at 
 Rome.' It's in the Latin Grammar. Let's 
 see what the fellow says, anyhow," added 
 Ricardo, breaking the seal. 
 
 " He begins, ' Prins and dear Cousin ! ' I 
 say, Jaqueline, he spells it ' Prins ; ' now it is 
 P-R-I-N-C-E. He must be an ignorant fellow ! " 
 
 " People in glass houses should not throw 
 stones, Dick," said Jaqueline. 
 
 " He signs himself ' Charles, P. W.,' " said 
 Ricardo, looking at the end. " Who on earth 
 can he be ? Why does he not put ' P. W. 
 Charles,' if these are his initials ? Look here, 
 it's rather a long letter; you might read it to 
 us, Jack!" 
 
 The princess took the epistle and began : 
 
 "How nice it smells, all scented ! The paper 
 is gilt-edged, too." 
 
 "Luxurious beggar, whoever he is," said 
 Ricardo. 
 
 " Well, he says : ' Prins and dear Cousin, 
 You and me ' (oh, what grammar !) ' are much 
 the same age, I being fifteen next birthday, and 
 we should be better ackwainted. All the wurld
 
 156 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 has herd of the fame of Prins Ricardo, whose 
 name is feerd, and his sord dreded, wherever 
 there are Monsters and Tirants. Prins, you 
 may be less well informed about my situation. 
 I have not killed any Dragguns, there being nun 
 of them here ; but I have been under fiar, at 
 Gaeta.' Where's Gaeta, Dick ? " 
 
 " Never heard of it," said Ricardo. 
 
 " Well, it is in Italy, and it was besieged 
 lately. He goes on : ' and I am told that I did 
 not misbehave myself, nor disgrace the blud of 
 Bruce.' " 
 
 "I've heard of Robert Bruce," said Dick; 
 " he was the man who did not kill the spider, 
 but he cracked the head of Sir Harry Bohun 
 with one whack of his axe. I remember him 
 well enough." 
 
 " Well, your correspondent seems to be a 
 descendant of his." 
 
 "That's getting more interesting," said 
 Dick. " I wish my father would go to war 
 with somebody. With the Sword of Sharpness 
 I'd make the enemy whistle ! Drive on, Jack." 
 
 '"As a prins in distress, I apeal to your 
 valler, so renouned in Europe. I am kept out 
 of my own ; my royal father, King Gems,' 
 well, this is the worst spelling I ever saw in my 
 life ! He means King James, ' my royal 
 father, King Gems, being druv into exile by a 
 crewl Usurper, the Elector of Hannover. 
 King Gems is old, and likes a quiat life ; but I
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 157 
 
 am determined to make an effort, if I go alone, 
 and Europe shall here of Prince Charles. 
 Having heard as who has not ? of your royal 
 Highness's courage and sordsmanship, I throw 
 myself at your feet, and implore you to asist 
 a prins in distres. Let our sords be drawn 
 together in the caus of freedom and an out- 
 raged country, my own. 
 " ' I remain, 
 
 " ' Prins and dear Cuzen, 
 
 " ' CHARLES, P. W.' 
 
 " P. W. means Prince of Wales," added 
 Jaqueline. " He is turned out of England, you 
 know, and lives at Rome with his father." 
 
 " I like that chap," said Prince Ricardo. 
 " He does not spell very well, as you say, but 
 I sometimes make mistakes myself; and I 
 like his spirit. I've been looking out for an 
 adventure; but the big game is getting shy, 
 and my sword rusts in his scabbard. I'll tell 
 you what, Jack I 've an idea ! I '11 put him on 
 the throne of his fathers; it's as easy as 
 shelling peas : and as for that other fellow, the 
 Elector, I'll send him back to Hanover, 
 wherever that may be, and he can go on 
 electing, and polling his vote in peace and 
 quietness, at home. Just wait till I spot the 
 places." 
 
 The prince ran up to the turret, fetched the 
 magic spy-glass, and looked up London, Rome, 
 and Hanover, as you would in a map.
 
 158 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 " Well, Dick, but how do you mean to 
 do it?" 
 
 " Do it ? nothing simpler ! I just take my 
 Seven-league Boots, run over to Rome, pick up 
 Prince Charles, put him on the magic carpet, 
 fly to London, clap the Cap of Darkness on 
 him so that nobody can see him, set him 
 clown on the throne of his fathers ; pick 
 up the Elector, carry him over to his beloved 
 Hanover, and the trick is done what they 
 call a bloodless revolution in the history 
 books." 
 
 " But if the English don't like Prince 
 Charles when they get him ? " 
 
 "Like him? they're sure to like him, a 
 young fellow like that ! Besides, I '11 take the 
 sword with me in case of accidents." 
 
 " But, Dick, it is your father's rule that you 
 are never to meddle in the affairs of other 
 countries, and never to start on an expedition 
 when he is not at home." 
 
 "Oh, he won't mind this time! There's 
 no kind of danger ; and I 'm sure he will 
 approve of the principle of the thing. Kings 
 must stick up for each other. Why, some 
 electing characters might come here and kick 
 us out ! " 
 
 " Your father is not the sort of king who is 
 kicked out," said Jaqueline. 
 
 But there was no use in talking to Dick. 
 He made his simple preparations, and an-
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 159 
 
 nounced that he would be back in time for 
 luncheon. 
 
 What was poor Jaqueline to do ? 
 
 She was extremely anxious. She knew, as 
 we saw, what King Prigio had intended about 
 changing the fairy things for others that would 
 not work. She was certain Dick would get 
 himself into a scrape ; how was she to help 
 him ? She made up her mind quickly, while 
 Dick was putting his things together. She 
 told the queen (it was the nearest to the truth 
 she could think of) that she "was going for a 
 turn with Dick." Then she changed herself into 
 a mosquito a kind of gnat that bites and 
 hid herself under a fold of Dick's coat. Of 
 course he knew nothing about her being there. 
 Then he started off in his Seven-league Boots, 
 and before you could say " Jack Robinson " 
 he was in Rome, in the grounds of a splendid 
 palace called the Villa Borghese. 
 
 There he saw an elderly gentleman, in a great 
 curled wig, sound asleep on a seat beneath a 
 tree. The old gentleman had a long, pale, 
 melancholy face, and across his breast was a 
 broad blue ribbon with a star. Ah ! how 
 changed was King James from the handsome 
 Prince who had loved fair Beatrix Esmond, 
 thirty years ago ! Near him were two 
 boys, not quite so old as Prince Ricardo. 
 The younger was a pretty dark boy, with a 
 funny little roundabout white wig. He was
 
 160 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 splendidly dressed in a light-blue silk coat ; a 
 delicate little lace scarf was tied round his neck ; 
 he had lace ruffles falling about his little ringed 
 hands ; he had a pretty sword, with a gold 
 handle set with diamonds in fact, he was the 
 picture of a little dandy. The other lad had a 
 broad Scotch bonnet on, and no wig ; beautiful 
 silky yellow locks fell about his shoulders. He 
 had laid his sword on the grass. He was 
 dressed in tartan, which Ricardo had never 
 seen before ; and he wore a kilt, which was also 
 new to Ricardo, who wondered at his bare legs 
 for he was wearing shoes with no stockings. 
 In his hand he held a curious club, with a long, 
 slim handle, and a head made heavy with lead, 
 and defended with horn. With this he was 
 aiming at a little white ball ; and suddenly he 
 swung up the club and sent the ball out of 
 sight in the air, over several trees. 
 
 Prince Ricardo stepped up to this boy, took 
 off his cap, and said : 
 
 " I think I have the honour of addressing 
 the Prince of Wales?" 
 
 Prince Charles started at the sight of a 
 gentleman in long riding-boots, girt with a 
 broadsword, which was not then generally 
 worn, and carrying a Persian rug under his 
 arm. 
 
 "That is what I am called, sir," he said, 
 " by those who give me the title which is 
 mine by right. May I inquire the reason
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 161 
 
 which offers me the pleasure of this unexpected 
 interview ?" 
 
 " Oh, I 'm Ricardo of Pantouflia ! " says Dick. 
 " I had a letter from you this morning, and I 
 believe you wanted to see me." 
 
 " From Pantouflia, sir," said Prince Charles ; 
 " why, that is hundreds of leagues away ! " 
 
 "It is a good distance," said Dick; "but a 
 mere step when you wear Seven-league Boots, 
 like mine." 
 
 " My dear prince," said Charles, throwing 
 himself into his arms with rapture, and kissing 
 him in the Italian fashion, which Dick did not 
 half like, "you are, indeed, worthy of your 
 reputation ; and these are the celebrated Seven- 
 league Boots ? Harry," he cried to his brother, 
 " come here at once and let me present you to 
 his Royal Highness, our illustrious ally, Prince 
 Ricardo of Pantouflia. The Duke of York 
 Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia. Gentlemen, 
 know each other!" 
 
 The prince bowed in the most stately manner. 
 
 " I say," said Dick, who was seldom at all 
 up to the standard of royal conversation, 
 "what's that game you were playing? It's 
 new to me. You sent the ball a tremendous 
 long shot." 
 
 " The game is called golf, and is the favourite 
 pastime of my loyal Scottish subjects," said 
 Prince Charles. " For that reason, that I may 
 be able to share the amusements of my people,
 
 1 62 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 whom I soon hope to lead to a glorious victory, 
 followed by a peaceful and prosperous reign, I 
 am acquiring a difficult art. I'm practising 
 walking without stockings, too, to harden my 
 feet," he said, in a more familiar tone of voice. 
 " I fancy there are plenty of long marches 
 before me, and I would not be a spear's length 
 behind the hardiest Highlander." 
 
 " By Jove ! I respect you," said Dick, 
 with the greatest sincerity ; " but I don't 
 think, with me on your side, you will need 
 to make many marches. It will all be plain 
 sailing." 
 
 " Pray explain your plan," said Prince 
 Charles. " The task of conquering back the 
 throne of my fathers is not so simple as you 
 seem to suppose." 
 
 "I've done a good many difficult things," 
 said Dick, modestly. 
 
 "The conqueror of the magician, Gorgon- 
 zola, and the Giant Who never Knew when 
 he had Enough, need not tell me that," 
 said Prince Charles, with a courteous allusion 
 to two of Ricardo's most prodigious adven- 
 tures. 
 
 " Oh ! I've very little to be proud of, really," 
 said Dick, blushing ; " anyone could do as 
 much with my fairy things, of which, no doubt, 
 you have heard. With a Sword of Sharpness 
 and a Cap of Darkness, and so forth, you have 
 a great pull over almost anything."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 163 
 
 "And you really possess those talismans?" 
 said the prince. 
 
 " Certainly I do. You see how short a 
 time I took in coming to your call from 
 Pantouflia." 
 
 "And has Holy Church," asked the Duke of 
 York, with anxiety, " given her sanction and 
 her blessing to those instruments of an art, 
 usually, in her wisdom, forbidden ? " 
 
 "Oh, never mind Holy Church, Harry!" 
 said Prince Charles. " This is business. Besides, 
 the English are Protestants." 
 
 " I pray for their conversion daily," said the 
 Duke of York. 
 
 " The end justifies the means, you know," 
 answered Prince Charles. "All's fair in love 
 and war." 
 
 " I should think so," said Ricardo, "especially 
 against those brutes of Electors ; they give 
 trouble at home sometimes." 
 
 "You, too, are plagued with an Elector?" 
 asked Prince Charles. 
 
 "An Elector? thousands of them ! " answered 
 Dick, who never could understand anything 
 about politics. 
 
 Prince Charles looked puzzled, but requested 
 Dick to explain his great plan. 
 
 They sat down on the grass, and Ricardo 
 showed them how he meant to manage it, just 
 as he had told Jaqueline. As he said, nothing 
 could be simpler.
 
 164 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 " Let's start at once," he said, and, inducing 
 Prince Charles to sit down on the magic 
 carpet, he cried : 
 
 " England ! St. James's Palace ! " 
 
 But nothing happened ! 
 
 The carpet was not the right magic carpet, but 
 the one which King Prigio had put in its place. 
 
 " Get on ! England, I said ! " cried Dick. 
 
 But there they remained, under the chestnut 
 tree, sitting on the carpet above the flowery 
 grass. 
 
 Prince Charles leaped to his feet ; his face 
 like fire, his eyes glowing. 
 
 " Enough of this fooling, sir ! " he said. " It 
 is easy, but cowardly, to mock at an unfortunate 
 prince. Take your carpet and be off with you, 
 out of the gardens, or your shoulders shall 
 taste my club." 
 
 " There has been some mistake," Ricardo 
 said ; " the wrong carpet has been brought 
 by accident, or the carpet has lost its power." 
 
 " In this sacred city, blessed by the presence 
 of his Holiness the Pope, and the relics of so 
 many martyrs and saints, magic may well cease 
 to be potent," said the Duke of York. 
 
 " Nonsense ! You are an impostor, sir ! 
 Leave my presence!" cried Prince Charles, 
 lifting his golf-club. 
 
 Dick caught it out of his hand, and broke 
 across his knee as fine a driver as ever came 
 from Robertson's shop at St. Andrew's.
 
 1 66 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 "The quarrels of princes are not settled 
 with clubs, sir ! Draw and defend yourself!" 
 he said, kicking off his boots and standing in 
 his socks on the grass. 
 
 Think of the horror of poor Jaqueline, who 
 witnessed this terrible scene of passion from a 
 fold in Prince Ricardo's dress ! What could 
 the girl do to save the life of two princes, 
 the hopes of one nation, and of a respectable 
 minority in another ? 
 
 In a moment Prince Charles's rapier was 
 shining in the sunlight, and he fell on guard in 
 the most elegant attitude, his left hand grace- 
 fully raised and curved. 
 
 Dick drew his sword, but, as suddenly, threw 
 it down again. 
 
 " Hang it ! " he exclaimed, " I can't hit you 
 with this ! This is the Sword of Sharpness ; 
 it would cut through your steel and your neck 
 at a touch." 
 
 He paused, and thought. 
 
 " Let me beseech your Royal Highness," he 
 said to the Duke of York, who was in a terrible 
 taking, " to lend your blade to a hand not less 
 royal than your own." 
 
 " Give him it, Hal ! " said Prince Charles, 
 who was standing with the point of his sword 
 on the ground, and the blade bent. " He 
 seems to believe in his own nonsense." 
 
 The duke yielded his sword ; Dick took it, 
 made a nourish, and rushed at Prince Charles.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 167 
 
 Now Ricardo had always neglected his fenc- 
 ing lessons. " Where's the good of it," he 
 used to ask, " all that stamping, and posture- 
 making, and ha-haing? The Sword of Sharp- 
 ness is enough for me." 
 
 But now he could not, in honour, use the 
 Sword of Sharpness ; so on he came, waving 
 the rapier like a claymore, and made a slice at 
 Prince Charles's head. 
 
 The prince, very much surprised, parried in 
 prime, riposted, and touched Dick on the hand. 
 
 At this moment the Princess Jaqueline did 
 what she should have thought of sooner. She 
 flew out of Dick's coat, and stung old King 
 James on his royal nose. The king wakened, 
 nearly crushed the princess (so dangerous is 
 the practice of magic to the artist), and then 
 leaped up, and saw Dick's blade flying through 
 the air, glittering in the sun. The prince had 
 disarmed him. 
 
 " Hullo ! what 's all this ? A moi, mes gardes ! " 
 cried the old king, in French and English ; and 
 then he ran up, just in time to hear Prince 
 Charles say : 
 
 " Sir, take your life ! I cannot strike an 
 unarmed man. A prince you may be, but you 
 have not learned the exercises of gentlemen." 
 
 "What is all this, Carluccio?" asked the 
 old king. " Swords out ! brawling in my very 
 presence ! blood drawn ! " for Dick's hand was 
 bleeding a good deal.
 
 1 68 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 Prince Charles, as briefly as possible, ex- 
 plained the unusual nature of the circumstances. 
 
 " A king must hear both sides," said King 
 James. " What reply have you, sir, to make 
 to his Royal Highness's statements?" 
 
 " The carpet would not work, sir," said Dick. 
 " It never happened before. Had I used my 
 own sword," and he explained its properties, 
 " the Prince of Wales would not be alive to 
 tell his story. I can say no more, beyond 
 offering my apology for a disappointment which 
 I could not have foreseen. A gentleman can 
 only say that he is sorry. But wait ! " he 
 added ; " I can at least prove that my confi- 
 dence in some of my resources is not misplaced. 
 Bid me bring you something anything from 
 the ends of the earth, and it shall be in your 
 hands. I can't say fairer." 
 
 King James reflected, while Prince Ricardo 
 was pulling on the Seven-league Boots, which 
 he had kicked off to fight more freely, and 
 while the Duke of York bandaged Dick's hand 
 with a kerchief. 
 
 " Bring me," said his Majesty, " Lord Lovat's 
 snuff-mull." 
 
 " Where does he live ? " said Dick. 
 
 " At Gortuleg, in Scotland," answered King 
 James. 
 
 Dick was out of sight before the words were 
 fairly spoken, and in ten minutes was back, 
 bearing a large ram's-horn snuff-box, with a
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 169 
 
 big cairngorm set in the top, and the Frazer 
 arms. 
 
 " Most astonishing ! " said King James. 
 
 " A miracle ! " said the Duke of York. 
 
 " You have entirely cleared your character," 
 said the king. "Your honour is without a 
 stain, though it is a pity about the carpet. 
 Your nobility in not using your magical sword, 
 under the greatest provocation, reconciles me 
 to this fresh blighting of my hopes. All my 
 allies fail me," said the poor king with a sigh ; 
 "you alone have failed with honour. Carluccio, 
 embrace the prince ! " 
 
 They fell into each other's arms. 
 
 " Prince," said Dick, " you have taught me 
 a lesson for which I shall not be ungrateful. 
 With any blade a gentleman should be able to 
 hold his own in fair fight. I shall no longer 
 neglect my fencing lessons." 
 
 " With any blade," said Prince Charles, " I 
 shall be happy to find Prince Ricardo by my 
 side in a stricken field. We shall not part till 
 I have induced you to accept a sword which I 
 can never hope to draw against another adver- 
 sary so noble. In war, my weapon is the 
 claymore." 
 
 Here the prince offered to Ricardo the ruby- 
 studded hilt of his rapier, which had a beautiful 
 white shark-skin sheath. 
 
 " You must accept it, sir," said King James ; 
 " the hilt holds the rubies of John Sobieski." 
 12
 
 170 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 " Thank you, prince," said Ricardo, " for 
 the weapon, which I shall learn to wield ; and 
 I entreat you to honour me by receiving this 
 fairy gift which you do not need a ring 
 which makes all men faithful to the wearer." 
 
 The Prince of Wales bowed, and placed the 
 talisman on his finger. 
 
 Ricardo then, after a few words of courtesy 
 on both parts, picked up his useless carpet, 
 took his farewell of the royal party, and, with 
 Jaqueline still hidden under his collar, returned 
 at full speed, but with a heavy heart, to Pantou- 
 flia, where the palace gong was just sounding 
 for luncheon. 
 
 Ricardo never interfered in foreign affairs 
 again, but his ring proved very useful to Prince 
 Charles, as you may have read in history.
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ricardo's Repentance. 
 
 I E queen, as it 
 happened fortuna- 
 tely, was lunching 
 with one of the 
 ladies of her Court. 
 Ricardo did not 
 come down to 
 luncheon, and Jaq- 
 ueline ate hers 
 alone; and very 
 mournful she felt. 
 The prince had 
 certainly not come 
 well out of the adventure. He had failed (as 
 all attempts to restore the Stuarts always 
 did) ; he had been wounded, though he had 
 never received a scratch in any of his earlier 
 exploits ; and if his honour was safe, and 
 his good intentions fully understood, that was 
 chiefly due to Jaqueline, and to the generosity 
 of King James and Prince Charles. 
 
 "I wonder what he's doing?" she said to 
 12*
 
 172 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 herself, and at last she went up and knocked at 
 Ricardo's door. 
 
 " Go away," he said ; " I don't want to see 
 anybody. Who is it ? " 
 
 " It's only me Jaqueline." 
 
 " Go away! I want nobody." 
 
 " Do let me in, dear Dick ; I have good news 
 for you," said the princess. 
 
 " What is it ? " said Ricardo, unlocking the 
 door. " Why do you bother a fellow so ? " 
 
 He had been crying his hand obviously hurt 
 him badly ; he looked, and indeed he was, very 
 sulky. 
 
 " How did you get on in England, Dick?' 
 asked the princess, taking no notice of his 
 bandaged hand. 
 
 " Oh, don't ask me ! " said Ricardo. " I 've 
 not been to England at all." 
 
 " Why, what happened ?" 
 
 " Everything that is horrid happened," said 
 Dick ; and then, unable to keep it any longer to 
 himself, he said: "I've failed to keep my 
 promise ; I 've been insulted, I 've been beaten 
 by a fellow younger than myself; and, oh ! how 
 my hand does hurt, and I 've got such a head- 
 ache ! And what am I to say to my mother 
 when she asks why my arm is in a sling ? and 
 what will my father say ? I'm quite broken 
 down and desperate. I think I '11 run away to 
 sea;" and indeed he looked very wild and 
 miserable.
 
 174 PRINCE RICAKDO. 
 
 " Tell me how it all happened, Dick," 
 said the princess ; " I 'm sure it 's not so 
 bad as you make out. Perhaps I can help 
 you." 
 
 " How can a girl help a man?" cried Dick, 
 angrily ; and poor Jaqueline, remembering how 
 she had helped him, at the risk of her own life, 
 when King James nearly crushed her in the 
 shape of a mosquito, turned her head away, and 
 cried silently. 
 
 " I'm a beast," said Dick. " I beg your par- 
 don, Jack dear. You are always a trump, I 
 will say ; but I don't see what you can do." 
 
 Then he told her all the story (which, of 
 course, she knew perfectly well already), except 
 the part played by the mosquito, of which he 
 could not be aware. 
 
 " I was sure it was not so bad as you made it 
 out, Dick," she said. "You see, the old king, 
 who is not very wise, but is a perfectly honour- 
 able gentleman, gave you the highest praise." 
 
 She thought of lecturing him a little about 
 disobeying his father, but it did not seem a good 
 opportunity. Besides, Jaqueline had been 
 lectured herself lately, and had not enjoyed 
 it. 
 
 " What am I to say to my mother ? " Dick 
 repeated. 
 
 " We must think of something to say," said 
 Jaqueline. 
 
 " I can't tell my mother anything but the
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 175 
 
 truth," Ricardo went on. " Here 's my hand, 
 how it does sting ! and she must find out." 
 
 " I think I can cure it," said Jaqueline. 
 " Didn't you say Prince Charles gave you his 
 own sword ? " 
 
 " Yes, there it is ; but what has that to do 
 with it ? " 
 
 " Everything in the world to do with it, my 
 dear Dick. How lucky it is that he gave it to 
 you ! " 
 
 And she ran to her own room, and brought 
 a beautiful, golden casket, which contained her 
 medicines. 
 
 Taking out a small phial, marked (in letters 
 of emerald) : 
 
 " WEAPON SALVE," 
 
 the princess drew the bright sword, extracted a 
 little of the ointment from the phial, and spread 
 it on a soft silk handkerchief. 
 
 " What are you going to do with the sword ? " 
 asked Ricardo. 
 
 " Polish it a little," said Jaqueline, smiling, 
 and she began gently to rub, with the salve, the 
 point of the rapier. 
 
 As she did so, Ricardo's arm ceased to hurt, 
 and the look of pain passed from his mouth. 
 
 " Why, I feel quite better ! " he said. " I 
 can use my hand as well as ever." 
 
 Then he took off the stained handkerchief, 
 and, lo, there was not even a mark where the
 
 176 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 wound had been ! For this was the famous 
 Weapon Salve which you may read about in 
 Sir Kenelm Digby, and which the Lady of 
 Branxholme used, in The Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel. But the secret of making it has long 
 been lost, except in Pantouflia. 
 
 " You are the best girl in the world, Jaque- 
 line," said Ricardo. " You may give me a kiss 
 if you like ; and I won't call you ' Jack,' or 
 laugh at you for reading books, any more. 
 There's something in books after all." 
 
 The princess did not take advantage of Dick's 
 permission, but advised him to lie down and 
 try to sleep. 
 
 " I say, though," he said, " what about my 
 father?" 
 
 " The king need never be told anything about 
 it," said Jaqueline, "need he?" 
 
 " Oh, that won't do ! I tell my father every- 
 thing ; but then, I never had anything like this 
 to tell him before. Don't you think, Jaqueline, 
 you might break it to him ? He's very fond of 
 you. Just tell him what I told you; it's every 
 word of it true, and he ought to know. He 
 might see something about it in the Mercure de 
 France." 
 
 This was the newspaper of the period. 
 
 " I don't think it will get into the papers," 
 said Jaqueline, smiling. " Nobody could tell, 
 except the king and the princes, and they have 
 reasons for keeping it to themselves."
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 177 
 
 " I don't trust that younger one," said Dick, 
 moodily ; " I don't care for that young man. 
 Anyway, my father must be told ; and, if you 
 won't, I must." 
 
 " Well, I '11 tell him," said Jaqueline. "And 
 now lie down till evening." 
 
 After dinner, in the conservatory, Jaqueline 
 told King Prigio all about it. 
 
 His Majesty was very much moved. 
 
 " What extraordinary bad luck that family 
 has ! " he thought. " If I had not changed the 
 rug, the merest accident, Prince Charles would 
 have dined at St. James's to-night, and King 
 George in Hanover. It was the very nearest 
 thing ! " 
 
 " This meddling with practical affairs will 
 never do," he said aloud. 
 
 " Dick has had a lesson, sire," said the 
 princess. " He says he'll never mix himself 
 up with politics again, whatever happens. And 
 he says he means to study all about them, for 
 he feels frightfully ignorant, and, above all, he 
 means to practise his fencing." 
 
 These remarks were. not part of the conver- 
 sation between Ricardo and Jaqueline, but she 
 considered that Dick meant all this, and, really, 
 he did. 
 
 " That is well, as far as it goes," said the 
 king. " But, Jaqueline, about that mosquito ? " 
 for she had told him this part of the adventure. 
 " That was a very convenient mosquito, though
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 I don't know how Dick was able to observe it 
 from any distance. I see your hand in that, my 
 dear, and I am glad you can make such kind 
 and wise use of the lessons of the good Fairy 
 Paribanou. Jaqueline," he added solemnly, 
 laying his hand on her head, " you have saved 
 the honour of Pantouflia, which is dearer to 
 me than life. Without your help, I tremble 
 to think what might have occurred." 
 
 The princess blushed very much, and felt very 
 happy. 
 
 " Now run away to the queen, my dear," said 
 his Majesty, " I want to think things over." 
 
 He did think them over, and the more he 
 thought the more he felt the inconvenience 
 attending the possession of fairy things. 
 
 " An eclipse one day, as nearly as possible a 
 revolution soon after ! " he said to himself. " But 
 for Jaqueline, Ricardo's conduct would have 
 been blazed abroad, England would have been 
 irritated. It is true she cannot get at Pantouflia 
 very easily ; we have no sea-coast, and we are 
 surrounded by friendly countries. But it would 
 have been a ticklish and discreditable position. 
 I must really speak to Dick," which he did next 
 morning after breakfast. 
 
 " You have broken my rules, Ricardo," he 
 said. " True, there is no great harm done, and 
 you have confessed frankly ; but how am I to 
 trust you any longer ? " 
 
 " I '11 give you my sacred word of honour,
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 179 
 
 father, that I'll never meddle with politics 
 again, or start on an expedition, without telling 
 you. I have had enough of it. And I '11 turn 
 over a new leaf. I've learned to be ashamed 
 of my ignorance ; and I 've sent for Franca- 
 lanza, and I '11 fence every day, and read like 
 anything." 
 
 " Very good," said the king. " I believe you 
 mean what you say. Now go to your fencing 
 lesson." 
 
 " But, I say, father," cried Ricardo, " was it 
 not strange about the magic carpet ?" 
 
 " I told you not to trust to these things," said 
 the king. " Some enchanter may have deprived 
 it of its power, it may be worn out, someone 
 may have substituted a common Persian rug ; 
 anything may happen. You must learn to 
 depend on yourself. Now, be off with you, I 'm 
 busy. And remember, you don't stir without 
 my permission." 
 
 The prince ran off, and presently the sounds 
 of stamping feet and "un, deux; doublez, degagez, 
 vite ; contre de carte," and so forth, might be 
 heard over a great part of the royal establish- 
 ment.
 
 i8o 
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 prince Ricardo and an tfld 'Snemy. 
 
 HERE is 
 one brute 
 I wish I could get 
 upsides with," said 
 Ricardo, at break- 
 fast one morning, 
 his mouth full of 
 sardine. 
 
 "Really, 
 Ricardo, your 
 language is 
 most u n - 
 p r i nc e 1 y," 
 said his august 
 father; "I am 
 always noticing it. 
 You mean, I suppose, that there is one enemy 
 of the human race whom you wish to abolish. 
 What is the name of the doomed foe ? " 
 
 "Well, he is the greatest villain in history," 
 said Ricardo. "You must have read about 
 him, sir, the Yellow Dwarf." 
 
 " Yes, I have certainly studied what is told
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. l8l 
 
 us about him," said the king. " He is no 
 favourite of mine." 
 
 " He is the only one, if you notice, sir, of all 
 the scoundrels about whom our ancestors 
 inform us, who escaped the doom which he 
 richly merited at the sword of a good knight." 
 
 You may here remark that, since Dick took 
 to his studies, he could speak, when he chose, 
 like a printed book, which was by no means 
 the case before. 
 
 "If you remember, sir, he polished off I 
 mean, he slew the King of the Golden Mines 
 and the beautiful, though frivolous, Princess 
 Frutilla. All that the friendly Mermaid could 
 do for them was to turn them into a pair of 
 beautiful trees which intertwine their branches. 
 Not much use in that, sir ! And nothing was 
 done to the scoundrel. He may be going on 
 still ; and, with your leave, I '11 go and try a 
 sword-thrust with him. Francalanza says I'm 
 improving uncommon." 
 
 " You'll take the usual Sword of Sharpness," 
 said his Majesty. 
 
 " What, sir, to a dwarf ? Not I, indeed: a 
 common small sword is good enough to settle 
 him." 
 
 " They say he is very cunning of fence," said 
 the king ; " and besides, I have heard some- 
 thing of a diamond sword that he stole from 
 the King of the Golden Mines." 
 
 "Very likely he has lost it or sold it, the
 
 1 82 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 shabby little miscreant ; however, I '11 risk it. 
 And now I must make my preparations." 
 
 The king did not ask what they were ; as a 
 rule, they were simple. But, being in the shop 
 of the optician that day, standing with his back 
 to the door, he heard Dick come in and order 
 a pair of rose-coloured spectacles, with which 
 he was at once provided. The people of Pan- 
 touflia were accustomed to wear them, saying 
 that they improved the complexions of ladies 
 whom they met, and added cheerfulness to 
 things in general. 
 
 "Just plain rose-coloured glass, Herr Spex," 
 said Dick, "I'm not short-sighted." 
 
 " The boy is beginning to show some sense," 
 said the king to himself, knowing the nature 
 and the difficulties of the expedition. 
 
 Ricardo did not disguise his intention of 
 taking with him a Dandie Dinmont terrier, 
 named Pepper, and the king, who understood 
 the motive of this precaution, silently approved. 
 
 " The lad has come to some purpose and 
 forethought," the king said, and he gladly 
 advanced a considerable sum for the purchase 
 of crocodiles' eggs, which can rarely be got 
 quite fresh. When Jaqueline had made the 
 crocodiles' eggs, with millet-seed and sugar- 
 candy, into a cake for the Dwarf's lions, Ricardo 
 announced that his preparations were com- 
 plete. 
 
 Not to be the mere slave of custom, he made
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 185 
 
 Yellow. He knew that this showed the neigh- 
 bourhood of Jaunia, or Daunia, the country 
 of the Yellow Dwarf. He therefore drew bridle, 
 placed his rose-coloured spectacles on his 
 nose, and put spurs to his horse, for the yellow 
 light of Jaunia makes people melancholy and 
 cowardly. As he pricked on, his horse stumbled 
 and nearly came on its nose. The prince 
 noticed that a steel chain had been drawn across 
 the road. 
 
 "What caitiff has dared!" he exclaimed, 
 when his hat was knocked off by a well-aimed 
 orange from a neighbouring orange-tree, and a 
 vulgar voice squeaked : 
 
 "Hi, Blinkers!" 
 
 There was the Yellow Dwarf, an odious little 
 figure, sitting sucking an orange in the tree, 
 swinging his wooden shoes, and grinning all 
 over his wrinkled face. 
 
 " Well, young Blinkers ! " said the Dwarf, 
 " what are you doing on my grounds ? You're 
 a prince, by your look. Yah ! down with kings ! 
 I 'm a man of the people ! " 
 
 "You're a dwarf of the worst description, 
 that's what you are," said Ricardo ; "and let 
 me catch you, and I '11 flog the life out of you 
 with my riding-whip !" 
 
 The very face of the Dwarf, even seen 
 through rose-coloured spectacles, made him 
 nearly ill. 
 
 " Yes, when you can catch me," said the Dwarf; 
 13
 
 1 86 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 "but that's not to-day, nor yet to-morrow. 
 What are you doing here ? Are you an am- 
 bassador, maybe come to propose a match for 
 me? I'm not proud, I'll hear you. They say 
 there's a rather well-looking wench in your 
 parts, the Princess Jaqueline " 
 
 " Mention that lady's name, you villain," cried 
 Dick, "and I '11 cut down your orange-tree!" 
 and he wished he had brought the Sword of 
 Sharpness, for you cannot prod down a tree 
 with the point of a rapier. 
 
 "Fancy her yourself?" said the Dwarf, 
 showing his yellow teeth with a detestable grin ; 
 while Ricardo turned quite white with anger, and 
 not knowing how to deal with this insufferable 
 little monster. 
 
 " I 'm a widower, I am," said the Dwarf, 
 " though I'm out of mourning," for he wore a 
 dirty clay-coloured Yellow jacket. " My illus- 
 trious consort, the Princess Frutilla, did not 
 behave very nice, and I had to avenge my 
 honour ; in fact, I 'm open to any offers, how- 
 ever humble. Going at an alarming sacrifice ! 
 Come to my box" (and he pointed to a filthy 
 clay cottage, all surrounded by thistles, net- 
 tles, and black boggy water), "and I'll talk 
 over your proposals." 
 
 " Hold your impudent tongue ! " said 
 Dick. " The Princess Frutilla was an 
 injured saint ; and as for the lady whom 
 I shall not name in your polluting presence,
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 187 
 
 I am her knight, and I defy you to deadly 
 combat ! " 
 
 We may imagine how glad the princess was 
 when (disguised as a wasp) she heard Dick say 
 he was her knight ; not that,' in fact, he had 
 thought of it before. 
 
 " Oh ! you're for a fight, are you ?" sneered 
 the Dwarf. " I might tell you to hit one of your 
 own weight, but I 'm not afraid of six of you. 
 Yah ! mammy's brat ! Look here, young 
 Blinkers, I don't want to hurt you. Just turn 
 old Dobbin's head, and trot back to your 
 mammy, Queen Rosalind, at Pantouflia. Does 
 she know you 're out ? " 
 
 " I'll be into you, pretty quick," said Ricardo. 
 " But why do I bandy words with a miserable 
 peasant ? " 
 
 "And don't get much the best of them 
 either," said the Dwarf, provokingly. "But 
 I '11 fight, if you will have it." 
 
 The prince leaped from his horse, leaving 
 Pepper on the saddle-bow. 
 
 No sooner had he touched the ground than 
 the Dwarf shouted : 
 
 "Hi! to him, Billy! to him, Daniel! at 
 him, good lions, at him ! " and, with an 
 awful roar, two lions rushed from a neigh- 
 bouring potato-patch and made for Ricardo. 
 These were not ordinary lions, history avers, 
 each having two heads, each being eight 
 feet high, with four rows of teeth ; their
 
 1 88 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 skins as hard as nails, and bright red, like 
 morocco.* 
 
 The prince did not lose his presence of mind ; 
 hastily he threw the cake of crocodiles' eggs, 
 millet-seed, and sugar-candy to the lions. This 
 is a dainty which lions can never resist, and 
 running greedily at it, with four tremendous 
 snaps, they got hold of each other by their 
 jaws, and their eight rows of teeth were 
 locked fast in a grim and deadly struggle for 
 existence I 
 
 The Dwarf took in the affair at a glance. 
 
 " Cursed be he who taught you this ! " he 
 cried, and then whistled in a shrill and vulgar 
 manner on his very dirty fingers. At his call 
 rushed up an enormous Spanish cat, ready 
 saddled and bridled, and darting fire from its 
 eyes. To leap on its back, while Ricardo sprang 
 on his own steed, was to the active Dwarf the 
 work of a moment. Then clapping spurs to 
 its sides (his spurs grew naturally on his bare 
 heels, horrible to relate, like a cock's spurs) and 
 taking his cat by the head, the Dwarf forced it 
 to leap on to Ricardo's saddle. The diamond 
 sword which slew the king of the Golden Mines 
 that invincible sword which hews iron like a 
 reed was up and flashing in the air ! 
 
 At this very moment King Prigio, seeing, in 
 the magic globe, all that passed, and despairing 
 of Ricardo's life, was just about to wish the 
 
 * See the works of D'Aulnoy.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 dwarf at Jericho, when through the open 
 window, with a tremendous whirr, came a huge 
 vulture, and knocked the king's wishing cap 
 off! Wishing was now of no use. 
 
 This odious fowl was the Fairy of the Desert, 
 the Dwarf's trusted ally in every sort of mis- 
 chief. The vulture flew instantly out of the 
 window ; and ah ! with what awful anxiety the 
 king again turned his eyes on the crystal ball 
 only a parent's heart can know. Should he see 
 Ricardo bleeding at the feet of the abominable 
 dwarf? The king scarcely dared to look; 
 never before had he known the nature of fear. 
 However, look he did, and saw the dwarf un- 
 catted, and Pepper, the gallant Dandie Din- 
 mont, with his teeth in the throat of the 
 monstrous Spanish cat. 
 
 No sooner had he seen the cat leap on his 
 master's saddle-bow than Pepper, true to the 
 instinct of his race, sprang at its neck, just 
 behind the head the usual place, and, with 
 an awful and despairing mew, the cat (Peter 
 was its name) gave up its life. 
 
 The dwarf was on his feet in a moment, 
 waving the diamond sword, which lighted up 
 the whole scene, and yelling taunts. Pepper 
 was flying at his heels, and, with great agility, 
 was keeping out of the way of the invincible 
 blade. 
 
 "Ah!" screamed the Dwarf as Pepper got 
 him by the ankle. "Call off your dog, you
 
 1 90 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 coward, and come down off your horse, and 
 fight fair!" 
 
 At this moment, bleeding yellow blood, dusty, 
 mad with pain, the dwarf was a sight to strike 
 terror into the boldest. 
 
 Dick sprang from his saddle, but so terrific 
 was the appearance of his adversary, and so 
 dazzling was the sheen of the diamond sword, 
 that he put his hand in his pocket, drew out, as 
 he supposed, the sham Cap of Darkness, and 
 placed it on his head. 
 
 "Yah! who's your hatter?" screamed the 
 infuriated dwarf. "I see you!" and he dis- 
 engaged, feinted in carte, and made a lunge in 
 seconde at Dick which no mortal blade could 
 have parried. The prince (thanks to his excel- 
 lent training) just succeeded in stepping aside, 
 but the dwarf recovered with astonishing 
 quickness. 
 
 "Coward, Idche, poltroon, runaway!" he 
 hissed through his clenched teeth, and was 
 about to make a thrust in tierce which must 
 infallibly have been fatal, when the Princess 
 Jaqueline, in her shape as a wasp, stung him 
 fiercely on the wrist. 
 
 With an oath so awful that we dare not set it 
 down, the dwarf dropped the diamond sword, 
 sucked his injured limb, and began hopping 
 about with pain. 
 
 In a moment Prince Ricardo's foot was on 
 the blade of the diamond sword, which he
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 passed thrice through the body of the Yellow 
 Dwarf. Squirming fearfully, the little monster 
 expired, his last look a defiance, his latest word 
 an insult : 
 
 "Yah! Gig-lamps!" 
 
 Prince Ricardo wiped the diamond blade 
 clean from its yellow stains. 
 
 " Princess Frutilla is avenged ! " he cried. 
 Then pensively looking at his fallen foe, " Peace 
 to his ashes," he said ; " he died in harness !" 
 
 Turning at the word, he observed that the 
 two lions were stiff and dead, locked in each 
 other's gory jaws ! 
 
 At that moment King Prigio, looking in the 
 crystal ball, gave a great sigh of relief. 
 
 "All's well that ends well," he said, lighting 
 a fresh cigar, for he had allowed the other to 
 go out in his excitement, " but it was a fight ! 
 I am not satisfied," his Majesty went on reflect- 
 ing, " with this plan of changing the magical 
 articles. The first time was of no great 
 importance, and I could not know that the 
 boy would start on an expedition without giving 
 me warning. But, in to-day's affair he owes 
 his safety entirely to himself and Pepper," for 
 he had not seen the wasp. " The Fairy of the 
 Desert quite baffled me : it was terrible. I 
 shall restore the right fairy things to-night. As 
 to the Fairy of the Desert," he said, forgetting 
 that his Wishing Cap was on, " I wish she were 
 dead!"
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 193 
 
 A hollow groan and the sound of a heavy 
 body falling interrupted the king. He looked 
 all about the room, but saw nothing. He was 
 alone ! 
 
 " She must have been in the room, invisible," 
 said the king ; and, of course, she has died in 
 that condition. " But I must find her body ! " 
 
 The king groped about everywhere, like a 
 blind man, and at last discovered the dead body 
 of the wicked fairy lying on the sofa. He could 
 not see it, of course, but he felt it with his 
 hands. 
 
 "This is very awkward," he remarked. " I 
 cannot ring for the servants and make them 
 take her away. There is only one plan." 
 
 So he wished she were in her family pyramid, 
 in the Egyptian desert, and in a second the 
 sofa was unoccupied. 
 
 "A very dangerous and revengeful enemy is 
 now removed from Ricardo's path in life," said 
 his Majesty, and went to dress for dinner. 
 
 Meanwhile Ricardo was riding gaily home. 
 The yellow light of Jaunia had vanished, and 
 pure blue sky broke overhead as soon as the 
 dauntless Dwarf had drawn his latest breath. 
 The poor, trembling people of the country 
 came out of their huts and accompanied Dick, 
 cheering, and throwing roses which had 
 been yellow roses, but blushed red as soon as 
 the Dwarf expired. They attended him to 
 the frontiers of Pantouflia, singing his praises,
 
 194 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 which Ricardo had the new and inestimable 
 pleasure of knowing to be deserved. 
 
 " It was sharp work," he said to himself, 
 " but much more exciting and glorious than the 
 usual business." 
 
 On his return Dick did not fail to mention 
 the wasp, and again the king felt how great 
 was his debt to Jaqueline. But they did not 
 think it well to trouble the good queen with 
 the dangers Dick had encountered.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 195 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ^Qiant who does not c Know when he has 
 had Enough.'" 
 
 N E morning the post 
 brought a truly enor- 
 I mous letter for Dick. 
 It was as broad as a 
 tablecloth, and the address 
 was written in letters as long 
 as a hoop-stick. 
 
 " I seem to know that 
 hand," said Ricardo ; 
 " but I thought the ringers 
 which held the pen had 
 long been cold in death." 
 
 He opened, with his 
 sword, the enormous 
 letter, which was couched 
 in the following terms : 
 
 " The Giant as does not know when he has 
 had enuf, presents his compliments to Prince 
 Ricardo; and I, having recovered from the effects 
 of our little recent rally, will be happy to meet 
 you in the old place for a return-match. I not 
 
 * This Giant is mentioned, and his picture is drawn, in an 
 old manuscript of about 1875.
 
 196 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 being handy with the pen, the Giant hopes you 
 will excuse mistakes and bad writing." 
 
 Dick simply gazed with amazement. 
 
 " If ever I thought an enemy was killed and 
 done for, it was that Giant," said he. " Why, 
 I made mere mince-collops of him !" 
 
 However, he could not refuse a challenge, 
 not to speak of his duty to rid the world of so 
 greedy and odious a tyrant. Dick, therefore, took 
 the usual things (which the king had secretly 
 restored), but first he tried them putting on 
 the Cap of Darkness before the glass, in which 
 he could not see himself. On second thoughts, 
 he considered it unfair to take the cap. All 
 the other articles were in working order. 
 Jaqueline on this occasion followed him in the 
 disguise of a crow, flying overhead. 
 
 On reaching the cavern a huge tunnel in 
 the rock where the Giant lived, Ricardo blew 
 a blast on the horn which hung outside, and, 
 in obedience to a written notice, knocked also 
 with a mace provided by the Giant for that 
 purpose. Presently he heard heavy footsteps 
 sounding along the cavern, and the Giant came 
 out. He was above the common height for 
 giants, and his whole face and body were 
 seamed over with little red lines, crossing each 
 other like tartan. These were marks of en- 
 counters, in which he had been cut to bits and 
 come together again ; for this was his peculiarity, 
 which made him so dangerous. If you cut off
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 197 
 
 his head, he went on just as before, only without 
 it ; and so about everything else. By dint of 
 magic, he could put his head on again, just as 
 if it had been his hat, if you gave him time 
 enough. On the last occasion of their meeting, 
 Ricardo had left him in a painfully scattered 
 condition, and thought he was done for. But 
 now, except that a bird had flown away with 
 the little finger of his left hand and one of his 
 ears, the Giant was as comfortable as anyone 
 could be in his situation. 
 
 " Mornin' sir," he said to Dick, touching his 
 forehead with his hand. " Glad to see you 
 looking so well. No bad feeling, I hope, on 
 either side ?" 
 
 " None on mine, certainly," said Ricardo, 
 holding out his hand, which the Giant took and 
 shook ; " but Duty is Duty, and giants must go. 
 The modern world has no room for them." 
 
 " That 's hearty," said the Giant ; " I like a 
 fellow of your kind. Now, shall we toss for 
 corners ?" 
 
 "All right!" said Dick, calling "Heads," 
 and winning. He took the corner with the sun 
 on his back and in the Giant's face. To it they 
 went, the Giant aiming a blow with his club 
 that would have felled an elephant. 
 
 Dick dodged, and cut off the Giant's feet at 
 the ankles. 
 
 " First blood for the prince ! " said the Giant, 
 coming up smiling. " Half-minute time !"
 
 198 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 He occupied the half-minute in placing the 
 feet neatly beside each other, as if they had 
 been a pair of boots. 
 
 Round II. The Giant sparring for wind, 
 Ricardo cuts him in two at the waist. 
 
 The Giant folded his legs up neatly, like a pair 
 of trousers, and laid them down on a rock. He 
 had now some difficulty in getting rapidly over 
 the ground, and stood mainly on the defensive, 
 and on his waist. 
 
 Round ///.Dick bisects the Giant. Both 
 sides now attack him on either hand, and the 
 feet kick him severely. 
 
 "No kicking!" said Dick. 
 
 " Nonsense ; all fair in war ! " said the Giant. 
 
 But do not let us pursue this sanguinary 
 encounter in all its horrible details. 
 
 Let us also remember otherwise the scene 
 would be too painful for an elegant mind to 
 contemplate with entertainment that the 
 Giant was in excellent training, and thought 
 no more of a few wounds than you do of a 
 crack on the leg from a cricket-ball. He well 
 deserved the title given him by the Fancy, of 
 "The Giant who does not Know when he has 
 had Enough." 
 
 The contest was over ; Dick was resting on 
 a rock. The lists were strewn with interesting 
 but imperfect fragments of the Giant, when a
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 199 
 
 set of double teeth of enormous size flew up 
 out of the ground and caught Ricardo by the 
 throat ! In vain he strove to separate the 
 teeth, when the crow, stooping from the 
 heavens, became the Princess Jaqueline, and 
 changed Dick into a wren a tiny bird, so 
 small that he easily flew out of the jaws of the 
 Giant and winged his way to a tree, whence he 
 watched the scene. 
 
 But the poor Princess Jaqueline ! 
 
 To perform the feat of changing Dick into a 
 bird she had, of course, according to all the 
 laws of magic, to resume her own natural 
 form ! 
 
 There she stood, a beautiful, trembling 
 maiden, her hands crossed on her bosom, 
 entirely at the mercy of the Giant ! 
 
 No sooner had Dick escaped than the monster 
 began to collect himself ; and before Jaqueline 
 could muster strength to run away or summon 
 to her aid the lessons of the Fairy Paribanou, 
 the Giant who never Knew when he had Enough 
 was himself again. A boy might have climbed 
 up a tree (for giants are no tree-climbers, any 
 more than the grizzly bear), but Jaqueline could 
 not climb. She merely stood, pale and 
 trembling. She had saved Dick, but at an 
 enormous sacrifice, for the sword and the 
 Seven-league Boots were lying on the trampled 
 grass. He had not brought the Cap of Dark- 
 ness, and, in the shape of a wren, of course he
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 could not carry away the other articles. Dick 
 was rescued, that was all, and the Princess 
 Jaqueline had sacrificed herself to her love 
 for him. 
 
 The Giant picked himself up and pulled 
 himself together, as we said, and then ap- 
 proached Jaqueline in a very civil way, for a 
 person of his breeding, head in hand. 
 
 " Let me introduce myself," he said, and 
 mentioned his name and titles. " May I ask 
 what you are doing here, and how you 
 came ? " 
 
 Poor Jaqueline threw herself at his feet, and 
 murmured a short and not very intelligible 
 account of herself. 
 
 " I don't understand," said the Giant, re- 
 placing his head on his shoulders. " What to 
 do with you, I 'm sure I don't know. ' Please 
 don't eat me,' did you say ? Why, what do you 
 take me for? I 'm not in that line at all ; low, I 
 call it!" 
 
 Jaqueline was somewhat comforted at these 
 words, dropped out of the Giant's lips from a 
 considerable height. 
 
 " But they call you ' The Giant who does not 
 Know when he has had Enough,' ' ' said Jaqueline. 
 
 "And proud of the title : not enough of fight- 
 ing. Of punishment I am a glutton, or so my 
 friends are pleased to say. A brace of oxen, a 
 drove of sheep or two, are enough for me," 
 the Giant went on complacently, but forgetting
 
 Let me introduce myself,'" he said.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 to mention that the sheep and the oxen were 
 the property of other people. " Where am I 
 to put you till your friends come and pay your 
 ransom?" the Giant asked again, and stared 
 at Jaqueline in a perplexed way. " I can't 
 take you home with me, that is out of the 
 question. I have a little woman of my own, 
 and she's not very fond of other ladies; 
 especially, she would like to poison them that 
 have good looks." 
 
 Now Jaqueline saw that the Giant, big as he 
 was, courageous too, was afraid of his wife ! 
 
 "I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll hand you 
 over to a neighbour of mine, who is a bachelor." 
 
 "A bachelor giant ; would that be quite 
 proper?" said Jaqueline, trying to humour 
 him. 
 
 " He's not a giant, bless you ; he's a queer 
 fellow, it is not easy to say what he is. He's 
 the Earthquaker, him as shakes the earth now 
 and then, and brings the houses about people's 
 ears." 
 
 Jaqueline fairly screamed at hearing this 
 awful news. 
 
 "Hush! be quiet, do!" said the Giant. 
 "You'll bring out my little woman, and she is 
 not easy to satisfy with explanations when she 
 finds me conversing with a lady unbeknown to 
 her. The Earthquaker won't do you any harm ; 
 it 's only for safe keeping I '11 put you with him. 
 Why, he don't waken, not once in fifty years.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 203 
 
 He's quite the dormouse. Turns on his bed 
 now and then, and things upstairs get upset, 
 more or less ; but, as a rule, a child could play 
 with him. Come on ! " 
 
 Then, taking Jaqueline up on one hand, on 
 which she sat as if on a chair, he crossed a few 
 ranges of mountains in as many strides. In 
 front was one tall blue hill, with a flattened 
 peak, and as they drew near the princess felt a 
 curious kind of wind coming round her and 
 round her. You have heard of whirlpools in 
 water; well, this was just like a whirlpool of 
 air. Even the Giant himself could hardly keep 
 his legs against it ; then he tossed Jaqueline 
 up, and the airy whirlpool seized her and carried 
 her, as if on a tide of water, always round and 
 round in narrowing circles, till she was sucked 
 down into the hollow hill. Even as she went, 
 she seemed to remember the hill, as if she had 
 dreamed about it, and the shape and colour 
 of the country. But presently she sank softly 
 on to a couch, in a beautifully-lighted rocky 
 hall. All around her the floor was of white and 
 red marble, but on one side it seemed to end 
 in black nothing. 
 
 Jaqueline, after a few moments, recovered 
 her senses fully, and changing herself into an 
 eagle, tried to fly up and out. But as soon as 
 she was in the funnel, the whirlpool of air, 
 always sucking down and down, was too strong 
 for her wings. She was a prisoner in this great 
 H*
 
 204 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 gleaming hall, ending in black nothingness. So 
 she resumed her usual form, and walking to the 
 edge of the darkness, found that it was not 
 empty air, but something black, soft, and strong 
 something living. It had no form or shape, 
 or none that she could make out ; but it pulsed 
 with a heart. Jaqueline placed her foot on this 
 curious thing, when a voice came, like thunder 
 heard through a feather-bed : 
 
 " Not near time to get up yet ! " and then 
 there was a snore, and the great hall rocked like 
 a ship at sea. 
 
 It was the Earthquaker ! 
 
 The habits of this monstrous animal are very 
 little known, as, of course, he never comes 
 above ground, or at least very seldom, when he 
 makes tracks like a dry river-bed across country. 
 We are certain that there are Earthquakers, 
 otherwise how can we account for earthquakes ? 
 But how to tackle an Earthquaker, how to get 
 at him, and what to do with him when you 
 have got at him, are questions which might 
 puzzle even King Prigio. 
 
 It was not easy to have the better of an 
 enchantress like Jaqueline and a prince like 
 Ricardo. In no ordinary circumstances could 
 they have been baffled and defeated ; but now it 
 must be admitted that they were in a very 
 trying and alarming situation, especially the 
 princess. The worst of it was, that as Jaque- 
 line sat and thought and thought, she began to
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 205 
 
 remember that she was back in her own 
 country. The hills were those she used to see 
 from her father's palace windows when she was 
 a child. And she remembered with horror that 
 once a year her people used to send a beautiful 
 girl to the Earthquaker, by way of keeping him 
 quiet, as you shall hear presently. And now 
 she heard light footsteps and a sound of weep- 
 ing, and lo ! a great troop of pretty girls passed, 
 sweeping in and out of the halls in a kind of 
 procession, and looking unhappy and lost. 
 
 Jaqueline ran to them. 
 
 " Where am I ? who are you ? " she cried, in 
 the language of her own country, which came 
 back to her on a sudden. 
 
 " We are nurses of the Earthquaker," they 
 said. " Our duty is to sing him asleep, and every 
 year he must have a new song ; and every year 
 a new maiden must be sent down from earth, 
 with a new sleepy song she has learned from 
 the priests of Manoa, the City of the Sun. Are 
 you the new singer ?" 
 
 "No, I'm not," said Jaqueline. "I don't 
 know the priests of Manoa ; I don't know any 
 new sleepy song. I only want to find the way 
 out." 
 
 " There is no way, or we should have 
 found it," said one of the maidens; "and, if 
 you are the wrong girl, by the day after 
 to-morrow they must send the right one, 
 otherwise the Earthquaker will waken, and
 
 206 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 shake the world, and destroy Manoa, the City 
 of the Sun." 
 
 Then they all wept softly in the stillness. 
 
 " Can we get anything to eat here ?" asked 
 poor Jaqueline, at last. 
 
 She was beginning to be very hungry, and 
 however alarmed she might be, she felt that 
 dinner would not be unwelcome. The tallest 
 of the maidens clapped her hands, and imme- 
 diately a long table was spread by unseen sprites 
 with meringues and cold chicken, and several 
 sorts of delicious ices. 
 
 We shall desert Jaqueline, who was rather 
 less alarmed when she found that she was not 
 to be starved, at all events, and return to 
 Prince Ricardo, whom we left fluttering about 
 as a little golden-crested wren. He followed 
 the Giant and Jaqueline into the whirlpool of 
 air as far as he dared, and when he saw her 
 vanish down the cone of the hill, he flew straight 
 back to Pantouflia.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 207 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 nqio ^LLas an 3dea. 
 
 WEARY and way-worn 
 little bird was Prince 
 Ricardo when he flut- 
 tered into the royal study 
 window, in the palace of 
 Pantouflia. The king 
 was out at a council 
 meeting; knowing that 
 Ricardo had the right things, 
 all in good order, he was not 
 in the least anxious about 
 him. The king was out, but 
 Semiramis was in Semiramis, 
 the great grey cat, sitting on a 
 big book on the top of the library steps. 
 Now Semiramis was very fond of birds, and 
 no sooner did Ricardo enter and flutter 
 on to a table than Semiramis gathered her- 
 self together and made one fell spring at him. 
 She just caught his tail feather. In all 
 his adventures the prince had never been in 
 greater danger. He escaped, but no more, and 
 went flying round the ceiling, looking for a safe
 
 208 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 place. Finally he perched on a chandelier 
 that hung from the roof. Here he was safe; 
 and so weary was he, that he put his head 
 under his wing and fell fast asleep. He was 
 awakened by the return of the king, who threw 
 himself on a sofa and exclaimed : 
 
 "Oh, that Prime Minister! his dulness is as 
 heavy as lead ; much heavier, in fact ! " 
 
 Then his Majesty lit a cigar and took up a 
 volume ; he certainly was a sad bookworm. 
 
 Dick now began to fly about the room, brush- 
 ing the king's face and trying to attract his notice. 
 
 " Poor little thing !" said his Majesty. 
 
 And Dick alighted, and nestled in his breast. 
 
 On seeing this, Semiramis began to growl, 
 as cats do when they are angry, and slowly 
 approached his Majesty. 
 
 " Get out, Semiramis ! " said the king ; and 
 lifting her by the neck, he put her out of the 
 room and shut the door, at which she remained 
 scratching and mewing. 
 
 Dick now crept out of the royal waistcoat, 
 flew to the king's ear, twittered, pointed out of 
 the window with one claw, and, lying down on 
 his back, pretended to be dead. Then he got 
 up again, twittered afresh, pointed to the 
 Wishing Cap, and, finally, convinced the king 
 that this was no common fowl. 
 
 "An enchanted prince or princess," said 
 Prigio, "such as I have often read of. Who 
 can it be ? Not Jaqueline ; she could change
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 2Og 
 
 herself back in a moment. By the way, where 
 is Jaqueline ?" 
 
 He rang the bell, and asked the servant to 
 look for the princess. 
 
 Semiramis tried to come in, but was caught 
 and shut up downstairs. 
 
 After doing this, the man replied that her 
 Royal Highness had not been in the palace all 
 day. 
 
 The king rushed to the crystal ball, looked 
 all the world over ; but no princess ! He 
 became very nervous, and at that moment 
 Dick lighted on the crystal ball, and put 
 his claw on the very hill where Jaqueline 
 had disappeared. Then he cocked his little 
 eye at the king. 
 
 " Nay, she is somewhere in the unknown 
 centre of South America," said his Majesty ; 
 " somewhere behind Mount Roraima, where 
 nobody has ever been. I must look into this." 
 
 Then he put on the Wishing Cap, and wished 
 that the bird would assume his natural shape if 
 he was under enchantment, as there seemed 
 too good reason to believe. 
 
 Instantly Dick stood before him. 
 
 " Ricardo!" cried the king in horror; "and 
 in this disguise ! Where have you been ? What 
 have you done with Jaqueline ? Where are the 
 Seven-league Boots ? Where is the Sword of 
 Sharpness ? Speak ! Get up ! " for Dick was 
 kneeling and weeping bitterly at the royal feet.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 "All lost!" said Dick. "Poor Jaqueline ! 
 she was the best girl, and the prettiest, and 
 the kindest. And the Earthquaker 's got her, 
 and the Giant's got the other things," Dick 
 ended, crying bitterly. 
 
 " Calm yourself, Ricardo," said his Majesty, 
 very pale, but calm and determined. " Here, 
 take a glass of port, and explain how all this 
 happened." 
 
 Dick drank the wine, and then he told his 
 miserable story. 
 
 " You may well sob ! Why didn't you use 
 the Cap of Darkness ? Mere conceit ! But 
 there is no use in crying over spilt milk. The 
 thing is, to rescue Jaqueline. And what are we 
 to say to your mother ? " 
 
 " That 's the worst of it all," said Dick. 
 " Mother will break her heart." 
 
 " I must see her at once," said the king, 
 "and break it to her." 
 
 This was a terrible task ; but the queen had 
 such just confidence in her Prigio that she soon 
 dried her tears, remarking that Heaven would 
 not desert Jaqueline, and that the king would 
 find a way out of the trouble. 
 
 His Majesty retired to his study, put his 
 head in his hands, and thought and thought. 
 
 "The thing is, of course," he said, "to 
 destroy the Earthquaker before he wakens ; 
 but how ? What can kill such a monster ? 
 Prodding him with the sword would only stir
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 him up and make him more vicious. And I 
 know of no other beast we can set against 
 him, as I did with the Fire-beast and the 
 Ice-beast, when I was young. Oh, for an 
 idea!" 
 
 Then his mind, somehow, went back to the 
 Council and the ponderous stupidity of the 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 " Heavier than lead," said the king. " By 
 George ! I have a plan. If I could get to the 
 place where they keep the Stupidity, I could 
 carry away enough of it to flatten out the 
 Earthquaker." 
 
 Then he remembered how, in an old Italian 
 poem, he had read about all the strange lumber- 
 room of odd things which is kept in the moon. 
 That is the advantage of reading : Knowledge 
 is Power ; and you mostly get knowledge that 
 is really worth having out of good old books 
 which people do not usually read. 
 
 " If the Stupidity is kept in stock, up in the 
 moon, and comes from there, falling naturally 
 down on the earth in small quantities, I might 
 obtain enough for my purpose," thought King 
 Prigio. "But how to get to the moon? 
 There are difficulties about that." 
 
 But difficulties only sharpened the ingenuity 
 of this admirable king. 
 
 " The other fellow had a Flying Horse," said 
 he. 
 
 By "the other fellow" King Prigio meant
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 213 
 
 an Italian knight, Astolfo, who, in old times, 
 visited the moon, and there found and brought 
 back the common sense of his friend, Orlando, 
 as you may read in the poem of Ariosto. 
 
 "Now," reasoned King Prigio, " if there is a 
 Flying Horse at all, he is in the stables of the 
 King of Delhi. I must look into this." 
 
 Taking the magic spy-glass, the king surveyed 
 the world from China to Peru, and, sure enough, 
 there was the famous Flying Horse in the 
 king's stable at Delhi. Hastily the king thrust 
 his feet into the Shoes of Swiftness so hastily, 
 indeed, that/ as the poet says, he "madly 
 crammed a left-hand foot into a right-hand 
 shoe." But this, many people think, is a sign 
 of good luck ; so he put the shoes on the proper 
 feet, and in a few minutes was in the presence 
 of the Great Mogul. 
 
 The monarch received him with some sur- 
 prise, but with stately kindness, and listened to 
 Prigio while he explained what he wanted. 
 
 " I am only too happy to assist so adventur- 
 ous a prince," remarked the Great Mogul. 
 "This is like old times! Every horse in my 
 stable is at your service, but, as you say, only 
 the Flying Horse is of any use to you in this 
 expedition." 
 
 He clapped his hands, the Grand Vizier 
 appeared, and the king gave orders to have the 
 Flying Horse saddled at once. He then pre- 
 sented King Prigio with a large diamond, and
 
 214 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 came down into the courtyard to see him 
 mount. 
 
 " He's very fresh," said the groom who held 
 the bridle ; " has not been out of the stable for 
 three hundred years ! " 
 
 Prigio sprang into the saddle among the 
 salaams of the dusky multitude, and all the 
 ladies of the seraglio waved their scented 
 handkerchiefs out of the windows. 
 
 The king, as he had been instructed, turned 
 a knob of gold in the saddle of the Flying 
 Horse, then kissed his hand to the ladies, and, 
 giving the steed his head, cried, in excellent 
 Persian : 
 
 " To the moon ! " 
 
 Up flew the horse with an easy action, and 
 the king's head nearly swam with the swiftness 
 of the flight. Soon the earth below him was 
 no bigger than a top, spinning on its own axis 
 (see Geography books for this), and, as night 
 fell, earth was only a great red moon. 
 
 Through the dark rode King Prigio, into the 
 silver dawn of the moon. All now became 
 clear and silvery ; the coasts of the moon came 
 into sight, with white seas breaking on them ; 
 and at last the king reached the silver walls, 
 and the gate of opal. Before the gate stood 
 two beautiful ladies. One was fair, with yellow 
 locks, the colour of the harvest moon. She 
 had a crown of a golden snake and white 
 water-lilies, and her dress now shone white,
 
 King Prigio on the Flying Horse.
 
 2l6 PRINCE RICA EDO. 
 
 now red, now golden ; and in her hand was the 
 golden pitcher that sheds the dew, and a 
 golden wand. The other lady was as dark as 
 night dark eyes, dark hair ; her crown was of 
 poppies. She held the ebony Wand of Sleep. 
 Her dress was of the deepest blue, sown with 
 stars. The king knew that they were the 
 maidens of the bright and the dark side of the 
 moon of the side you see, and of the side 
 that no one has ever seen, except King Prigio. 
 He stopped the Flying Horse by turning the 
 other knob in the saddle, alighted, and bowed 
 very low to each of the ladies. 
 
 "Daring mortal! what make you here?" 
 they asked. 
 
 And then the king told them about Jaqueline 
 and the Earthquaker, and how he needed a 
 great weight of Stupidity to flatten him out 
 with. 
 
 The ladies heard him in silence, and then 
 they said : 
 
 " Follow us," and they flew lightly beside the 
 Flying Horse till they had crossed all the bright 
 side of the moon, above the silver palaces and 
 silver seas, and reached the summit of the 
 Mountains of the Moon which separate the 
 bright from the dark side. 
 
 " Here I may go no further," said the bright 
 lady ; " and beyond, as you see, all is darkness 
 and heavy sleep." 
 
 Then she touched Prigio with her golden
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 217 
 
 wand with twisted serpents, and he became 
 luminous, light raying out from him ; and the 
 dark lady, too, shone like silver in the night : 
 and on they flew, over black rocks and black 
 rivers, till they reached a huge mountain, like 
 a mountain of coal, many thousand feet high, 
 for its head was lost in the blackness of dark- 
 ness. The dark Moon - Lady struck the rock 
 with her ebony wand, and said, " Open ! " and 
 the cliffs opened like a door, and they were 
 within the mountain. 
 
 "Here," said the dark lady, "is the store- 
 house of all the Stupidity ; hence it descends 
 in showers like Stardust on the earth whenever 
 this mountain, which is a volcano, is in erup- 
 tion. Only a little of the Stupidity reaches 
 the earth, and that only in invisible dust; yet 
 you know how weighty it is, even in that 
 form." 
 
 " Indeed, madam," said the king, " no one 
 knows it better than I do." 
 
 " Then make your choice of the best sort of 
 Stupidity for your purpose," said the dark lady. 
 
 And in the light which flowed from their 
 bodies King Prigio looked round at the various 
 kinds of Solid Stupidity. There it all lay in 
 masses the Stupidity of bad sermons, of 
 ignorant reviewers, of bad poems, of bad 
 speeches, of dreary novels, of foolish states- 
 men, of ignorant mobs, of fine ladies, of idle, 
 naughty boys and girls ; and the king examined
 
 2l8 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 them all, and all were very, very heavy. But 
 when he came to the Stupidity of the Learned 
 of dull, blind writers on Shakspeare, and 
 Homer, and the Bible then King Prigio saw 
 that he had found the sort he wanted, and that 
 a very little of it would go a long way. He 
 never could have got it on the saddle of the 
 Flying Horse if the dark lady had not touched 
 it with her ebony wand, and made it light to 
 carry till it was wanted for his purpose. When 
 he needed it for use, he was to utter a certain 
 spell, which she taught him, and then the 
 lump would recover its natural weight. So 
 he easily put a great block on his saddle-bow, 
 and he and the dark lady flew back till they 
 reached the crest of the Mountains of the Moon. 
 There she touched him with her ebony wand, 
 and the silver light which the bright lady had 
 shed on him died from his face and his body, 
 and he became like other men. 
 
 "You see your way?" said the dark lady, 
 pointing to the bright moon of earth, shining 
 far off in the heavens. 
 
 Then he knelt down and thanked her, and 
 she murmured strange words of blessing 
 which he did not understand ; but her face was 
 grave and kind, and he thought of Queen 
 Rosalind, his wife. 
 
 Then he jumped on the Flying Horse, 
 galloped down and down, till he reached his 
 palace gate ; called for Ricardo, set him behind
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 219 
 
 him on the saddle, and away they rode, above 
 land and wide seas, till they saw the crest of 
 the hollow hill, where Jaqueline was with the 
 Earthquaker. Beyond it they marked the 
 glittering spires and towers of Manoa, the City 
 of the Sun ; and " Thither," said King Prigio, 
 who had been explaining how matters stood, to 
 Ricardo, " we must ride, for I believe they 
 stand in great need of our assistance." 
 
 " Had we not better go to Jaqueline first, 
 sir?" said Ricardo. 
 
 "No," said the king; "I think mine is the 
 best plan. Manoa, whose golden spires and 
 pinnacles are shining below us, is the City of 
 the Sun, which Sir Walter Raleigh and the 
 Spaniards could never find, so that men have 
 doubted of its existence. We are needed there, 
 to judge by that angry crowd in the market- 
 place. How they howl ! "
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 e End. 
 
 'T was on a strange sight that 
 the king and Ricardo looked 
 down from the Flying Horse. 
 Beneath them lay the City 
 of Manoa, filling with its 
 golden battlements and 
 temples a hollow of the 
 mountains. Here were 
 palaces all carved over with 
 faces of men and beasts, and 
 twisted patterns of serpents. 
 [The city walls were built of huge 
 square stones, and among the 
 groves towered pyramids, on 
 which the people did service to 
 their gods. From every temple 
 top came the roar of beaten 
 drums, great drums of serpentskin. 
 
 But, in the centre of the chief square of the 
 town, was gathered a wild crowd of men in 
 shining copper armour and helmets of gold 
 and glittering dresses of feathers. Among 
 them ran about priests with hideous masks,
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 crying them on to besiege and break down the 
 royal palace. From the battlements of the 
 palace the king's guardsmen were firing arrows 
 and throwing spears. The mob shot arrows 
 back, some of them tipped with lighted straw, 
 to burn the palace down. 
 
 But, in the very centre of the square, was 
 a clear space of ground, on which fell 
 the shadow of a tall column of red stone, 
 all carved with serpents and faces of gods. 
 Beside it stood a figure horrible to see : a man 
 clothed in serpent skins, whose face was the 
 grinning face of a skull ; but the skull was 
 shining black and red in patches, and a long 
 white beard flowed from beneath it. This man, 
 mounted on a kind of altar of red stone, 
 waved his hand and yelled, and seemed to 
 point to the shadow of the column which fell 
 across the square. 
 
 The people were so furious and so eager 
 that they did not, at first, notice King Prigio 
 as he slowly descended. But at last the eyes 
 within the skull looked up and saw him, and 
 then the man gave a great cry, rent his 
 glittering dress of serpentskin, and held up 
 his hands. 
 
 Then all the multitude looked up, and seeing 
 the Flying Horse, let their weapons fall ; and 
 the man of the skull tore it from his face, and 
 knelt before King Prigio, with his head in the 
 dust.
 
 222 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 " Thou hast come, oh, Pachacamac, as is 
 foretold in the prophecy of the Cord of the 
 Venerable Knots ! Thou hast come, but 
 behold the shadow of the stone ! Thou 
 art too late, oh Lord of the Earth and the 
 Sea ! " 
 
 Then he pointed to the shadow, which, 
 naturally, was growing shorter, as the sun 
 drew near mid-day. 
 
 He spoke in the language of the ancient 
 Incas of Peru, which of course Prigio knew 
 very well ; and he also knew that Pachacamac 
 was the god of that people. 
 
 " I have come," Prigio said, with presence 
 of mind, " as it has been prophesied of 
 old." 
 
 " Riding on a beast that flies," said the 
 old priest, " even as the oracle declared. 
 Glory to Pachacamac, even though we die to- 
 day ! " 
 
 "In what can I help my people ? " said 
 Prigio. 
 
 " Thou knowest ; why should we instruct 
 thee ? Thou knowest that on midsummer-day, 
 every year, before the shadow shrinks back to 
 the base of the huaca* of Manoa, we must offer 
 a maiden to lull the Earthquaker with a new 
 song. Lo, now the shadow shrinks to the foot 
 of the huaca, and the maid is not offered ! For 
 the lot fell on the daughter of thy servant the 
 * Huaca, sacred stone.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 223 
 
 Inca, and he refuses to give her up. One 
 daughter of his, he says, has been sacrificed to 
 the sacred birds, the Cunturs : the birds were 
 found slain on the hill-top, no man knows how; 
 but the maiden vanished. 
 
 " Why, it must have been Jaqueline. I 
 killed the birds," said Ricardo, in Pantou- 
 flian. 
 
 " Silence, not a word ! " said the king, 
 sternly. 
 
 " And what makes you bear arms against the 
 Inca ? " he asked the old man. 
 
 " We would slay him and her," answered the 
 priest ; " for, when the shadow shrinks to the 
 foot of the stone, the sun will shine straight 
 down into the hollow hill of the Earthquaker, 
 and he will waken and destroy Manoa and the 
 Temples of the Sun." 
 
 " Then wherefore would you slay them, when 
 you must all perish ? " 
 
 " The people, oh Pachacamac, would have 
 revenge before they die." 
 
 " Oh, folly of men! " said the king, solemnly ; 
 then he cried: "Lead me to the Inca; this 
 day you shall not perish. Is it not predicted 
 in the Cord of the Venerable Knots that I 
 shall slay this monster ? " 
 
 " Hasten, oh Pachacamac, for the shadow 
 shortens ! " said the priest. 
 
 " Lead me to the Inca," answered Prigio. 
 
 At this the people arose with a great shout,
 
 224 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 for they, too, had been kneeling ; and, sending 
 a flag of truce before King Prigio, the priest 
 led him into the palace. The ground was 
 strewn with bodies of the slain, and through 
 them Prigio rode slowly into the courtyard, 
 where the Inca was sitting in the dust, weeping 
 and throwing ashes on his long hair and his 
 golden raiment. The king bade the priest 
 remain without the palace gates ; then dis- 
 mounted, and, advancing to the Inca, raised 
 him and embraced him. 
 
 " I come, a king to a king," he said. " My 
 cousin, take courage; your sorrows are ended. 
 If I do not slay the Earthquaker, sacrifice me 
 to your gods." 
 
 "The Prophecy is fulfilled," said the Inca, 
 and wept for joy. " Yet thou must hasten, for 
 it draws near to noon." 
 
 Then Prigio went up to the golden battle- 
 ments, and saying no word, waved his hand. 
 In a moment the square was empty, for 
 the people rushed to give thanks in the 
 temples. 
 
 "Wait my coming, my cousin," said Prigio 
 to the Inca ; " I shall bring you back the 
 daughter that was lost, when I have slain your 
 enemy." 
 
 The Inca would have knelt at his feet; 
 but the king raised him, and bade him pre- 
 pare such a feast as had never been seen in 
 Manoa.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 225 
 
 "The lost are found to-day," he said; "be 
 you ready to welcome them." 
 
 Then, mounting the Flying Horse, with Dick 
 beside him, he rose towards the peak of the 
 hill where the Earthquaker had his home. 
 Already the ground was beginning to tremble ; 
 the Earthquaker was stirring in his sleep, for 
 the maiden of the new song had not been sent 
 to him, and the year ended at noon, and then 
 he would rise and ruin Manoa. 
 
 The sun was approaching mid-day, and Prigio 
 put spurs to the Flying Horse. Ten minutes 
 more, and the sun would look straight down 
 the crater of the hollow hill, and the Earth- 
 quaker would arouse himself when the light 
 and the heat fell on his body. 
 
 Already the light of the sun shone slanting 
 half-way down the hollow cone as the whirl- 
 pool of air caught the Flying Horse, and drew 
 him swiftly down and down to the shadowy 
 halls. There knelt and wept the nurses of 
 the Earthquaker on the marble floor; but 
 Jaqueline stood a little apart, very pale, but 
 not weeping. 
 
 Ricardo had leaped off before the horse 
 touched the ground, and rushed to Jaqueline, 
 and embraced her in his arms ; and, oh ! how 
 glad she was to see him, so that she quite 
 forgot her danger and laughed for joy. 
 
 "Oh! you have come, you have come; I 
 knew you would come ! " she cried.
 
 226 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 Then King Prigio advanced, the mighty 
 weight in his hand, to the verge of the dreadful 
 gulf of the Earthquaker. The dim walls grew 
 radiant ; a long slant arm of yellow light 
 touched the black body of the Earthquaker, and 
 a thrill went through him, and shook the world, 
 so that, far away, the bells rang in Pantouflia. 
 A moment more, and he would waken in his 
 strength ; and once awake, he would shatter 
 the city walls, and ruin Manoa. Even now a 
 great mass of rock fell from the roof deep 
 down in the secret caves, and broke into 
 flying fragments, and all the echoes roared 
 and rang. 
 
 King Prigio stood with the mighty mass 
 poised in his hands. 
 
 " Die ! " he cried ; and he uttered the words 
 of power, the magic spell that the dark Moon 
 Lady had taught him. 
 
 Then all its invincible natural weight came 
 into the mass which the king held, and down it 
 shot full on the body of the Earthquaker ; and 
 where that had been was nothing but a vast 
 abyss, silent, empty, and blank, and bottom- 
 less. 
 
 Far, far below, thousands of miles below, in 
 the very centre of the earth, lay the dead 
 Earthquaker, crushed flat as a sheet of paper, 
 and the sun of midsummer-day shone straight 
 down on the dreadful chasm, and could not 
 waken him any more for ever.
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 227 
 
 The king drew a long breath. 
 
 "Stupidity has saved the world," he said; 
 and, with only strength to draw back one step 
 from the abyss, he fell down, hiding his face in 
 his hands. 
 
 But Jaqueline's arms were round his neck, 
 and the maidens brought him water from an 
 ice-cold spring ; and soon King Prigio was 
 himself again, and ready for anything. But 
 afterwards he used to say that the moment 
 when the Earthquaker stirred was the most 
 dreadful in his life. 
 
 Now, in Manoa, where all the firm founda- 
 tions of the city had trembled once, when the 
 sun just touched the Earthquaker, the people, 
 seeing that the shadow of the sacred column 
 had crept to its foot, and yet Manoa stood 
 firm again, and the Temple of the Sun 
 was not overthrown, raised such a cry that 
 it echoed even through the halls within the 
 hollow hill. 
 
 Who shall describe the joy of the maidens, 
 and how often Jaqueline and Ricardo kissed 
 each other ? 
 
 " You have saved me! " she cried to the king, 
 throwing her arms round him again. " You 
 have saved Manoa ! " 
 
 "And you have saved the Hope of Pan- 
 touflia, not once or twice," said his Majesty, 
 grandly. 
 
 And he told Dick how much he had owed to
 
 228 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 Jaqueline, in the fight with the Yellow Dwarf, 
 and the fight with the Giant, for he did not 
 think it necessary to mention the affair at 
 Rome. 
 
 Then Dick kissed Jaqueline again, and all 
 the maidens kissed each other, and they quite 
 cried for gladness. 
 
 "But we keep his Majesty the Inca waiting," 
 said Prigio. " Punctuality is the courtesy 
 of kings. You ladies will excuse me, I am 
 sure, if I remove first from the dungeon her 
 whom we call the Princess Jaqueline. The 
 Inca, her father, has a claim on us to this 
 preference." 
 
 Then placing Jaqueline on the saddle, and 
 leaving Dick to comfort the other young ladies, 
 who were still rather nervous, the king flew 
 off to Manoa, for the wind, of course, died 
 with the death of the Earthquaker. 
 
 I cannot tell you the delight of all Manoa, 
 and of the Inca, when they saw the Flying 
 Horse returning, and recognised their long-lost 
 princess, who rushed into the arms of her 
 father. They beat the serpent drums, for they 
 had no bells, on the tops of the temples. They 
 went quite mad with delight: enemies kissed 
 in the streets ; and all the parents, without 
 exception, allowed all the young people who 
 happened to be in love to be married that very 
 day. Then Prigio brought back all the maidens, 
 one after the other, and Dick last ; and he fell
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 229 
 
 at the Inca's feet, and requested leave to marry 
 Jaqueline. 
 
 But, before that could be done, King Prigio, 
 mounted on the palace balcony, made a long 
 but very lucid speech to the assembled people. 
 He began by explaining that he was not their 
 God, Pachacamac, but king of a powerful country 
 of which they had never heard before, as they 
 lived very much withdrawn in an unknown 
 region of the world. Then he pointed out, in 
 the most considerate manner, that their religion 
 was not all he could wish, otherwise they would 
 never sacrifice young ladies to wild birds and 
 Earthquakers. He next sketched out the 
 merits of his own creed, that of the Lutheran 
 Church ; and the Inca straightway observed 
 that he proposed to establish it in Manoa at 
 once. 
 
 Some objection was raised by the old priest 
 in the skull mask; but when the Inca promised 
 to make him an archbishop, and to continue all 
 his revenues, the priest admitted that he was 
 perfectly satisfied ; and the general public 
 cheered and waved their hats with emotion. 
 It was arranged that the Inca, with his 
 other daughters, should visit Pa-ntouflia im- 
 mediately, both because he could not bear 
 to leave Jaqueline, and also because there 
 were a few points on which he felt that he 
 still needed information. The Government 
 was left in the hands of the archbishop, who
 
 230 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 began at once by burning his skull mask (you 
 may see one like it in the British Museum, 
 in the Mexican room), and by letting loose all 
 the birds and beasts which the Manoans used 
 to worship. 
 
 So all the young people were married in 
 the Golden Temple of the Sun, and all 
 the Earthquaker's nurses who were under 
 thirty were wedded to the young men who 
 had been fond of them before they were 
 sent into the hollow hill. These young men 
 had never cared for any one else. Every- 
 body wore bridal favours, all the unengaged 
 young ladies acted as bridesmaids, and such 
 a throwing of rice and old shoes has very 
 seldom been witnessed. As for the happy 
 royal pair, with their fathers, and the other 
 princess (who did not happen to be engaged), 
 back they flew to Pantouflia. 
 
 And there was Queen Rosalind waiting at 
 the palace gates, and crying and laughing with 
 pleasure when she heard that the wish of her 
 heart was fulfilled, and Jaqueline was to be her 
 daughter. 
 
 " And, as for the Earthquaker," said her 
 Majesty, "I never was really anxious in the 
 least, for I knew no beast in the world was a 
 match for you, my dear." 
 
 So, just to make everything orderly and 
 correct, Ricardo and Jaqueline were married 
 over again, in the Cathedral of Pantouflia. The
 
 PRINCE RICA EDO. 231 
 
 marriage presents came in afterwards, of course, 
 and among them, what do you think ? Why, 
 the Seven- League Boots and the Sword of 
 Sharpness, with a very polite note of extra- 
 ordinary size : 
 
 " The Giant who does not Know when 
 he has had Enough presents his hearty 
 congratulations to the royal pair, and 
 begs to lay at their feet the Seven-league 
 Boots (they not fitting me) and the Sword 
 which Prince Ricardo left in the Giant's 
 keeping recently. The Giant hopes no bad 
 blood ; and I am, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 "THE G., &c. 
 
 " P.S. His little woman sends her con- 
 gratulations." 
 
 So you see the Giant was not such a bad 
 sort of fellow after all, and Prince Ricardo 
 always admitted that he never met a foe more 
 gallant and good-humoured. 
 
 With such a clever wife, Ricardo easily 
 passed all his examinations ; and his little son, 
 Prince Prigio (named after his august grand- 
 father), never had to cry, " Mamma, mamma, 
 father's plucked again." 
 
 So they lived happily in a happy country, 
 occasionally visiting Manoa ; and as they pos-
 
 232 
 
 PRINCE RICARDO. 
 
 sessed the magical Water of Life from the 
 Fountain of Lions, I do not believe that any of 
 them ever died at all, but that Prigio is still 
 King of Pantouflia. 
 
 " No need such kings should ever die ! "
 
 THE 
 
 GOLD OF FAIRNILEE 
 
 if,
 
 THE $OIaB OF 
 
 Dedicated 
 
 TO 
 
 JEANIE LANG, 
 
 LARRA 
 
 Dear Jeanie, 
 
 For you, far away on the other side of the 
 world, I made this little tale of our own country. 
 Your father and I have dug for treasure in the 
 Camp of Rink, with our knives, when we were 
 boys. We did not find it : the story will tell 
 you why. 
 
 Are there Fairies as well as Bunyips in 
 Australia? I hope so. 
 
 Yours always, 
 
 yj ^c<^~^
 
 WHUPPITY STOORIE'S SONG 
 
 IN THIS TALE 
 
 IS BY THE AUTHOR'S FRIEND, 
 
 F. DE Q. M. 
 
 16*
 
 The Old House.
 
 drblcl 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 e -Old 
 
 OU may still see the old Scotch house 
 where Randal was born, so long ago. 
 Nobody lives there now. Most of the 
 roof has fallen in, there is no glass 
 in the windows, and all the doors are 
 open. They were open in the days of 
 Randal's father nearly four hundred years 
 have passed since then and everyone who 
 came was welcome to his share of beef and 
 broth and ale. But now the doors are not 
 only open, they are quite gone, and there is 
 nobody within to give you a welcome. 
 
 So there is nothing but emptiness in the old 
 house where Randal lived with Jean, three 
 hundred and sixty years or so before you were 
 born. It is a high old house, and wide, with 
 the broken slates still on the roof. At the 
 corner there are little round towers, like pepper- 
 boxes, with sharp peaks. The stems of the
 
 238 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 ivy that covers the walls are as thick as trees. 
 There are many trees crowding all round, and 
 there are hills round it too ; and far below you 
 hear the Tweed whispering all day. The house 
 is called Fairnilee, which means "the Fairies' 
 Field;" for people believed in fairies, as you 
 shall hear, when Randal was a boy, and even 
 when my father was a boy. 
 
 Randal was all alone in the house when he 
 was a little fellow alone with his mother, and 
 Nancy the old nurse, .and Simon Grieve the 
 butler, who wore a black velvet coat and a big 
 silver chain. Then there were the maids, arfd 
 the grooms, and the farm folk, who were all 
 friends of Randal's. He was not lonely, and 
 he did not feel unhappy, even before Jean 
 came, as you shall be told. But the grown-up 
 people were sad and silent at Fairnilee. Randal 
 had no father; his mother, Lady Ker, was a 
 widow. She was still quite young, and Randal 
 thought her the most beautiful person in the 
 world. Children think these things about 
 their mothers, and Randal had seen no ladies 
 but his mother only. She had brown hair and 
 brown eyes and red lips, and a grave kind face, 
 which looked serious under her great white 
 widow's cap with the black hood over it. 
 Randal never saw his mother cry ; but when 
 he was a very little child indeed, he had heard 
 her crying in the night : this was after his 
 father went away.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 239 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Randal's father ^Game ^Home. 
 
 AN DAL remembered his father's going 
 to fight the English, and how he came 
 back again. It was a windy August 
 evening when he went away: the rain 
 had fallen since morning. Randal had 
 watched the white mists driven by the 
 gale down through the black pine-wood that 
 covers the hill opposite Fairnilee. The mist 
 looked like armies of ghosts, he thought, 
 marching, inarching through the pines, with 
 their white flags flying and streaming. Then 
 the sun came out red at evening, and Randal's 
 father rode away with all his men. He had a 
 helmet on his head, and a great axe hanging 
 from his neck by a chain, and a spear in his 
 hand. He was riding his big horse, Sir Hugh, 
 and he caught Randal up to the saddle and 
 kissed him many times before he clattered out 
 of the courtyard. All the tenants and men 
 about the farm rode with him, all with spears 
 and a flag embroidered with a crest in gold. 
 His mother watched them from the tower till 
 they were out of sight. And Randal saw them
 
 2 4 
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 ride away, not on hard, smooth roads like ours, 
 but along a green grassy track, the water 
 splashing up to their stirrups where they 
 crossed the marshes. 
 
 Then the sky turned as red as blood, in the 
 sunset, and next it grew brown, like the rust 
 on a sword ; and the Tweed below, when
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 241 
 
 they rode the ford, was all red and gold and 
 brown. 
 
 Then time went on ; that seemed a long 
 time to Randal. Only the women were left in 
 the house, and Randal played with the shep- 
 herd's children. They sailed boats in the mill- 
 pond, and they went down to the boat-pool 
 and watched to see the big copper-coloured 
 salmon splashing in the still water. One 
 evening Randal looked up suddenly from his 
 play. It was growing dark. He had been 
 building a house with the round stones' and 
 wet sand by the river. He looked up, and 
 there was his own father ! He was riding all 
 alone, and his horse, Sir Hugh, was very lean 
 and lame, and scarred with the spurs. The 
 spear in his father's hand was broken, and he. 
 had no sword ; and he looked neither to right 
 nor to left. His eyes were wide open, but he 
 seemed to see nothing. 
 
 Randal cried out to him, "Father! Father!" 
 but he never glanced at Randal. He did not 
 look as if he heard him, or knew he was there, 
 and suddenly he seemed to go away, Randal 
 did not know how or where. 
 
 Randal was frightened. 
 
 He ran into the house, and went to his 
 mother. 
 
 "Oh, mother," he said, "I have seen father! 
 He was riding all alone, and he would not look 
 at me. Sir Hugh was lame ! "
 
 242 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 " Where has he gone ? " said Lady Ker, in a 
 strange voice. 
 
 " He went away out of sight," said Randal. 
 " I could not see where he went." 
 
 Then his mother told him it could not be, 
 that his father would not have come back 
 alone. He would not leave his men behind 
 him in the war. 
 
 But Randal was so sure, that she did not 
 scold him. She knew he believed what he 
 said. 
 
 He saw that she was not happy. 
 
 All that night, which was the Fourth of Sep- 
 tember, in the year 1513, the day of Flodden 
 fight, Randal's mother did not go to bed. She 
 kept moving about the house. Now she would 
 look from the tower window up Tweed ; and 
 now she would go along the gallery and look 
 down Tweed from the other tower. She had 
 lights burning in all the windows. All next 
 day she was never still. She climbed, with 
 two of her maids, to the top of the hill above 
 Yair, on the other side of the river, and she 
 watched the roads down Ettrick and Yarrow. 
 Next night she slept little, and rose early. 
 About noon, Randal saw three or four men 
 riding wearily, with tired horses. They could 
 scarcely cross the ford of Tweed, the horses 
 were so tired. The men were Simon Grieve 
 the butler, and some of the tenants. They 
 looked very pale; some of them had their
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 243 
 
 heads tied up, and there was blood on their 
 faces. Lady Ker and Randal ran to meet 
 them. 
 
 Simon Grieve lighted from his horse, and 
 whispered to Randal's mother. 
 
 Randal did not hear what he said, but his 
 mother cried, "I knew it! I knew it!" and 
 turned quite white. 
 
 " Where is he ? " she said. 
 
 Simon pointed across the hill. "They are 
 bringing the corp," he said. Randal knew the 
 "corp" meant the dead body. 
 
 He began to cry. "Where is my father?" 
 he said, " where is my father ? " 
 
 His mother led him into the house. She 
 gave him to the old nurse, who cried over him, 
 and kissed him, and offered him cakes, and 
 made him a whistle with a branch of plane 
 tree, So in a short while Randal only felt 
 puzzled. Then he forgot, and began to play. 
 He was a very little boy. 
 
 Lady Ker shut herself up in her own room 
 her " bower," the servants called it. 
 
 Soon Randal heard heavy steps on the stairs, 
 and whispering. He wanted to run out, and 
 his nurse caught hold of him, and would not 
 have let him go, but he slipped out of her 
 hand, and looked over the staircase. 
 
 They were bringing up the body of a man 
 stretched on a shield. 
 
 It was Randal's father.
 
 244 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 He had been slain at Flodden, fighting for 
 the king. An arrow had gone through his 
 brain, and he had fallen beside James IV., with 
 many another brave knight, all the best of 
 Scotland, the Flowers of the Forest. 
 
 What was it Randal saw, when he thought 
 he met his father in the twilight, three days 
 before ? 
 
 He never knew. His mother said he must 
 have dreamed it all. 
 
 The old nurse used to gossip about it to the 
 maids. " He 's an unco' bairn, oor Randal ; 
 I wush he may na be fey." 
 
 She meant that Randal was a strange child, 
 and that strange things would happen to him.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 245 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ow {Jean was brought to tfairnilee. 
 
 'HE winter went by very sadly. At first 
 the people about Fairnilee expected the 
 English to cross the Border and march 
 against them. They drove their cattle 
 out on the wild hills, and into marshes 
 where only they knew the firm paths, 
 
 and raised walls of earth and stones barmkyns, 
 
 they called them round the old house; and 
 
 made many arrows 
 
 to shoot out of the 
 
 narrow windows 
 
 at the English. 
 
 Randal used to 
 
 like to see the 
 
 arrow- making 
 
 beside the fire at 
 
 night. He was not 
 
 afraid ; and said 
 
 he would show the 
 
 English what he 
 
 could do with his 
 
 little bow. But 
 
 weeks went on and 
 
 no enemy came. Spring drew near, the snow 
 
 melted from the hills. One night Randal was
 
 246 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 awakened by a great noise of shouting ; he 
 looked out of the window, and saw bright 
 torches moving about. He heard the cows 
 " routing," or bellowing, and the women 
 screaming. He thought the English had 
 come. So they had ; not the English army, 
 but some robbers from the other side of the 
 Border. At that time the people on the south 
 side of Scotland and the north side of England 
 used to steal dach other's cows time about. 
 When a Scotch squire, or " laird," like Ran- 
 dal's father, had been robbed by the neighbour- 
 ing English, he would wait his chance and drive 
 away cattle from the English side. This time 
 most of Randal's mother's herds were seized, 
 by a sudden attack in the night, and were 
 driven away through the Forest to England. 
 'Two or three of Lady Ker's men were hurt by 
 the English, but old Simon Grieve took a 
 prisoner. He did this in a curious way. He 
 shot an arrow after the robbers as they rode 
 off, and the arrow pinned an Englishman's 
 leg to the saddle, and even into his horse. The 
 horse was hurt and frightened, and ran away 
 right back to Fairnilee, where it was caught, 
 with the rider and all, for of course he could 
 not dismount. 
 
 They treated him kindly at Fairnilee, though 
 they laughed at him a good deal. They found 
 out from him where the English had come 
 from. He did not mind telling them, for he
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 247 
 
 was really a gipsy from Yetholm, where the 
 gipsies live, and Scot or Southron was all one 
 to him. 
 
 When old Simon Grieve knew who the 
 people were that had taken the cows, he was 
 not long in calling the men together, and trying 
 to get back what he had lost. Early one 
 April morning, a grey morning, with snow in 
 the air, he and his spearmen set out, riding 
 down through the Forest, and so into Liddes- 
 dale. When they came back again, there were 
 great rejoicings at Fairnilee. They drove most 
 of their o.vvn cows before them, and a great many 
 other cows that they had not lost ; cows of the 
 English farmers. The byres and yards were 
 soon full of cattle, lowing and roaring, very 
 uneasy, and some of them with marks of the 
 spears that had goaded them across many a 
 ford, and up many a rocky pass in the hills. 
 
 Randal jumped downstairs to the great hall, 
 where his mother sat. Simon Grieve was 
 telling her all about it. 
 
 " Sae we drave oor ain kye hame, my lady," 
 he said, " and aiblins some orra anes that was 
 na oor ain. For-bye we raikit a' the plenishing 
 oot o' the ha' o' Hardriding, and a bonny 
 burden o' tapestries, and plaids, and gear we 
 hae, to show for our ride."* 
 
 * "We drove our own cattle home, and perhaps some 
 others that were not ours. And we took all the goods out 
 of the hall at Hardriding, and a pretty load of tapestries, 
 and rugs, and other things we have to show for our ride."
 
 24 8 
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 Then he called to some of his men, who 
 came into the hall, and cast down great piles 
 of all sorts of spoil and booty, silver plate, and 
 silken hangings, and a heap of rugs, and car- 
 pets, and plaids, such as Randal had never 
 seen before, for the English were much richer 
 than the Scotch. 
 
 Randal threw himself on the pile of rugs and 
 began to roll on it. 
 
 " Oh, mother," he cried suddenly, jumping 
 up and looking with wide-open eyes, " there 's 
 something living in the heap ! Perhaps it's a 
 doggie, or a rabbit, or a kitten."
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 249 
 
 Then Randal tugged at the cloths, and then 
 they all heard a little shrill cry. 
 
 " Why, it 's a bairn ! " said Lady Ker, who 
 had sat very grave all the time, pleased to have 
 done the English some harm ; for they had 
 killed her husband, and were all her deadly 
 foes. " It 's a bairn ! " she cried, and pulled 
 out of the great heap of cloaks and rugs a 
 little beautiful child, in its white nightdress, 
 with its yellow curls all tangled over its blue 
 eyes. 
 
 Then Lady Ker and the old nurse could not 
 make too much of the pretty English child that 
 had come here in such a wonderful way. 
 
 How did it get mixed up with all the spoil ? 
 and how had it been carried so far on horse- 
 back without being hurt ? Nobody ever knew. 
 It came as if the fairies had sent it. English 
 it was, but the best Scot could not hate such a 
 pretty child. Old Nancy Dryden ran up to 
 the old nursery with it, and laid it in a 
 great wooden tub full of hot water, and was 
 giving it warm milk to drink, and dandling 
 it, almost before the men knew what had 
 happened. 
 
 "Yon bairn will be a bonny mate for you, 
 Maister Randal," said old Simon Grieve. 
 " 'Deed, I dinna think her kin will come 
 speering* after her at Fairnilee. The Red 
 Cock 's crawing ower Hardriding Ha' this day, 
 
 * Asking. 
 17
 
 250 THE GOLD OF FA I RN I LEE. 
 
 and when the womenfolk come back frae the 
 wood, they '11 hae other thing to do for-bye 
 looking for bairns." 
 
 When Simon Grieve said that the Red Cock 
 was crowing over his enemies' home, he meant 
 that he had set it on fire after the people who 
 lived in it had run away. 
 
 Lady Ker grew pale when she heard what he 
 said. She hated the English, to be sure, but 
 she was a woman with a kind heart. She 
 thought of the dreadful danger that the little 
 English girl had escaped, [and she went up- 
 stairs and helped the nurse to make the 
 child happy.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 251 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Randal and fjean. 
 
 [HE little girl soon made everyone at 
 Fairnilee happy. She was far too young 
 to remember her own home, and pre- 
 sently she was crawling up and down 
 the long hall and making friends with 
 Randal. They found out that her name 
 was Jane Musgrave, though she could hardly 
 say Musgrave; and they called her Jean, with 
 their Scotch tongues, or "Jean o' the Kye," 
 because she came when the cows were driven 
 home again. 
 
 Soon the old nurse came to like her near as 
 well as Randal, " her ain bairn " (her own 
 child), as she called him. In the summer 
 days, Jean, as she grew older, would follow 
 Randal about like a little doggie. They went 
 fishing together, and Randal would pull the 
 trout out of Caddon Burn, or the Burn of 
 Peel ; and Jeanie would be very proud of him, 
 and very much alarmed at the big, wide jaws 
 of the yellow trout. And Randal would plait 
 helmets with green rushes for her and him,, 
 and make spears of bulrushes, and play at tilts 
 17 *
 
 252 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 and tournaments. There was peace in the 
 country ; or if there was war, it did not come 
 near the quiet valley of the Tweed and the 
 hills that lie round Fairnilee. In summer 
 they were always on the hills and by the 
 burnsides. 
 
 You cannot think, if you have not tried, what 
 pleasant company a burn is. It comes out of 
 the deep, black wells in the moss, far away on 
 the tops of the hills, where the sheep feed, and 
 the fox peers from his hole, and the ravens 
 build in the crags. The burn flows down from 
 the lonely places, cutting a way between steep, 
 green banks, tumbling in white waterfalls over 
 rocks, and lying in black, deep pools below the 
 waterfalls. At every turn it does something 
 new, and plays a fresh game with its brown 
 waters. The white pebbles in the water look 
 like gold : often Randal would pick one out 
 and think he had found a gold-mine, till he 
 got it into the sunshine, and then it was only 
 a white stone, what he called a "chucky- 
 stane ; " but he kept hoping for better luck 
 next time. In the height of summer, when the 
 streams were very low, he and the shepherd's 
 boys would build dams of stones and turf 
 across a narrow part of the burn, while Jean 
 sat and watched them on a little round knoll. 
 Then, when plenty of water had collected in 
 the pool, they would break the dam and let it 
 all run downhill in a little flood ; they called it
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 253 
 
 a " hurly gush." And in winter they would 
 slide on the black, smooth ice of the boat-pool,- 
 beneath the branches of the alders. 
 
 Or they would go out with Yarrow, the shep- 
 herd's dog, and follow the track of wild 
 creatures in the snow. The rabbit makes 
 marks like ", and the hare makes marks 
 like V ; but the fox's track is just as if you 
 had pushed a piece of wood through the snow 
 a number of cuts in the surface, going 
 straight along. When it was very cold, the 
 grouse and black-cocks would come into the 
 trees near the house, and Randal and Jean 
 would put out porridge for them to eat. And 
 the great white swans floated in from the 
 frozen lochs on the hills, and gathered round 
 open reaches and streams of the Tweed. It 
 was pleasant to be a boy then in the North. 
 And at Hallow E'en they would duck for 
 apples in tubs of water, and burn nuts in the 
 fire, and look for the shadow of the lady 
 Randal was to marry, in the mirror; but he 
 only saw Jean looking over his shoulder. 
 
 The days were very short in winter, so far 
 North, and they would soon be driven into the 
 house. Then they sat by the nursery fire; 
 and those were almost the pleasantest hours, 
 for the old nurse would tell them old Scotch 
 stories of elves and fairies, and sing them old 
 songs. Jean would crawl close to Randal and 
 hold his hand, for fear the Red Etin, or some
 
 254 
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 other awful bogle, should get her : and in the 
 dancing shadows of the firelight she would 
 think she saw Whuppity Stoorie, the wicked 
 old witch with the spinning-wheel ; but it was 
 
 really nothing but the shadow of the wheel 
 that the^old nurse drove with her foot birr, 
 birr and that whirred and rattled as she span 
 and told her tale. For people span their cloth
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 255 
 
 at home then, instead of buying it from shops ; 
 and the old nurse was a great woman for 
 spinning. 
 
 She was a great woman for stories, too, and 
 believed in fairies, and "bogles," as she called 
 them. Had not her own cousin, Andrew Tam- 
 son, passed the Cauldshiels Loch one New Year 
 morning ? And had he not heard a dreadful 
 roaring, as if all the cattle on Faldonside Hill 
 were routing at once ? And then did he not 
 see a great black beast roll down the hillside, 
 like a black ball, and run into the loch, which 
 grew white with foam, and the waves leaped 
 up the banks like a tide rising ? What could 
 that be except the kelpie that lives in Cauld- 
 shiels Loch, and is just a muckle big water 
 bull ? " And what for should there no be 
 water kye, if there 's land kye ? " 
 
 Randal and Jean thought it was very likely 
 there were " kye," or cattle, in the water. And 
 some Highland people think so still, and 
 believe they have seen the great kelpie come 
 roaring out of the lake ; or Shellycoat, whose 
 skin is all crusted like a rock with shells, 
 sitting beside the sea. 
 
 The old nurse had other tales, that nobody 
 believes any longer, about Brownies. A 
 Brownie was a very useful creature to have in 
 a house. He was a kind of fairy-man, and he 
 came out in the dark, when everybody had 
 gone to bed, just as mice pop out at night.
 
 256 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 He never did anyone any harm, but he sat and 
 warmed himself at the kitchen fire. If any 
 work was unfinished he did it, and made every- 
 thing tidy that was left out of order. It is a 
 pity there are no such bogles now ! If any- 
 body offered the Brownie any payment, even if 
 it was only a silver penny or a new coat, he 
 would take offence and go away. 
 
 Other stories the old nurse had, about hidden 
 treasures and buried gold. If you believed 
 her, there was hardly an old stone on the hill- 
 side but had gold under it. The very sheep 
 that fed upon the Eildon Hills, which Randal 
 knew well, had yellow teeth because there was 
 so much gold under the grass. Randal had 
 taken two scones, or rolls, in his pocket for 
 dinner, and ridden over to the Eildon Hills. 
 He had seen a rainbow touch one of them, 
 and there he hoped he would find the treasure 
 that always lies at the tail of the rainbow. 
 But he got very soon tired of digging for it 
 with his little dirk, or dagger. It blunted the 
 dagger, and he found nothing. Perhaps he 
 had not marked quite the right place, he 
 thought. But he looked at the teeth of the 
 sheep, and they were yellow ; so he had no 
 doubt that there was a gold-mine under the 
 grass, if he could find it. 
 
 The old nurse knew that it was very difficult 
 to dig up fairy gold. Generally something 
 happened just when people heard their pick-
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 257 
 
 axes clink on the iron pot that held the 
 treasure. A dreadful storm of thunder and 
 lightning would break out ; or the burn would 
 be flooded, and rush down all red and roaring, 
 sweeping away the tools and drowning the 
 digger ; or a strange man, that nobody had 
 ever seen before, would come up, waving his 
 arms, and crying out that the Castle was on 
 fire. Then the people would hurry up to the 
 Castle, and find that it was not on fire at all. 
 When they returned, all the earth would be 
 just as it was before they began, and they 
 would give up in despair. Nobody could ever 
 see the man again that gave the alarm. 
 
 " Who could he be, nurse ? " Randal asked. 
 
 " Just one of the good folk, I 'm thinking ; 
 but it 's no weel to be speaking o' them" 
 
 Randal knew that the " good folk " meant 
 the fairies. The old nurse called them the 
 good folk for fear of offending them. She 
 would not speak much about them, except now 
 and then, when the servants had been making 
 merry. 
 
 " And is there any treasure hidden near 
 Fairnilee, nursie ? " asked little Jean. 
 
 "Treasure, my bonny doo! Mair than a' 
 the men about the toon could carry away 
 frae morning till nicht. Do ye no ken the 
 auld rhyme ? 
 
 ' Atween the wet ground and the dry 
 The gold of Fairnilee doth lie.'
 
 258 THE GOLD OF F4IRNILEE. 
 
 And there 's the other auld rhyme 
 
 ' Between the Camp o' Rink 
 And Tweed water clear, 
 Lie nine kings' ransoms 
 For nine hundred year ! ' " 
 
 Randal and Jean were very glad to hear so 
 much gold was near them as would pay nine 
 kings' ransoms. They took their small spades 
 and dug little holes in the Camp of Rink, which 
 is a great old circle of stonework, surrounded 
 by a deep ditch, on the top of a hill above the 
 house. But Jean was not a very good digger, 
 and even Randal grew tired. They thought 
 they would wait till they grew bigger, and then 
 find the gold.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 259 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Jbe good %olk. 
 
 EVERYBODY knows there's fairies," said 
 the old nurse one night when she was 
 bolder than usual. What she said 
 we will put in English, not Scotch 
 as she spoke it. " But they do not 
 like to be called fairies. So the old 
 rhyme runs : 
 
 ' If ye call me imp or elf, 
 I warn you look well to yourself; 
 If ye call me fairy, 
 Ye '11 find me quite contrary ; 
 If good neighbour you call me, 
 Then good neighbour I will be ; 
 But if you call me kindly sprite, 
 I '11 be your friend both day and night.' 
 
 So you must always call them 'good neigh- 
 bours ' or ' good folk,' when you speak of 
 them." 
 
 " Did you ever see a fairy, nurse ? " asked 
 Randal. 
 
 " Not myself, but my mother knew a woman 
 they called her Tibby Dickson, and her hus- 
 band was a shepherd, and she had a bairn, as 
 bonny a bairn as ever you saw. And one day
 
 260 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 she went to the well to draw water, and as she 
 was coming back she heard a loud scream in 
 her house. Then her heart leaped, and fast 
 she ran and flew to the cradle ; and there she 
 saw an awful sight not her own bairn, but a 
 withered imp, with hands like a mole's, and a 
 face like a frog's, and a mouth from ear to ear,, 
 and two great staring eyes." 
 
 " What was it ? " asked Jeanie, in a trem- 
 bling voice. 
 
 " A fairy's bairn that had not thriven," said 
 nurse; "and when their bairns do not thrive, 
 they just steal honest folks' children and carry 
 them away to their own country." 
 
 " And where 's that ? " said Randal, 
 
 " It 's under the ground," said nurse, " and 
 there they have gold and silver and diamonds ; 
 and there's the Queen of them all, that's as 
 beautiful as the day. She has yellow hair down 
 to her feet, and she has blue eyes, like the sky 
 on a fine day, and her voice like all the mavises 
 singing in the spring. And she is aye dressed 
 in green, and all her court in green ; and she 
 rides a white horse with golden bells on the 
 bridle." 
 
 " I would like to go there and see her," said 
 Randal. 
 
 " Oh, never say that, my bairn ; you never 
 know who may hear you ! And if you go there, 
 how will you come back again ? and what will 
 your mother do, and Jean here, and me that's
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 261 
 
 carried you many a time in weary arms when 
 you were a babe ? " 
 
 " Can't people come back again ? " asked 
 Randal. 
 
 " Some say ' Yes,' and some say ' No.' There 
 was Tarn Hislop, that vanished away the day 
 before all the lads and your own father went 
 forth to that weary war at Flodden, and the 
 English, for once, by guile, won the day. Well, 
 Tarn Hislop, when the news came that all must 
 arm and mount and ride, he could nowhere be 
 found. It was as if the wind had carried him 
 away. High and low they sought him, but 
 there was his clothes and his jack,* and his 
 sword and his spear, but no Tarn Hislop. 
 Well, no man heard more of him for seven 
 whole years, not till last year, and then he 
 came back : sore tired he looked, ay, and older 
 than when he was lost. And I met him by the 
 well, and I was frightened ; and ' Tarn,' I said, 
 ' where have ye been this weary time ? ' 'I 
 have been with them that I will not speak the 
 name of,' says he. * Ye mean the good folk,' 
 said I. 'Ye have said it,' says he. Then I 
 went up to the house, with my heart in my 
 mouth, and I met Simon Grieve. ' Simon,' I 
 says, ' here 's Tarn Hislop come home from the 
 good folk.' ' I '11 soon send him back to them,' 
 says he. And he takes a great rungf and lays 
 it about Tarn's shoulders, calling him coward 
 
 * Jack, a kind of breastplate, f Rung, a staff.
 
 262 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 loon, that ran away from the fighting. And 
 since then Tarn has never been seen about the 
 place. But the Laird's man, of Gala, knows 
 them that say he was in Perth the last seven 
 years, and not in Fairyland at all. But it was 
 Fairyland he told me, and he would not lie to 
 his own mother's half-brother's cousin." 
 
 Randal did not care much for the story of 
 Tarn Hislop. A fellow who would let old 
 Simon Grieve beat him could not be worthy of 
 the Fairy Queen. 
 
 Randal was about thirteen now, a tall boy, 
 with dark eyes, black hair, a brown face with 
 the red on his cheeks. He had grown up in a 
 country where everything was magical and 
 haunted ; where fairy knights rode on the leas 
 after dark, and challenged men to battle. 
 Every castle had its tale of Redcap, the sly 
 spirit, or of the woman of the hairy hand. 
 Every old mound was thought to cover hidden 
 gold. And all was so lonely ; the green hills 
 rolling between river and river, with no men 
 on them, nothing but sheep, and grouse, and 
 plover. No wonder that Randal lived in a kind 
 of dream. He would lie and watch the long 
 grass till it looked like a forest, and he thought 
 he could see elves dancing between the green 
 grass stems, that were like fairy trees. He 
 kept wishing that he, too, might meet the 
 Fairy Queen, and be taken into that other 
 world where everything was beautiful.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 263 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Zhe Wishing Well. 
 
 EAN," said Randal one midsummer day, 
 " I am going to the Wishing Well." 
 
 " Oh, Randal," said Jean, " it is so far 
 away ! " 
 
 " I can walk it," said Randal, " and 
 you must come, too ; I want you, Jeanie. 
 It's not so very far." 
 
 " But mother says it is wrong to go to 
 Wishing Wells," Jean answered. 
 
 " Why is it wrong ? " said Randal, switching 
 at the tall foxgloves with a stick. 
 
 " Oh, she says it is a wicked thing, and for- 
 bidden by the Church. People who go to wish 
 there, sacrifice to the spirits of the well; 
 and Father Francis told her that it was very 
 wrong." 
 
 " Father Francis is a shaveling," said Randal. 
 " I heard Simon Grieve say so." 
 " What 's a shaveling, Randal ? " 
 " I don't know : a man that does not fight, I 
 think. I don't care what a shaveling says : so- 
 I mean just to go and wish, and I won't sacri-
 
 264 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 fice anything. There can't be any harm in 
 that ! " 
 
 " But, oh Randal, you 've got your green 
 doublet on ! " 
 
 "Well! why not?" 
 
 " Do you not know it angers the fair I mean 
 the good folk, that anyone should wear green 
 on the hill but themselves ? " 
 
 " I cannot help it," said Randal. " If I go 
 in and change my doublet, they will ask what I 
 do that for. I '11 chance it, green or grey, and 
 wish my wish for all that." 
 
 " And what are you going to wish ? " 
 
 " I 'm going to wish to meet the Fairy Queen ! 
 Just think how beautiful she must be ! dressed 
 all in green, with gold bells on her bridle, and 
 riding a white horse shod with gold ! I think I 
 see her galloping through the woods and out 
 across the hill, over the heather." 
 
 " But you will go away with her, and never 
 see me any more," said Jean. 
 
 " No, I won't ; or if I do, I '11 come back, 
 with such a horse, and a sword with a gold 
 handle. I 'm going to the Wishing Well. 
 Come on ! " 
 
 Jean did not like to say " No," and off they 
 went. 
 
 Randal and Jean started without taking any- 
 thing with them to eat. They were afraid to 
 go back to the house for food. Randal said 
 they would be sure to find something some-
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 265 
 
 where. The Wishing Well was on the top of 
 a hill between Yarrow and Tweed. So they 
 took off their shoes, and waded the Tweed at 
 the shallowest part, and then they walked up 
 the green grassy bank on the other side, till 
 
 they came to the burn of Peel. Here they 
 passed the old square tower of Peel, and the 
 shepherd dogs came out and barked at them. 
 Randal threw a stone at them, and they ran 
 away with their tails between their legs. 
 
 " Don't you think we had better go into Peel, 
 and get some bannocks to eat on the way, 
 Randal ? " said Jean. 
 
 18
 
 266 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 But Randal said he was not hungry ; and, 
 besides, the people at Peel would tell the 
 Fairnilee people where they had gone. 
 
 " We'll wish for things to eat when we get to 
 the Wishing Well," said Randal. "All sorts 
 of good things cold venison pasty, and every- 
 thing you like." 
 
 So they began climbing the hill, and they 
 followed the Peel burn. It ran in and out, 
 winding this way and that, and when they did 
 get to the top of the hill, Jean was very tired 
 and very hungry. And she was very dis- 
 appointed. For she expected to see some 
 wonderful new country at her feet, and there 
 was only a low strip of sunburnt grass and 
 heather, and then another hill-top ! So Jean 
 sat down, and the hot sun blazed on her, and 
 the flies buzzed about her and tormented her. 
 
 "Come on, Jean," said Randal; "it must be 
 over the next hill ! " 
 
 So poor Jean got up and followed him, but 
 he walked far too fast for her. When she 
 reached the crest of the next hill, she found a 
 great cairn, or pile of grey stones ; and beneath 
 her lay, far, far below, a deep valley covered 
 with woods, and a stream running through it 
 that she had never seen before. 
 
 That stream was the Yarrow. 
 
 Randal was nowhere in sight, and she did 
 not know where to look for the Wishing Well. 
 If she had walked straight forward through the
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 267 
 
 trees she would have come to it ; but she was 
 so tired, and so hungry, and so hot, that she 
 sat down at the foot of the cairn and cried as 
 if her heart would break. 
 
 Then she fell asleep. 
 
 When Jean woke, it was as dark as it ever 
 is on a midsummer night in Scotland. 
 
 It was a soft, cloudy night ; not a clear night 
 with a silver sky. 
 
 Jeanie heard a loud roaring close to her, and 
 the red light of a great fire was in her sleepy 
 eyes. 
 
 In the firelight she saw strange black beasts, 
 with horns, plunging and leaping and bellow- 
 ing, and dark figures rushing about the flames. 
 It was the beasts that made the roaring. They 
 
 18*
 
 268 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 \\ere bounding about close to the fire, and 
 sometimes in it, and were all mixed in the 
 smoke. 
 
 Jeanie was dreadfully frightened, too fright- 
 ened to scream. 
 
 Presently she heard the voices of men shout- 
 ing on the hill below her. The shouts and the 
 barking of dogs came nearer and nearer. 
 
 Then a dog ran up to her, and licked her 
 face, and jumped about her. 
 
 It was her own sheepdog, Yarrow. 
 
 He ran back to the men who were following 
 him, and came again with one of them. 
 
 It was old Simon Grieve, very tired, and so 
 much out of breath that he could scarcely 
 speak. 
 
 Jean was very glad to see him, and not 
 frightened any longer. 
 
 "Oh, Jeanie, my doo'," said Simon, "where 
 hae ye been ? A muckle gliff ye hae gien us, 
 and a weary spiel up the weary braes." 
 
 Jean told him all about it : how she had 
 come with Randal to see the Wishing Well, 
 and how she had lost him, and fallen asleep. 
 
 "And sic a nicht for you bairns to wander 
 on the hill," said Simon. "It's the nicht o* 
 St. John, when the guid folk hae power. And 
 there 's a' the lads burning the Bel fires, and 
 driving the nowt * through them : nae less will 
 serve them. Sic a nicht ! " 
 
 * Nowt, cattle.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 269 
 
 This was the cause of the fire Jean saw, and 
 of the noise of the cattle. On midsummer's 
 night the country people used to light these 
 fires, and drive the cattle through them. It 
 was an old, old custom come down from 
 heathen times. 
 
 Now the other men from Fairnilee had 
 gathered round Jean. Lady Ker had sent 
 them out to look for Randal and her on the 
 hills. They had heard from the good wife at 
 Peel that the children had gone up the burn, 
 and Yarrow had tracked them till Jean was 
 found.
 
 270 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 'Where is 3\andal? 
 )AN was found, but where was Randal ? 
 
 " She told the men who had come out to 
 
 f 
 
 r 
 
 fj look for her, that Randal had gone on 
 to look for the Wishing Well. So they 
 rolled her up in a big shepherd's plaid, 
 and two of them carried Jean home in 
 the plaid, while all the rest, with lighted 
 torches in their hands, went to look for Randal 
 through the wood. 
 
 Jean was so tired that she fell asleep again 
 in her plaid before they reached Fairnilee. 
 She was wakened by the men shouting as they 
 drew near the house, to show that they were 
 coming home. Lady Ker was waiting at the 
 gate, and the old nurse ran down the grassy 
 path to meet them. 
 
 " Where 's my bairn ? " she cried as soon as 
 she was within call. 
 
 The men said, " Here 's Mistress Jean, and 
 Randal will be here soon ; they have gone to 
 look for him." 
 
 "Where are they looking? " cried nurse. 
 
 "Just about the Wishing Well." 
 
 The nurse gave a scream, and hobbled back 
 to Lady Ker.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 271 
 
 " Ma bairn's tint ! " * she cried, " ma bairn's 
 tint ! They '11 find him never. The good folk 
 have stolen him away from that weary Wishing 
 Well ! " 
 
 "Hush, nurse," said Lady Ker, "do not 
 frighten Jean." 
 
 She spoke to the men, who had no doubt 
 that Randal would soon be found and brought 
 home. 
 
 So Jean was put to bed, where she forgot all 
 her troubles ; and Lady Ker waited, waited, all 
 night, till the grey light began to come in, 
 about two in the morning. 
 
 Lady Ker kept very still and quiet, telling 
 her beads, and praying. But the old nurse 
 would never be still, but was always wandering 
 out, down to the river's edge, listening for the 
 shouts of the shepherds coming home. Then 
 she would come back again, and moan and 
 wring her hands, crying for " her bairn." 
 
 About six o'clock, when it was broad day- 
 light and all the birds were singing, the men 
 returned from the hill. 
 
 But Randal did not come with them. 
 
 Then the old nurse set up a great cry, as the 
 country people do over the bed of someone 
 who has just died. 
 
 Lady Ker sent her away, and called Simon 
 Grieve to her own room. 
 
 " You have not found the boy yet ? " she 
 * Tint, lost.
 
 272 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 said, very stately and pale. " He must have 
 wandered over into Yarrow ; perhaps he has 
 gone as far as Newark, and passed the night 
 at the castle, or with the shepherd at Foul- 
 shiels." 
 
 " No, my Lady," said Simon Grieve, " some 
 o' the men went over to Newark, and some to 
 Foulshiels, and other some down to Sir John 
 Murray's at Philiphaugh ; but there 's never a 
 word o' Randal in a' the country-side." 
 
 " Did you find no trace of him ? " said Lady 
 Ker, sitting down suddenly in the great arm- 
 chair. 
 
 "We went first through the wood, my Lady, 
 by the path to the Wishing Well. And he had 
 been there, for the whip he carried in his hand 
 was lying on the grass. And we found this" 
 
 He put his hand in his pouch, and brought 
 out a little silver crucifix, that Randal used 
 always to wear round his neck on a chain. 
 
 "This was lying on the grass beside the 
 Wishing Well, my Lady " 
 
 Then he stopped, for Lady Ker had swooned 
 away. She was worn out with watching and 
 with anxiety about Randal. 
 
 Simon went and called the maids, and they 
 brought water and wine, and soon Lady Ker 
 came back to herself, with the little silver 
 crucifix in her hand. 
 
 The old nurse was crying, and making a 
 great noise.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 273 
 
 "The good folk have taken ma bairn," she 
 said, "this nicht o' a' the nichts in the year, 
 when the fairy folk preserve us frae them ! 
 have power. But they could nae take the 
 blessed rood o' grace ; it was beyond their 
 strength. If gipsies, or robber folk frae the 
 Debatable Land, had carried away the bairn, 
 they would hae taken him, cross and a'. But 
 the guid folk have gotten him, and Randal 
 Ker will never, never mair come hame to 
 bonny Fairnilee." 
 
 What the old nurse said was what everybody 
 thought. Even Simon Grieve shook his head, 
 and did not like it. 
 
 But Lady Ker did not give up hope. She 
 sent horsemen through all the country-side : 
 up Tweed to the Crook, and to Talla ; up 
 Yarrow, past Catslack Tower, and on to the 
 Loch of Saint Mary; up Ettrick to Thirlestane 
 and Buccleugh, and over to Gala, and to 
 Branxholme in Teviotdale ; and even to Her- 
 mitage Castle, far away by Liddel water. 
 
 They rode far and rode fast, and at eyery 
 cottage and every tower they asked " had any- 
 one seen a boy in green ? " But nobody had 
 seen Randal through all the country - side. 
 Only a shepherd lad, on Foulshiels hill, had 
 heard bells ringing in the night, and a sound 
 of laughter go past him, like a breeze of wind 
 over the heather. 
 
 Days went by, and all the country was out
 
 274 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 to look for Randal. Down in Yetholme they 
 sought him, among the gipsies; and across 
 the Eden in merry Carlisle ; and through the 
 Land Debatable, where the robber Armstrongs 
 and Grahames lived ; and far down Tweed, 
 past Melrose, and up Jed water, far into the 
 Cheviot hills. 
 
 But there never came any word of Randal. 
 He had vanished as if the earth had opened 
 and swallowed him. Father Francis came 
 from Melrose Abbey, and prayed with Lady 
 Ker, and gave her all the comfort he could. 
 He shook his head when he heard of the 
 Wishing Well, but he said that no spirit of 
 earth or air could have power for ever over a 
 Christian soul. But, even when he spoke, he 
 remembered that, once in seven years, the 
 fairy folk have to pay a dreadful tax, one of 
 themselves, to the King of a terrible country of 
 Darkness ; and what if they had stolen Randal, 
 to pay the tax with him ! 
 
 This was what troubled good Father Francis, 
 though, like a wise man, he said nothing about 
 it, and even put the thought away out of his 
 own mind. 
 
 But you may be sure that the old nurse had 
 thought of this tax on the fairies too, and that 
 she did not hold her peace about it, but spoke 
 to everyone that would listen to her, and would 
 have spoken to the mistress if she had been 
 allowed. But when she tried to begin, Lady
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 275 
 
 Ker told her that she had put her own trust in 
 Heaven, and in the Saints. And she gave the 
 nurse such a look when she said that, " if ever 
 Jean heard of this, she would send nurse away 
 from Fairnilee, out of the country," that the 
 old woman was afraid, and was quiet. 
 
 As for poor Jean, she was perhaps the most 
 unhappy of them all. She thought to herself, 
 if she had refused to go with Randal to the 
 Wishing Well, and had run in and told Lady 
 Ker, then Randal would never have started to 
 find the Wishing Well. And she put herself 
 in great danger, as she fancied, to find him. 
 She wandered alone on the hills, seeking all 
 the places that were believed to be haunted by 
 fairies. 
 
 At every Fairy Knowe, as the country people 
 called the little round green knolls in the midst 
 of the heather, Jean would stoop her ear to the 
 ground, trying to hear the voices of the fairies 
 within. For it was believed that you might 
 hear the sound of their speech, and the tramp- 
 ling of their horses, and the shouts of the fairy 
 children. But no sound came, except the song 
 of the burn flowing by, and the hum of gnats 
 in the air, and the gock, gock, the cry of the 
 grouse, when you frighten him in the heather. 
 
 Then Jeanie would try another way of 
 meeting the fairies, and finding Randal. She 
 would walk nine times round a Fairy Knowe, 
 beginning from the left side, because then it
 
 276 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 was fancied that the hill -side would open, 
 like a door, and show a path into Fairyland. 
 But the hill-side never opened, and she never 
 saw a single fairy ; not even old Whuppity 
 Stoorie sit with her spinning-wheel in a green 
 glen, spinning grass into gold, and singing 
 .her fairy song : 
 
 " I once was young and fair, 
 
 My eyes were bright and blue, 
 As if the sun shone through, 
 And golden was my hair. 
 
 " Down to my feet it rolled 
 Ruddy and ripe like corn, 
 Upon an autumn morn, 
 In heavy waves of gold. 
 
 " Now am I grey and old, 
 And so I sit and spin, 
 With trembling hand and thin, 
 This metal bright and cold. 
 
 " I would give all the gain, 
 
 These heaps of wealth untold 
 Of hard and glittering gold, 
 Could I be young again ! "
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 277 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 fbc 311 Years. 
 
 O autumn came, and all the hill-sides were 
 golden with the heather ; and the red 
 coral berries of the rowan trees hung 
 from the boughs, and were wet with the 
 spray of the waterfalls in the burns. And 
 days grew shorter, and winter came with 
 snow, but Randal never came back to Fairnilee. 
 Season after season passed, and year after year. 
 Lady Ker's hair grew white like snow, and her 
 face thin and pale for she fasted often, as was 
 the rule of her Church ; all this was before the 
 Reformation. And she slept little, praying half 
 the night for Randal's sake. And she went on 
 pilgrimages to many shrines of the Saints : to 
 St. Boswell and St. Rule's, hard by the great 
 Cathedral of St. Andrew's on the sea. Nay, 
 she went across the Border as far as the Abbey 
 of St. Alban's, and even to St. Thomas's shrine 
 of Canterbury, taking Jean with her. Many a 
 weary mile they rode over hill and dale, and 
 many an adventure they had, and ran many 
 dangers from robbers, and soldiers disbanded 
 from the wars.
 
 278 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 But at last they had to come back to Fair- 
 nilee ; and a sad place it was, and silent 
 without the sound of Randal's voice in the 
 hall, and the noise of his hunting-horn in the 
 woods. None of the people wore mourning 
 for him, though they mourned in their hearts. 
 For to put on black would look as if they had 
 given up all hope. Perhaps most of them 
 thought they would never see him again, but 
 Jeanie was not one who despaired. 
 
 The years that had turned Lady Ker's hair 
 white, had made Jean a tall, slim lass " very 
 bonny," everyone said ; and the country people 
 called her the Flower of Tweed. The Yarrow 
 folk had their Flower of Yarrow, and why not 
 the folk of Tweedside ? It was now six years 
 since Randal had been lost, and Jeanie was 
 grown a young woman, about seventeen years 
 old. She had always kept a hope that if 
 Randal was with the Fairy Queen he would 
 return perhaps in the seventh year. People 
 said on the country-side that many a man and 
 woman had escaped out of Fairyland after 
 seven years' imprisonment there. 
 
 Now the sixth year since Randal's disappear- 
 ance began very badly, and got worse as it 
 went on. Just when spring should have been 
 beginning, in the end of February, there came 
 the most dreadful snowstorm. It blew and 
 snowed, and blew again, and the snow was as 
 fine as the dust on a road in summer. The
 
 THE GOLD OF FA1RNILEE. 279 
 
 strongest shepherds could not hold their own 
 against the tempest, and were "smoored" (or 
 smothered) in the waste. The flocks moved 
 down from the hill-sides, down and down, till 
 all the sheep on a farm would be gathered 
 together in a crowd, under the shelter of a 
 wood in some deep dip of the hills. The storm 
 seemed as if it would never cease ; for thirteen 
 days the snow drifted and the wind blew. 
 There was nothing for the sheep to eat, and if 
 there had been hay enough, it would have been 
 impossible to carry it to them. The poor 
 beasts bit at the wool on each other's backs, 
 and so many of them died that the shepherds 
 built walls with the dead bodies to keep the 
 wind and snow away from those that were left 
 alive. 
 
 There could be little work done on the farm 
 that spring ; and summer came in so cold and 
 wet that the corn could not ripen, but was 
 levelled to the ground. Then autumn was 
 rainy, and the green sheaves lay out in the 
 fields, and sprouted and rotted ; so that little 
 corn was reaped, and little flour could be made 
 that year. Then in winter, and as spring came 
 on, the people began to starve. They had no 
 grain, and there were no potatoes in those 
 days, and no rice ; nor could corn be brought 
 in from foreign countries. So men and women 
 and children might be seen in the fields, with 
 white pinched faces, gathering nettles to make
 
 280 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 soup, and digging for roots that were often 
 little better than poison. They ground the 
 bark of the fir trees, and mixed it with the little 
 flour they could get ; and they ate such beasts 
 as never are eaten except in time of famine. 
 
 It is said that one very poor woman and her 
 daughter always looked healthy and plump in 
 these dreadful times, till people began to suspect 
 them of being witches. And they were taken, 
 and charged before the Sheriff with living by 
 witchcraft, and very likely they would have 
 been burned. So they confessed that they had 
 fed ever since the famine began on snails ! 
 But there were not snails enough for all the 
 country-side, even if people had cared to eat 
 them. So many men and women died, and 
 more were very weak and ill. 
 
 Lady Ker spent all her money in buying food 
 for her people. Jean and she lived on as little 
 as they could, and were as careful as they could 
 be. They sold all the beautiful silver plate, 
 except the cup that Randal's father used to 
 drink out of long ago. But almost everything 
 else was sold to buy corn. 
 
 So the weary year went on, and Midsummer 
 Night came round the seventh since the night 
 when Randal was lost. 
 
 Then Jean did what she had always meant 
 to do. In the afternoon she slipped out of the 
 house of Fairnilee, taking a little bread in a 
 basket, and saying that she would go to see the
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 281 
 
 farmer's wife at Peel, which was on the other 
 side of Tweed. But her mind was to go to 
 the Wishing Well. There she would wish for 
 Randal back again, to help his mother in the 
 evil times. And if she, too, passed away as he 
 had passed out of sight and hearing, then at 
 
 
 least she might meet him in that land where 
 he had been carried. How strange it seemed 
 to Jean to be doing everything over again that 
 she had done seven years before. Then she 
 had been a little girl, and it had been hard 
 work for her to climb up the side of the Peel 
 19
 
 282 
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 burn. Now she walked lightly and quickly, for 
 she was tall and well-grown. Soon she reached 
 the crest of the first hill, and remembered how 
 she had sat down there and cried, when she 
 was a child, and how the flies had tormented 
 her. They were buzzing and teasing still ; for 
 good times or bad make no difference to them, 
 as long as the sun shines. Then she reached 
 the cairn at the top of the next hill, and far 
 below her lay the forest, and deep within it ran 
 Yarrow, glittering like silver.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 283 
 
 Jean paused a few moments, and then struck 
 into a green path which led through the wood. 
 The path wound beneath dark pines ; their top- 
 most branches were red in the evening light, 
 but the shade was black beneath them. Soon 
 the path reached a little grassy glade, and there 
 among cold, wet grasses was the Wishing Well. 
 It was almost hidden by the grass, and looked 
 very black, and cool, and deep. A tiny trickle 
 of water flowed out of it, flowed down to join 
 the Yarrow. The trees about it had scraps of 
 rags and other things pinned to them, offerings 
 made by the country people to the spirits of 
 the well.
 
 284 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 fye White Hoses. 
 
 "EANIE sat down beside the well. She 
 wished her three wishes : to see Randal, 
 to win him back from Fairyland, and to 
 help the people in the famine. Then she 
 knelt on the grass, and looked down into 
 the well-water. At first she saw nothing 
 but the smooth black water, with little waves 
 trembling in it. Then the water began to grow 
 bright within, as if the sun was shining far, far 
 below. Then it grew as clear as crystal, and 
 she saw through it, like a glass, into a new 
 country a beautiful country with a wide green 
 plain, and in the midst of the plain a great 
 castle, with golden flags floating from the tops 
 of all the towers. Then she heard a curious 
 whispering noise that thrilled and murmured, 
 as if the music of all the trees that the wind 
 blows through the world were in her ears, as 
 if the noise of all the waves of every sea, and 
 the rustling of heather-bells on every hill, and 
 the singing of all birds were sounding, low 
 and sweet, far, far away. Then she saw a 
 great company of knights and ladies, dressed 
 in green, ride up to the castle ; and one knight
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 285 
 
 rode apart from the rest, on a milk-white, steed. 
 They all went . into the castle gates ; but this 
 knight rode slowly and sadly behind the others, 
 with his head bowed on his breast. 
 
 Then the musical sounds were still, and the 
 castle and the plain seemed to wave in the 
 water. Next they quite vanished, and the well 
 grew dim, and then grew dark and black and 
 smooth as it had been before. Still she looked, 
 and the little well bubbled up with sparkling 
 foam, and so became still again, like a mirror, 
 till Jeanie could see her own face in it, and 
 beside her face came the reflection of another 
 face, a young man's, dark, and sad, and 
 beautiful. The lips smiled at her, and then 
 Jeanie knew it was Randal. She thought he 
 must be looking over her shoulder, and she 
 leaped up with a cry, and glanced round. 
 
 But she was all alone, and the wood about 
 her was empty and silent. The light had gone 
 out of the sky, which was pale like silver, and 
 overhead she saw the evening star. 
 
 Then Jeanie thought all was over. She had 
 seen Randal as if it had been in a glass, and 
 she hardly knew him : he was so much older, 
 and his face was so sad. She sighed, and 
 turned to go away over the hills, back to 
 Fairnilee. 
 
 But her feet did not seem to carry her the 
 way she wanted to go. It seemed as if some- 
 thing within her were moving her in a kind of
 
 286 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 dream. She felt herself going on through the 
 forest, she did not know where. Deeper into 
 the wood she went, and now it grew so dark 
 that she saw scarce anything ; only she felt the 
 fragrance of briar roses, and it seemed to her 
 that she was guided towards these roses. Then 
 she knew there was a hand in her hand, though 
 she saw nobody, and the hand seemed to lead 
 her on. And she came to an open place in the 
 forest, and there the silver light fell clear from 
 the sky, and she saw a great shadowy rose tree, 
 covered with white wild roses. 
 
 The hand was still in her hand, and Jeanie 
 began to wish for nothing so much in the world 
 as to gather some of these roses. She put out 
 her hand and she plucked one, and there before 
 her stood a strange creature a dwarf, dressed 
 in yellow and red, with a very angry face. 
 
 " Who are you," he cried, " that pluck my 
 roses without my will?" 
 
 "And who are you?" said Jeanie, trembling, 
 " and what right have you on the hills of this 
 world ? " 
 
 Then she made the holy sign of the cross, 
 and the face of the elf grew black, and the 
 light went out of the sky. 
 
 She only saw the faint glimmer of the white 
 flowers, and a kind of shadow standing where 
 the dwarf stood. 
 
 " I bid you tell me," said Jeanie, " whether 
 you are a Christian man, or a spirit that
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 287 
 
 dreads the holy sign," and she crossed him 
 again. 
 
 Now all grew dark as the darkest winter's 
 night. The air was warm and deadly still, and 
 heavy with the scent of the fairy flowers. 
 
 In the blackness and the silence, Jeanie made 
 
 the sacred sign for the third time. Then a clear 
 fresh wind blew on her face, and the forest 
 boughs were shaken, and the silver light grew 
 and gained on the darkness, and she began to
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 see a shape standing where the dwarf had 
 stood. It was far taller than the dwarf, and 
 the light grew and grew, and a star looked 
 down out of the night, and Jean saw Randal 
 standing by her. And she kissed him, and he 
 kissed her, and he put his hand in hers, and 
 they went out of the wood together. They 
 came to the crest of the hill and the cairn. 
 Far below them they saw the Tweed shining 
 through an opening among the trees, and the 
 lights in the farm of Peel, and they heard the 
 nightbirds crying, and the bells of the sheep 
 ringing musically as they wandered through 
 the fragrant heather on the hills.
 
 THE GOLD OF FA1RNILEE. 289 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 of fairyland. 
 
 "OU may fancy, if you can, what joy there 
 was in Fairnilee when Randal came 
 home. They quite forgot the hunger 
 and the hard times, and the old nurse 
 laughed and cried over her bairn that 
 had grown into a tall, strong young man. 
 And to Lady Ker it was all one as if her 
 husband had come again, as he was when first 
 she knew him long ago ; for Randal had his 
 face, and his eyes, and the very sound of his 
 voice. They could hardly believe he was not a 
 spirit, and they clasped his hands, and hung 
 on his neck, and could not keep their eyes off 
 him. This was the end of all their sorrow, 
 and it was as if Randal had come back from 
 the dead ; so that no people in the world were 
 ever so happy as they were next day, when the 
 sun shone down on the Tweed and the green 
 trees that rustle in the wind round Fairnilee. 
 But in the evening, when the old nurse was 
 out of the way, Randal sat between his mother 
 and Jean, and they each held his hands, as if 
 they could not let him go, for fear he should
 
 2QO 
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 vanish away from them again. And they would 
 turn round anxiously if anything stirred, for 
 fear it should be the two white deer that some- 
 times were said to come for people escaped 
 from Fairyland, and then these people must 
 rise and follow them, and never return any 
 
 more. But the white deer never came for 
 Randal. 
 
 So he told them all his adventures, and all 
 that had happened to him since that mid- 
 summer night, seven long years ago.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 29 1 
 
 It had been with him as it was with Jean. 
 He had gone to the Wishing Well, and wished 
 to see the Fairy Queen and Fairyland. And 
 he had seen the beautiful castle in the well, 
 and a beautiful woman's face had floated up- 
 
 
 to meet his on the water. Then he had 
 gathered the white roses, and then he heard 
 a great sound of horses' feet, and of bells, 
 jingling, and a lady rode up, the very lady he 
 had seen in the well. She had a white horse,
 
 292 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 and she was dressed in green, and she beckoned 
 to Randal to mount on her horse, with her 
 before him on the pillion. And the bells on 
 the bridle rang, and the horse flew faster than 
 the wind. 
 
 So they rode and rode through the summer 
 night, and they came to a desert place, and 
 living lands were left far behind. Then the 
 Fairy Queen showed him three paths, one 
 steep and narrow, and beset with briars and 
 thorns : that was the road to goodness and 
 happiness, but it was little trodden or marked 
 with the feet of people that had come and gone. 
 
 And there was a wide smooth road that went 
 through fields of lilies, and that was the path 
 of easy living and pleasure. 
 
 The third path wound about the wild hill- 
 side, through ferns and heather, and that was 
 the way to Elfland, and that way they rode. 
 And still they rode through a country of dark 
 night, and they crossed great black rivers, and 
 they saw neither sun nor moon, but they heard 
 the roaring of the sea. From that country 
 they came into the light, and into the beautiful 
 garden that lies round the castle of the Fairy 
 Queen. There they lived in a noble company 
 of gallant knights and fair ladies. All seemed 
 very mirthful, and they rode, and hunted, and 
 danced; and it was never dark night, nor 
 broad daylight, but like early summer dawn 
 before the sun has risen.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 2Q3 
 
 There Randal said that he had quite for- 
 gotten his mother and Jean, and the world 
 where he was born, and Fairnilee. 
 
 But one day he happened to see a beautiful 
 golden bottle of a strange shape, all set with 
 diamonds, and he opened it. There was in it 
 a sweet-smelling water, as clear as crystal, and 
 he poured it into his hand, and passed his hand 
 over his eyes. Now this water had the power 
 to destroy the "glamour" in Fairyland, and 
 make people see it as it really was. And when 
 Randal touched his eyes with it, lo, everything 
 was changed in a moment. He saw that no- 
 thing was what it had seemed. The gold 
 vanished from the 
 embroidered cur- 
 tains, the light grew 
 dim and wretched 
 like a misty winter 
 day. The Fairy 
 Queen, that had 
 seemed so happy 
 and beautiful in her 
 bright dress, was a 
 weary, pale woman 
 in black, with a 
 melancholy face and 
 melancholy eyes, f 
 She looked as if she 
 had been there for 
 thousands of years,
 
 294 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 always longing for the sunlight and the earth, 
 and the wind and rain. There were sleepy 
 poppies twisted in her hair, instead of a golden 
 crown. And the knights and ladies were 
 changed. They looked but half alive ; and 
 some, in place of their gay green robes, were 
 dressed in rusty mail, pierced with spears and 
 stained with blood. And some were in burial 
 robes of white, and some in dresses torn or 
 dripping with water, or marked with the 
 burning of fire. All were dressed strangely in 
 some ancient fashion ; their weapons were old- 
 fashioned, too, unlike any that Randal had ever 
 seen on earth. And their festivals were not of 
 dainty meats, but of cold, tasteless flesh, and 
 of beans, and pulse, and such things as the 
 old heathens, before the coming of the Gospel, 
 used to offer to the dead. It was dreadful to 
 see them at such feasts, and dancing, and 
 riding, and pretending to be merry with hollow 
 faces and unhappy eyes. 
 
 And Randal wearied of Fairyland, which 
 now that he saw it clearly looked like a great 
 unending stretch of sand and barren grassy 
 country, beside a grey sea where there was no 
 tide. All the woods were of black cypress 
 trees and poplar, and a wind from the sea 
 drove a sea -mist through them, white and 
 cold, and it blew through the open courts of 
 the fairy castle. 
 
 So Randal longed more and more for the
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 295 
 
 old earth he had left, and the changes of 
 summer and autumn, and the streams of 
 Tweed, and the hills, and his friends. Then 
 the voice of Jeanie had come down to him, 
 sounding from far away. And he was sent 
 up by the Fairy Queen in a fairy form, as a 
 hideous dwarf, to frighten her away from the 
 white roses in the enchanted forest. 
 
 But her goodness and her courage had saved 
 him, for he was a christened knight, and not a 
 man of the fairy world. And he had taken his 
 own form again beneath her hand, when she 
 signed him with the Cross, and here he was, 
 safe and happy, at home at Fairnilee.
 
 296 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Zbe Jair? ^Bottle. 
 
 E soon grow used to the greatest 
 changes, and almost forget the things 
 that we were accustomed to before. 
 In a day or two, Randal had nearly 
 forgotten what a dull life he had lived 
 in Fairyland, after he had touched 
 his eyes with the strange water in the fairy 
 bottle. He remembered the long, grey sands, 
 and the cold mist, and the white faces of the 
 strange people, and the gloomy queen, no more 
 than you remember the dream you dreamed a 
 week ago. But he did notice that Fairnilee 
 was not the happy place it had been before he 
 went away. Here, too, the faces were pinched 
 and white, and the people looked hungry. And 
 he missed many things that he remembered: 
 the silver cups, and plates, and tankards. And 
 the dinners were not like what they had been, 
 but only a little thin soup, and some oatmeal 
 cakes, and trout taken from the Tweed. The 
 beef and ale of old times were not to be found, 
 even in the houses of the richer people. 
 
 Very soon Randal heard all about the famine ;
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 297 
 
 you may be sure the old nurse was ready to tell 
 him all the saddest stories. 
 
 " Full many a place in evil case 
 
 Where joy was wont afore, oh ! 
 Wi' Humes that dwell in Leader braes, 
 And Scotts that dwell in Yarrow ! " 
 
 And the old woman would croon her old pro- 
 phecies, and tell them how Thomas the 
 Rhymer, that lived in Ercildoune, had foretold 
 all this. And she would wish they could find 
 these hidden treasures that the rhymes were 
 full of, and that maybe were lying who knew ? 
 quite near them on their own lands. 
 
 " Where is the Gold of Fairnilee ? " she 
 would cry ; " and, oh, Randal ! can you no 
 dig for it, and find it, and buy corn out of 
 England for the poor folk that are dying at 
 your doors? 
 
 ' Atween the wet ground and the dry 
 The Gold o' Fairnilee doth lie.' 
 
 There it is, with the sun never glinting on it ; 
 there it may bide till the Judgment-day, and 
 no man the better for it. 
 
 ' Between the Camp o' Rink 
 And Tweed water clear, 
 Lie nine kings' ransoms 
 For nine hundred year.' " 
 
 " I doubt it's fairy gold, nurse," said Randal, 
 " and would all turn black when it saw the sun. 
 
 20
 
 298 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 It would just be like this bottle, the only thing 
 I brought with me out of Fairyland." 
 
 Then Randal put his hand in his velvet 
 pouch,and brought out a curious small 
 
 bottle.* It was shaped like this, 
 
 and was made of something that 
 
 none of them had A ever seen before. 
 It was black, and Jj^ you could see the 
 light through it, & and there were 
 green and yellow ^gpy spots and streaks 
 on it. 
 
 "That ugly bottle looked like gold and 
 diamonds when I found it in Fairyland," said 
 Randal, " and the water in it smelled as sweet 
 as roses. But when I touched my eyes with it, 
 a drop that ran into my mouth was as salt as 
 the sea, and immediately everything changed : 
 the gold bottle became this glass thing, and 
 the fairies became like folk dead, and the sky 
 grew grey, and all turned waste and ugly. 
 That's the way with fairy gold, nurse; and if 
 you found it, even, it would all be dry leaves 
 and black bits of coal before the sun set." 
 
 "Maybe so, and maybe no," said the old 
 nurse. "The Gold o' Fairnilee may no be 
 fairy gold, but just wealth o' this world that 
 folk buried here lang syne. But noo, Randal, 
 ma bairn, I maun gang out and see ma sister's 
 son's dochter, that 's lying sair sick o' the kin- 
 
 * In bottles like this, the old Romans used to keep their 
 tears for their dead friends.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 299 
 
 cough * at Rink, and take her some of the 
 physic that I gae you and Jean when you were 
 bairns." 
 
 So the old nurse went out, and Randal and 
 Jean began to be sorry for the child she was 
 going to visit. For they remembered the taste 
 of the physic that the old nurse made by boil- 
 ing the bark of elder-tree branches ; and I 
 remember it too, for it was the very nastiest 
 thing that ever was tasted, and did nobody 
 any good after all. 
 
 Then Randal and Jean walked out, strolling 
 along without much noticing where they went, 
 and talking about the pleasant days when they 
 were children. 
 
 * Kincough, whooping cough. 
 
 20*
 
 300 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 <At the -Gatrail. 
 
 r HEY had climbed up the slope of a hill, 
 and they came to a broad old ditch, 
 beneath the shade of a wood of pine 
 trees. Below them was a wide marsh, 
 all yellow with marsh flowers, and above 
 them was a steep slope made of stones. 
 Now the dry ditch, where they sat down on 
 the grass, looking towards the Tweed, with 
 their backs to the hill, was called the Catrail. 
 It ran all through that country, and must have 
 been made by men very long ago. Nobody 
 knows who made it, nor why. They did not 
 know in Randal's time, and they do not know 
 now. They do not even know what the name 
 Catrail means, but that is what it has always 
 been called. The steep slope of stone above 
 them was named the Camp of Rink; it is a 
 round place, like a ring, and no doubt it was 
 built by the old Britons, when they fought 
 against the Romans, many hundreds of years 
 ago. The stones of which it is built are so 
 large that we cannot tell how men moved 
 them. But it is a very pleasant, happy place
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 301 
 
 on a warm summer day, like the day when 
 Randal and Jean sat there, with the daisies at 
 their feet, and the wild doves cooing above 
 their heads, and the rabbits running in and 
 out among the ferns. 
 
 Jean and Randal talked about this and that, 
 chiefly of how some money could be got to buy 
 corn and cattle for the people. Randal was in 
 favour of crossing the Border at night, and 
 driving away cattle from the English side, 
 according to the usual custom. 
 
 " Every day I expect to see a pair of spurs 
 in a dish for all our dinner," said Randal. 
 
 That was the sign the lady of the house in 
 the Forest used to give her men, when all the 
 beef was done, and more had to be got by 
 righting. 
 
 But Jeanie would not hear of Randal taking 
 spear and jack, and putting himself in danger 
 by fighting the English. They were her own 
 people after all, though she could not remember 
 them and the days before she was carried out 
 of England by Simon Grieve. 
 
 " Then," said Randal, " am I to go back to 
 Fairyland, and fetch more gold like this ugly 
 thing?" and he felt in his pocket for the fairy 
 bottle. 
 
 But it was not in his pocket. 
 
 "What have I done with my fairy treasure ? " 
 cried Randal, jumping up. Then he stood still 
 quite suddenly, as if he saw something strange.
 
 302 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 He touched Jean on the shoulder, making a 
 sign to her not to speak. 
 
 Jean rose quietly, and looked where Randal 
 pointed, and this was what she saw. 
 
 She looked over a corner of the old grassy 
 ditch, just where the marsh and the yellow 
 flowers came nearest to it. 
 
 Here there stood three tall grey stones, each 
 about as high as a man. Between them, with 
 her back to the single stone, and between the 
 two others facing Randal and Jean, the old 
 nurse was kneeling. 
 
 If she had looked up, she could hardly have 
 seen Randal and Jean, for they were within the 
 ditch, and only their eyes were on the level of 
 the rampart. 
 
 Besides, she did not look up ; she was grop- 
 ing in the breast of her dress for something, 
 and her eyes were on the ground. 
 
 " What can the old woman be doing ? " 
 whispered Randal. " Why, she has got my 
 fairy bottle in her hand ! " 
 
 Then he remembered how he had shown her 
 the bottle, and how she had gone out without 
 giving it back to him. 
 
 Jean and he watched, and kept very quiet. 
 
 They saw the old nurse, still kneeling, take 
 the stopper out of the black strange bottle, and 
 turn the open mouth gently on her hand. Then 
 she carefully put in the stopper, and rubbed her 
 eyes with the palm of her hand. Then she
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 303 
 
 crawled along in their direction, very slowly, 
 as if she were looking for something in the 
 grass. 
 
 Then she stopped, still looking very closely 
 at the grass. 
 
 Next she jumped to her feet with a shrill cry, 
 clapping her hands ; and then she turned, and 
 was actually running along the edge of the 
 marsh, towards Fairnilee. 
 
 " Nurse ! " shouted Randal, and she stopped 
 suddenly, in a fright, and let the fairy bottle 
 fall. 
 
 It struck on a stone, and broke to pieces with 
 a jingling sound, and the few drops of strange 
 water in it ran away into the grass. 
 
 " Oh, ma bairns, ma bairns, what have you 
 made me do ? " cried the old nurse pitifully. 
 " The fairy gift is broken, and maybe the Gold 
 of Fairnilee, that my eyes have looked on, will 
 ne'er be seen again."
 
 34 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Jbe ^old of y?airnilee. 
 
 ANDAL and Jean went to the old woman 
 and comforted her, though they could 
 not understand what she meant. She 
 cried and sobbed, and threw her arms 
 about ; but, by degrees, they found out 
 all the story. 
 When Randal had told her how all he saw in 
 Fairyland was changed after he had touched 
 his eyes with the water from the bottle, the old 
 woman remembered many tales that she had 
 heard about some charm known to the fairies, 
 which helped them to find things hidden, and 
 to see through walls and stones. Then she had 
 got the bottle from Randal, and had stolen out, 
 meaning to touch her eyes with the water, and 
 try whether that was the charm and whether 
 she could find the treasure spoken of in the old 
 rhymes. She went 
 
 " Between the Camp o' Rink 
 And Tweed water clear," 
 
 and to the place which lay 
 
 " Between the wet land and the dry," 
 that is, between the marsh and the Catrail.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 305 
 
 Here she had noticed the three great stones, 
 which made a kind of chamber on the hill-side, 
 and here she had anointed her eyes with the 
 salt water of the bottle of tears. 
 
 Then she had seen through the grass, she 
 declared, and through the upper soil, and she 
 had beheld great quantities of gold. And she 
 was running with the bottle to tell Randal, and 
 to touch his eyes with the water that he might 
 see it also. But, out of Fairyland, the strange 
 water only had its magical power while it was 
 still wet on the eyelashes. This the old nurse 
 soon found ; for she went back to the three 
 standing stones, and looked and saw nothing, 
 only grass and daisies. And the fairy bottle 
 was broken, and all the water spilt. 
 
 This was her story, and Randal did not know 
 what to believe. But so many strange things 
 had happened to him, that one more did not 
 seem impossible. So he and Jean took the old 
 nurse home, and made her comfortable in her 
 room, and Jean put her to bed, and got her a 
 little wine and an oat-cake. 
 
 Then Randal very quietly locked the door 
 outside, and put the key in his pocket. It 
 would have been of no use to tell the old nurse 
 to be quiet about what she thought she had seen. 
 
 By this time it was late and growing dark. 
 But that night there would be a moon. 
 
 After supper, of which there was very little, 
 Lady Ker went to bed. But Randal and Jean
 
 306 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 slipped out into the moonlight. They took a 
 sack with them, and Randal carried a pickaxe 
 and a spade. They walked quickly to the three 
 great stones, and waited for a while to hear if 
 all was quiet. Then Jean threw a white cloak 
 round her, and stole about the edges of the 
 camp and the wood. She knew that if any 
 wandering man came by, he would not stay 
 long where such a figure was walking. The 
 night was cool, the dew lay on the deep fern ; 
 there was a sweet smell from the grass and 
 from the pine wood. 
 
 In the meantime, Randal was digging a long 
 trench with his pickaxe, above the place where 
 the old woman had knelt, as far as he could 
 remember it. 
 
 He worked very hard, and when he was in 
 the trench up to his knees, his pickaxe struck 
 against a stone. He dug round it with the 
 spade, and came to a layer of black burnt ashes 
 of bones. Beneath these, which he scraped 
 away, was the large flat stone on which his pick 
 had struck. It was a wide slab of red sand- 
 stone, and Randal soon saw that it was the lid 
 of a great stone coffin, such as the ploughshare 
 sometimes strikes against when men are plough- 
 ing the fields in the Border country. 
 
 Randal had seen these before, when he was 
 a boy, and he knew that there was never much 
 in them, except ashes and one or two rough 
 pots of burnt clay.
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 307 
 
 He was much disappointed. 
 
 It had seemed as if he was really coming to 
 something, and, behold, it was only an old 
 stone coffin ! 
 
 However, he worked on till he had cleared 
 the whole of the stone coffin-lid. It was a very 
 large stone chest, and must have been made, 
 Randal thought, for the body of a very big 
 man. 
 
 With the point of his pickaxe he raised the 
 lid. 
 
 In the moonlight he saw something of a 
 strange shape. 
 
 He put down his hand, and pulled it out. 
 
 It was an image, in metal, about a foot high, 
 and represented a beautiful woman, with wings 
 on her shoulders, sitting on a wheel. 
 
 Randal had never seen an image like this ; 
 but in an old book, which belonged to the 
 Monks of Melrose, he had seen, when he was 
 a boy, a picture of such a woman. 
 
 The Monks had told him that she was 
 Fortune, with her swift wings that carry her 
 from one person to another, as luck changes, 
 and with her wheel that she turns with the 
 turning of chance in the world. 
 
 The image was very heavy. Randal rubbed 
 some of the dirt and red clay off, and found 
 that the metal was yellow. He cut it with his 
 knife ; it was soft. He cleaned a piece, which 
 shone bright and unrusted in the moonlight,
 
 38 
 
 THE GOLD OE FAIRNILEE. 
 
 and touched it with his tongue. Then he had 
 no doubt any more. The image was gold ! 
 
 Randal knew now that the old nurse had not 
 been mistaken. With the help of the fairy 
 water she had seen THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 He called very softly to Jeanie, who came 
 glimmering in her white robes through the 
 wood, looking herself like a fairy. He put the
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 309 
 
 image in her hand, and set his finger on his 
 lips to show that she must not speak. 
 
 Then he went back to the great stone coffin, 
 and began to grope in it with his hands. There 
 was much earth in it that had slowly sifted 
 through during the many years that it had been 
 buried. But there was also a great round bowl 
 of metal and a square box. 
 
 Randal got out the bowl first. It was covered 
 with a green rust, and had a lid ; in short, it 
 was a large ancient kettle, such as soldiers use 
 in camp. Randal got the lid off, and, behold, 
 it was all full of very ancient 
 
 gold coins, not X^oN^ Greek, nor 
 Roman, but like ^^-^p^oS) &w,suchaswere 
 used in Briton I )j^\'*p\ before Julius 
 
 1 f\ Os_--^V^ O/ 
 
 Caesar came. Vj^C^W/ 
 
 The square XwC^jgx^ box was of iron, 
 and was rusted red. On the lid, 
 
 in the moonshine, Jeanie could read the letters 
 S. P. Q. R., but she did not know what they 
 meant. The box had been locked, and chained, 
 and clamped with iron bars. But all was so 
 rusty that the bars were easily broken, and the 
 lid torn off. 
 
 Then the moon shone on bars of gold, and 
 on great plates and dishes of gold and silver, 
 marked with letters, and with what Randal 
 thought were crests. Many of the cups were 
 studded with red and green and blue stones. 
 And there were beautiful plates and dishes,
 
 310 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 purple, gold, and green ; and one of these fell, 
 and broke into a thousand pieces, for it was of 
 some strange kind of glass. There were three 
 gold sword-hills, carved wonderfully into the 
 figures of strange beasts with wings, and heads 
 like lions. 
 
 Randal and Jean looked at it and marvelled, 
 and Jean sang in a low, sweet voice : 
 
 " Between the Camp o' Rink 
 And Tweed water clear, 
 Lie nine kings' ransoms 
 For nine hundred year." 
 
 Nobody ever saw so much treasure in all broad 
 Scotland. 
 
 Jean and Randal passed the rest of the night 
 in hiding what they had found. Part they hid 
 in the secret chamber of Fairnilee, of which 
 only Jean and Lady Ker and Randal knew the 
 secret. The rest they stowed away in various 
 places. Then Randal filled the earth into the 
 trench, and cast wood on the place, and set 
 fire to the wood, so that next day there was 
 nothing there but ashes and charred earth. 
 
 You will not need to be told what Randal did, 
 now that he had treasure in plenty. Some he 
 sold in France, to the king, Henry II., and 
 some in Rome, to the Pope ; and with the 
 money which they gave him he bought corn 
 and cattle in England, enough to feed all his
 
 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 neighbours, and stock the farms, and sow the 
 fields for next year. And Fairnilee became a 
 very rich and fortunate house, for Randal 
 married Jean, and soon their children were 
 playing on the banks of the Tweed, and rolling 
 
 down the grassy slope to the river, to bathe on 
 hot days. And the old nurse lived long and 
 happy among her new bairns, and often she 
 told them how it was she who really found the 
 Gold of Fairnilee. 
 
 You may wonder what the gold was, and how 
 it came there ? Probably Father Francis, the 
 good Melrose Monk, was right. He said that
 
 312 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 
 
 the iron box and the gold image of Fortune, 
 and the kettle full of coins, had belonged to 
 some regiment of the Roman army : the kettle 
 and the coins, they must have taken from 
 the Britons ; the box and all the plate were 
 their own, and brought from Italy. Then they, 
 in their turn, must have been defeated by some 
 of the fierce tribes beyond the Roman wall, 
 and must have lost all their treasure. That 
 must have been buried by the victorious enemy ; 
 and they, again, must have been driven from 
 their strong camp at Rink, either by some foes 
 from the north, or by a new Roman army from 
 the south. So all the gold lay at Fairnilee for 
 many hundred years, never quite forgotten, as 
 the old rhyme showed, but never found till it 
 was discovered, in their sore need, by the old 
 nurse and Randal and Jean. 
 
 As for Randal and Jean, they lived to be old, 
 and died on one day, and they are buried at 
 Dryburgh in one tomb, and a green tree grows 
 over them ; and the Tweed goes murmuring 
 past their grave, and past the grave of Sir 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 THE END.
 
 THE YELLOW FAIRY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 22 Plates and 82 
 Illustrations In the Text by H. J. FORD. 1 2mo, 
 cloth extra, gilt edges, $2.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS : The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership The Six Swans The 
 Dragon of the North Story of the Emperor's New Clothes The Golden 
 Crab The Iron Stove The Dragon and his Grandmother The Donkey 
 Cabbage The Little Green Frog The Seven-headed Serpent The Grateful 
 Beasts The Giants and the Herd-boy The Invisible Prince The Crow- 
 How Six Men Traveled Through the Wide World The Wizard King The 
 Nixy The Glass Mountain Alphege ; or, The Green Monkey Fairer-thaa- 
 a-Fairy The Three Brothers The Boy and the Wolves ; or, The Broken 
 Promise The Glass Axe The Dead Wife In the Land of Souls The White 
 Duck The Witch and the Servants The Magic Ring The Flower Queen's 
 Daughter The Flying Ship The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son The 
 Story of King Frost The Death of the Sun-hero The Witch The Hazlenut 
 Child-The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus Prince Ring The Swine- 
 herdHow to Tell a True Princess The Blue Mountains The Tinder-box 
 The Witch in the Stone-boat Thumbelina The Nightingale Hermod and 
 Hadvor The Steadfast Tin-soldier Blockhead Hans A Story About a 
 Darning-needle. 
 
 " ' The Yellow Fairy Book' immediately takes place among the leading juve- 
 nile publications. . . . Mr. Lang's graceful and prepossessing style presents 
 these old and yet ever new tales in charming text, and the numerous full-page and 
 smaller illustrations by H. J. Ford are spirited and in complete harmony with the 
 stories. . . . Without, it is one of the handsomest and within one of the most 
 entertaining books the season can produce." Times, Boston. 
 
 " Mr. Lang has a positive genius for knowing what will delight his youthful 
 readers in this sort of literature and his mastery of folklore gives him a great 
 advantage in the selection of material for his agreeable compilations. . . . He 
 is careful not to include anything that can be offensive to good taste or good morals, 
 and he has got together in this as in former collections, stories that deserve to be 
 reckoned among the classics. . . . The imaginative element is strong, as it 
 ought to be, and they have been most felicitously illustrated by H. J. Ford, who 
 has a marvelous faculty for depicting strange monsters, witch-maidens, lovely 
 princesses and fearless knights and making them appear like real creatures. Every 
 healthy child should read fairy tales and cultivate his imagination, which in these 
 days of scientific education is in danger of total extinction." Beacon, Boston. 
 
 " It is rich with marvelous tales, adapted in Mr. Lang's charming style from 
 Russian, German, French, Icelandic, and Red Indian folklore, stories that have 
 their birth in the earliest imaginings of the human race, before knowledge obtained 
 its destructive sway." four mat, Chicago. 
 
 . . And the 
 riate, 
 boy or 
 
 girl who owns a copy is indeed fortunate." Churchman, New York, 
 cessors. . . . The stories 
 ated by Mr. H. J. Ford. ' Joan, Toddles 
 
 their countless brothers and sister 
 d to them." Outlook, New York. 
 
 " As delightful and fascinating as any of its predecessors. . . . And 
 pictures plenty of them, by H. J. Ford are very charming and appropri 
 The beautifully designed cover is just the thing for such a book. The bo; 
 1 who owns a copy is indeed fortunate." Churchman, New York. 
 
 " Not less fascinating than its predecessors. . . . The stories are charm- 
 ingly told and equally charmingly illustrated by Mr. H. J. Ford. ' Joan, Toddles 
 and Tiny,' to whom the book is dedicated, and their countless brothers and sisters, 
 
 New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.
 
 THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 8 plates and ISO 
 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 
 $2.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS The Bronze Ring Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess 
 East of the Sun and West of the Moon The Yellow Dwarf Little Red 
 Riding Hood The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood Cinderella ; or, The Little 
 Glass Slipper Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp The Tale of a Youth who 
 Set Out to Learn What Fear Was Rumpelstiltzkin Beauty and the Beast 
 The Master Maid Why the Sea is Salt The Master Cat ; or. Puss in Boots 
 Felicia and the Pot of Pinks The White Cat The Water-lily The Gold- 
 spinners The Terrible Head The Story of Pretty Goldilocks The History 
 of Whittington The Wonderful Sheep Little Thumb The Forty Thieves 
 Hansel and Grettel Snow-white and Rose-red The Goose-girl Toads and 
 Diamonds Prince Darling Blue Beard Trusty John The Brave Little 
 Tailor A Voyage to Lilliput The Princess on the Glass Hill The Story of 
 Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou The History of Jack the Giant 
 Killer The Black Bull of Norroway The Red Etin. 
 
 " There could hardly be a better collection of fairy stories. Mr. Lang has 
 picked from every source, rewritten, condensed, and adapted them until each is 
 perfect in itself, and altogether form a model story book. Christian Union. 
 
 " The loveliest collection of fairy stories that any Christmas holiday ever 
 brought, and, with its exquisite charm of the stories rendered still more attractive 
 by the pretty blue and gold fancy in binding. It is a part of the library of infor- 
 mation to have these tales ; both for children and grown people, they are a wonder- 
 ful fountain for suggestion and allusion. They hold within themselves the poetry 
 of the race. This exquisite collection will easily be treasured as a classic of 
 English literature." Boston Traveller. 
 
 " A well-chosen selection of the good old stories which have pleased many 
 generations of young readers and will please many more." Independent, 
 
 THE RED FAIRY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 4 plates and 96 Illus- 
 trations in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, $2.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS : The Twelve Dancing Princesses The Princess Mayblossom 
 Soria Moria Castle The Death of Koschei the Deathless The Black Thief 
 and Knight of the Glen The Master Thief Brother and Sister Princess 
 Rosette The Enchanted Pig The Norka-The Wonderful Birch- Tack and 
 the Beanstalk The Good Little Mouse Graciosa and Percinet The Three 
 Princesses of Whiteland The Voice of Death The Six Sillies Kari Wooden- 
 gown Drakestail The Ratcatcher The True History of Little Goldenhood 
 The Golden Branch The Three Dwarfs Dapplegrim The Enchanted 
 Canary The Twelve Brothers Rapunzel The Nettle Spinner Farmer 
 Weatherbeard Mother Holle Minnikin Bushy Bride Snowdrop The 
 Golden Goose The. Seven Foals The Marvelous Musician The Story of 
 Sigurd. 
 
 " A delightful pendant to its Blue predecessor of last year. . . . Many of 
 these tales will be found unfamiliar to the rank and file of American readers of 
 fairy tales, and all are treated with taste and skill." Book Buyer. 
 
 " There are many of them unfamiliar which enhances the value of the book 
 Immensely, for it consequently abounds in new delights for the lover of the quaint 
 
 and fantastic tales For a gift book for children ' The Red Fairy 
 
 Book" can be commended in the most unreserved terms." Times, Boston. 
 
 New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.
 
 THE GREEN FAIRY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 13 Plates and 88 
 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 
 $2.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS: The Blue Bird The Half-Chick The Story of Caliph Stork 
 The Enchanted Watch Rosanella Sylvain and Jocosa Fairy Gifts Prince 
 Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla Prince Fatherhead and the Princess 
 Celandine The Three Little Pigs Heart of Ice The Enchanted Ring 
 The Snuff-box The Golden Blackbird The Magic Swan The Dirty Shep- 
 herdessThe Enchanted Snake The Biter Bit King Kojata Prince Fickle 
 and Fair Helena Puddocky The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs The 
 Story of the Three Bears Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida Little 
 One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes Jorinde and Joringel 
 Allerleirauh ; or, the Many-furred Creature The Twelve Huntsmen Spindle, 
 Shuttle, and Needle The Crystal Coffin The Three Snake-leaves The 
 Riddle Jack my Hedgehog The Golden Lads The White Snake The 
 Story of a Clever Tailor The Golden Mermaid The War of the Wolf and 
 the Fox The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife The Three Musicians 
 The Three Dogs. 
 
 "Any child with a spark of imagination would revel in these charmed pages, 
 where right makes might and courage is invariably rewarded. The many illus- 
 trations by Mr. H. J. Ford are an additional attraction." Dial, Chicago. 
 
 " Mr. Lang .... shows himself here to be in thorough sympathy with 
 the tastes and tenderness of children, and the result of his editorial tact and care 
 is a most delightful book. Happy will be the boy or girl who comes into possession 
 of this beautiful volume at the coming Christmas season." 
 
 Christian at Work, N. Y. 
 
 THE BLUE POETRY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 12 Plates and 88 
 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 
 $2.OO. 
 
 The purpose of this collection is to put before children, and young people, 
 poems which are good in themselves, and especially fitted to live, as Theocritus 
 says, on the lips of the young. The editor has been guided to a great extent, in 
 
 says, on the lips of the young. The editor has been guided to a great extent, in 
 
 ased himself in youth. 
 RACT FROM PREFACE. 
 
 making his choice, by recollections of what particularly pleased himself in youth. 
 
 EXTR 
 
 " Is a pleasing and satisfactory completion of poetry, most of which is known 
 and held in high estimation by all persons of taste and education. The selection 
 is most judicious, and the most carping critic would be hard set to raise an objec- 
 tion. . . . The selection is not confined to poems for the young, but includes 
 many of the noblest poems in the English language which not to know is to con- 
 fess ourselves imperfectly educated." Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 "The collection is excellently chosen, the pictures strikingly good, and the 
 book a treasury of strong and fine verse. The contents are best summarized by- 
 assuring you that any poem which ought to be there is there ; and none that are 
 included should have been left out. It is an exquisite book, representing Mr. 
 Lang's passion for the heroic, romantic and comic in verse, and having through 
 its illustrations a fairy-like appearance that will catch the fancy of young readers." 
 _ -The Book Buyer. 
 
 New York: Longmans, Green, & Co.
 
 THE TRUE STORY BOOK. 
 
 Edited by ANDREW LANG. With 9 Plates and 58 
 Illustrations in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, 
 $2.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS : A Boy Among the Red Indians Casanova's Escape Adventures 
 on the Findhorn The Story of Grace Darling The " Shannon " and the 
 "Chesapeake" Captain Snelgrave and the Pirates The Spartan Three 
 Hundred Prince Charlie's Wanderings Two Great Matches The Story of 
 Kaspar Hauser An Artist's Adventure The Tale of Isandhhvana and 
 Rorke's Drift How Leif the Lucky Found Vineland the Good The Escape 
 of Cervantes The Worthy Enterprise of John Foxe Baron Trenck The 
 Adventure of John Rawlins The Chevalier Johnstone's Escape from Cul- 
 loden The Adventures of Lord Pitsligo The Escape of Caesar Borgia from 
 the Castle of Medina del Campo The Kidnapping of the Princes The Con- 
 quest of Montezuma's Empire The Return of the French Freebooters. 
 
 " The editor acknowledges that there is not a dragon in the whole collection, 
 and that giants and witches are conspicuous by their absence, but there are princes, 
 and marvelous escapes, and good fighting, and buccaneering, and the punishment 
 of wicked conspirators to read about, so that the volume is not by any means lack- 
 ing in heroic and romantic interest. . . . Parents may safely buy this book for 
 their children with the assurance that it will cultivate their imaginative faculties in 
 a healthful way and give them a vast amount of harmless pleasure." 
 
 Boston Beacon. 
 
 " Striking adventure, fanciful plays of imagination that in no way disturb ve- 
 racity, and the romance of truthful history are strung together in a way that will 
 make the readers, young and old, realize that truth is stranger than fiction and 
 makes wondrously entertaining reading." N. Y. Observer. 
 
 " The author . . . has been extremely fortunate in the selection of sub- 
 jects which will be eagerly read and will prove highly entertaining and instructive. 
 It is in no sense a collection of fairy tales but a volume rich in adventures which 
 actually happened to real people. . . It is an admirable gift book for children." 
 
 Public Opinion, X. Y. 
 
 THE OUTDOOR WORLD; 
 OR, THE YOUNG COLLECTOR'S HAND- 
 BOOK. 
 
 By W. FURNEAUX, F.R.G.S. With 546 Illustrations, 
 including 1 6 colored Plates. Crown 8vo, 438 
 pages, ornamental cover, gilt edges, $2.5O. 
 
 CONTENTS: Part I. ANIMAL LIFE Chap. I. Ponds and Streams. II. Insects 
 and Insect Hunting. III. The Sea-shore. IV. Snails and Slugs. V. Spiders, 
 Centipedes and Millepedes. VI. Reptiles and Reptile Hunting. VII. British 
 Birds. VIII. British Mammals. Part II. THE VEGETABLE WORLD. IX. 
 Seaweeds. X. Fungi. XI. Mosses. XII. Ferns. XIII. Wild Flowers. 
 XIV. Grasses. XV. Our Forest Trees. Part III. THE MINERAL WORLD.- 
 XVI. Minerals and Fossils. 
 
 New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. 
 
 \ Y >
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
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