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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Prince Prigio, by Andrew Lang, Illustrated by
+Gordon Browne
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Prince Prigio
+
+
+Author: Andrew Lang
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 19, 2007  [eBook #20850]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCE PRIGIO***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1889 J. W. Arrowsmith edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+{Book cover: cover.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE PRIGIO
+
+
+BY
+ANDREW LANG
+AUTHOR OF
+"THE MARK OF CAIN, "THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE"
+ETC.
+
+Twenty-seven Illustrations by Gordon Browne
+
+1889
+BRISTOL
+J. W. ARROWSMITH, QUAY STREET
+LONDON
+SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., 4 STATIONERS' HALL COURT
+_All rights reserved_
+
+{"So the two went into the gardens together, and talked about a number
+of things.": p0.jpg}
+
+PRINCE PRIGIO
+IS
+Dedicated
+TO
+ALMA
+THYRA
+EDITH
+ROSALIND
+NORNA
+CECILY
+AND VIOLET
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In compiling the following History from the Archives of Pantouflia, the
+Editor has incurred 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
+_Nanaboulele_, a difficult word--has been published in French (translated
+from the Basuto language) by M. PAUL SEBILLOT, in the _Revue des
+Traditione Populaires_.  For the _Remora_, the Editor is indebted to the
+_Voyage a la Lune_ of M. CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+{Chapter heading picture: p1.jpg}
+
+_How the Fairies were not Invited to Court_.
+
+Once 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 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.
+
+"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 dear, 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
+grandmother."
+
+"Your grandmother!" interrupted her majesty.  "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 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 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 believed 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
+rubbish out of books, or pantomime "properties."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+{Chapter heading picture: p9.jpg}
+
+_Prince Prigio and his Family_.
+
+Well, 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.  However, 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 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 surprised and hurt at these remarks
+that he boxed the prince's ears, saying, "I'll 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.
+
+{Prigio reading a book: p11.jpg}
+
+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 cottage, 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 Exchequer, 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 him, 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.
+
+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 was never 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-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
+approval 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+_About the Firedrake_.
+
+Of all the people who did not like Prigio, his own dear papa, King
+Grognio, disliked 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 twopence"--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 seeming to take any trouble.
+
+{The King at his desk: p15.jpg}
+
+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.
+
+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 thermometers exploded with heat.  The barometers stood at SET FAIR.
+The people were much distressed, and came and broke the palace windows--as
+they usually do when things go wrong in Pantouflia.
+
+The king consulted the learned men about the Court, who told him that
+probably a
+
+FIREDRAKE
+
+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 terrible 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!"
+
+{"Put on your armour and be off with you!": p18.jpg}
+
+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 fabulous
+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, 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!
+
+{The page crying: p21.jpg}
+
+"You had better put on flannels, 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 opportunity 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 succeeded, 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.
+
+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 Firedrake, 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_,
+         _O Sun_!
+
+   _And I_, _like that sweet purple flower_,
+      _May roast_, _or boil_, _or broil_, _or bake_,
+   _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 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 worthily 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 {25}
+both dangerous and unnecessary.  Dangerous, because, if he treats me as
+you say he did my brothers--my unhappy brothers,--the throne of
+Pantouflia will want an heir.  But, if I do come back alive--why, I
+cannot be more the true heir than I am at present; now _can_ I?  Ask the
+Lord Chief Justice, if you don't believe _me_."
+
+These arguments were so clearly and undeniably 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 expression.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+_How Prince Prigio was Deserted by Everybody_.
+
+Meanwhile, Prince Prigio had to suffer many unpleasant things.  Though he
+was the crown prince (and though his arguments were unanswerable),
+everybody 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."
+
+{"My name, sir, is Lady Molinda, she said.": p29.jpg}
+
+"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 unendurable, the king said, and he could
+not trust his own temper when he thought of him.  And he 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 uncomfortable 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 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 _unjust_ 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+_What Prince Prigio found in the Garret_.
+
+The prince walked from room to room of the palace; but, unless he wrapped
+himself 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+_What Happened to Prince Prigio in Town_.
+
+By 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 Gluckstein," 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 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.  Otherwise 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 the table, however,
+and shouted "_Kellner_!" at which all the waiters jumped, and looked
+round in every direction, but nobody came to him.  At first he thought
+they were too busy, but presently another explanation occurred to him.
+
+{The waiters: p38.jpg}
+
+"The king," he said to himself, "has threatened 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 Matterhorn," 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 even 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 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!
+
+{The crowd running: p42.jpg}
+
+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 christening, 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 Burgundy 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
+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 meaning 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+_The Prince Falls in Love_.
+
+He 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.  The prince pulled off the cap of darkness, put on the other,
+and said:
+
+"_I 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 beside 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 Bisnagar, and which the
+fairies had brought, with the other presents, to the christening of
+Prince Prigio.
+
+{The Prince on the carpet: p52.jpg}
+
+When he arrived at the house where the ball was going on, he put the
+magical carpet in the portmanteau, and left it in the cloak-room,
+receiving a numbered ticket in exchange.  Then he marched in all his
+glory (and, of course, without 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 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 particularly 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 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 singing 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.
+
+{The mothers asleep: p56.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+_The Prince is Puzzled_.
+
+Prince Prigio did not go to bed.  It was bright daylight, and he had
+promised to bring the horns and tail of a Firedrake 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.
+
+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.
+
+{The Prince looking through the telescope: p59.jpg}
+
+"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 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?"
+
+{The Remora: p60.jpg}
+
+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 Firedrake, 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+{Chapter heading picture: p64.jpg}
+
+_The Prince and the Firedrake_.
+
+It was dreadfully hot, even high up in the air, where the prince hung
+invisible.  Great burning stones were tossed up by the volcano, 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 loch, 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!"
+
+"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 Firedrakes 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 crackling,
+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."
+
+"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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+_The Prince and the Remora_.
+
+If he had been too warm before, 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 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
+winter 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 would 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 slipped 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.
+
+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, "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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+_The Battle_.
+
+It was an awul sight to behold!  When the Remora heard the name of the
+Firedrake, his hated enemy, he slipped with wonderful 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 burning 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 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 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, slippery 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 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.
+
+{The Prince in front of the Firedrake: p78.jpg}
+
+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
+the Firedrake, sat down on the flying carpet, and knocked at the door of
+the English ambassador 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 prettier and kinder
+than ever.  The prince was so happy, that he never noticed how something
+went wrong about the dinner.  The ambassador 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!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+_A Terrible Misfortune_.
+
+When 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.
+
+{The ambassador showing the Prince the proclamation: p82.jpg}
+
+Here is the first:
+
+   TO ALL LOYAL SUBJECTS.
+
+   _Whereas_,
+
+   Our eldest son, Prince Prigio, hath of late been guilty of several
+   high crimes and misdemeanours.
+
+   First: By abandoning the post of danger against the Firedrake, whereby
+   our beloved 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
+
+   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 Falkenstein, 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 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
+pounds is worth having," said the prince.  "I'll 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 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, it was like this.  His
+royaliness comed in with 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'll be ready in five minutes; how tired I
+do feel!'  Then he takes the libbuty of sitting hisself down on his
+royaliness'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 I would not tell a lie, not if it was never 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--"
+
+{The Butler on the carpet: p89.jpg}
+
+"Thank you, William," said Lord Kelso; "that will do; you can go, for the
+present."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+_Surprises_.
+
+The 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, and might have happened to any of us who chanced to sit down on
+my carpet."
+
+And then the prince told them, shortly, all 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
+expressed a wish for them, they would to-day have been in his
+possession."
+
+"Oh, sir, you honour us too highly," murmured 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 meantime Benson will be pretending that _he_ killed the
+Firedrake--for he must have got to Falkenstein 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: "_I_ 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!
+
+{The King and Queen on the carpet: p95.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+_The King Explains_.
+
+The 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.
+Rumpfino 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 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.
+
+{The King and Queen: p99.jpg}
+
+"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 claiming 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, whom I recognised as your butler.  He informed 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. {100}  Excellent coffee this, of yours!"
+
+The ambassador bowed.
+
+"Well, we asked him _where_ he killed the Firedrake, and he said in a
+garden near Gluckstein.  Then he began to speak about the reward, and the
+'perkisits,' as he called them, which it seems he had read about in my
+proclamation.  Rather a neat thing; drew it up myself," added his
+majesty.
+
+"Very much to the point," said the ambassador, 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--"
+
+"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 camest
+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 _I_ 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,' 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 we 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 as _yours_ 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 accompanied 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 permission--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 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+_The King's Cheque_.
+
+When they all wakened next morning, their first ideas were confused.  It
+is often confusing to waken 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.  However, 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
+constitutional 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: 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 Falkenstein 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, besides, 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.  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 proclamation.  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.
+
+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 entertained 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 disagreeable 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 disliked 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 man 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 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 contempt 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 Firedrakes?'  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):
+
+"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_!):
+
+{A cheque for ten thousand purses, payable to Prince Prigio: p114.jpg}
+
+"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!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+_A Melancholy Chapter_.
+
+The 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 congratulate you, sir; Molinda
+is a dear girl."
+
+"I have the highest affection and esteem for my cousin, sir," said the
+prince, "but--"
+
+"I'll never marry him!" cried poor Molinda, kneeling at the throne, where
+her streaming eyes and hair made a pretty and touching picture.  "Never!
+I despise him!"
+
+{Molinda before the King: p117.jpg}
+
+"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 employed in the case of members of the blood royal.
+
+"Never better, sire," said the man, bowing with more courtliness than his
+profession indicated.
+
+"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.
+
+{The family executioner: p119.jpg}
+
+"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 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 marriage?  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 pounds 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."
+
+"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 conditions, he
+would either recover his dear sons, or, at least, get rid of Prigio,
+without the unpleasantness 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+_The Black Cat and the Brethren_!
+
+Who 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 dishonour.
+
+"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 Rosalind, 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 caps of darkness, or anything nice
+and impossible, 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 adventure.  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 everywhere _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 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.
+
+{Poor old Frank: p128.jpg}
+
+It did not at once change into a beautiful young lady, as perhaps you
+expect; no, that was improbable, 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 excitement.  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 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 engraved.  This was what was written on the plates:
+
+AQVA. DE. FONTE. LEONVM. {130}
+
+"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!
+
+{The Prince and the bottles: p130.jpg}
+
+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.
+
+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 Alphono'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?"
+
+"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 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'll 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
+Boeuf 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!"
+
+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.
+
+{Riding off to Falkenstein: p136.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+_The Very Last_.
+
+The princes returned to Gluckstein on the carpet, and went to the best
+inn, where they dined together and slept.  Next morning they, and the
+ambassador, who had been told all the story, and Lady Rosalind, 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
+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 wedding-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:
+
+{The Queen and her sons: p140.jpg}
+
+"Naughty boys!  Where have you been hiding?  The king had some absurd
+story 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:
+
+"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.
+
+But occasionally Rosalind would say, "I do believe, my dear, that you are
+really as clever as ever!"
+
+And he _was_!
+
+{The Prince putting on the wishing cap: p144.jpg}
+
+PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes
+
+
+{25}  Subjunctive mood!  He was a great grammarian!
+
+{100}  The History of this Prince may be read in a treatise called _The
+Rose and the Ring_, by M. A. TITMARSH.  London, 1855.
+
+{130}  Water from the Fountain of Lions.
+
+
+
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