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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia, 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 Ricardo of Pantouflia
+       being the adventures of Prince Prigio's son
+
+
+Author: Andrew Lang
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 4, 2007  [eBook #21994]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCE RICARDO OF PANTOUFLIA***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1893 J. W. Arrowsmith edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+{Book cover: p0.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE RICARDO OF PANTOUFLIA
+
+
+BEING THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE
+PRIGIO'S SON, BY ANDREW LANG
+AUTHOR OF PRINCE PRIGIO
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+GORDON BROWNE
+
+PUBLISHED AT BRISTOL BY J. W. ARROWSMITH,
+QUAY STREET, AND AT LONDON BY SIMPKIN,
+MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & COMPANY LIMITED
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION.
+To Guy Campbell.
+
+
+_My dear Guy_,
+
+_You wanted to know more about Prince Prigio_, _who won the Lady
+Rosalind_, _and killed the Firedrake and the Remora by aid of his Fairy
+gifts_.  _Here you have some of his later adventures_, _and you will
+learn from this story the advantages of minding your book_.
+
+_Yours always_,
+_A. Lang_.
+
+{Andrew Lang's signature: p0v.jpg}
+
+
+
+
+Introductory.
+Explaining Matters.
+
+
+{Decorative letter T: p0ix.jpg}
+
+There may be children whose education has been so neglected that they
+have not read _Prince Prigio_.  As this new story is about Prince
+Prigio's son, Ricardo, you are to learn that Prigio was the child and
+heir of Grognio, King of Pantouflia.  The fairies gave the little Prince
+cleverness, beauty, courage; but one wicked fairy added, "You shall be
+_too_ clever."  His mother, the queen, hid away in a cupboard all the
+fairy presents,--the Sword of Sharpness, the Seven-League Boots, the
+Wishing Cap, and many other useful and delightful gifts, in which her
+Majesty did not believe!  But after Prince Prigio had become universally
+disliked and deserted, because he was so very clever and conceited, he
+happened to find all the fairy presents in the old turret chamber where
+they had been thrown.  By means of these he delivered his country from a
+dreadful Red-Hot Beast, called the Firedrake, and, in addition to many
+other triumphs, he married the good and beautiful Lady Rosalind.  His
+love for her taught him not to be conceited, though he did not cease to
+be extremely clever and fond of reading.
+
+When this new story begins the Prince has succeeded to the crown, on the
+death of King Grognio, and is unhappy about his own son, Prince Ricardo,
+who is not clever, and who hates books!  The story tells of Ricardo's
+adventures: how he tried to bring back Prince Charlie to England, how he
+failed; how he dealt with the odious old Yellow Dwarf; how he was aided
+by the fair magician, the Princess Jaqueline; how they both fell into a
+dreadful trouble; how King Prigio saved them; and how Jaqueline's dear
+and royal papa was discovered; with the end of all these adventures.  The
+moral of the story will easily be discovered by the youngest reader, or,
+if not, it does not much matter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+The Troubles of King Prigio.
+
+
+{Prince Ricardo and lady tied up: p13.jpg}
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what to do with that boy!" said King Prigio of
+Pantouflia.
+
+"If _you_ don't know, my dear," said Queen Rosalind, his illustrious
+consort, "I can't see what is to be done.  You are so clever."
+
+The king and queen were sitting in the royal library, of which the
+shelves were full of the most delightful fairy books in all languages,
+all equally familiar to King Prigio.  The queen could not read most of
+them herself, but the king used to read them aloud to her.  A good many
+years had passed--seventeen, in fact--since Queen Rosalind was married,
+but you would not think it to look at her.  Her grey eyes were as kind
+and soft and beautiful, her dark hair as dark, and her pretty colour as
+like a white rose blushing, as on the day when she was a bride.  And she
+was as fond of the king as when he was only Prince Prigio, and he was as
+fond of her as on the night when he first met her at the ball.
+
+"No, I don't know what to do with Dick," said the king.
+
+He meant his son, Prince Ricardo, but he called him Dick in private.
+
+"I believe it's the fault of his education," his Majesty went on.  "We
+have not brought him up rightly.  These fairy books are at the bottom of
+his provoking behaviour," and he glanced round the shelves.  "Now, when
+_I_ was a boy, my dear mother tried to prevent me from reading fairy
+books, because she did not believe in fairies."
+
+"But she was wrong, you know," said the queen.  "Why, if it had not been
+for all these fairy presents, the Cap of Darkness and all the rest of
+them, you never could have killed the Fire-beast and the Ice-beast,
+and--you never could have married me," the queen added, in a happy
+whisper, blushing beautifully, for that was a foolish habit of hers.
+
+"It is quite true," said the king, "and therefore I thought it best to
+bring Dick up on fairy books, that he might know what is right, and have
+no nonsense about him.  But perhaps the thing has been overdone; at all
+events, it is not a success.  I wonder if fathers and sons will ever
+understand each other, and get on well together?  There was my poor
+father, King Grognio, he wanted me to take to adventures, like other
+princes, fighting Firedrakes, and so forth; and I did not care for it,
+till _you_ set me on," and he looked very kindly at her Majesty.  "And
+now, here's Dick," the monarch continued, "I can't hold him back.  He is
+always after a giant, or a dragon, or a magician, as the case may be; he
+will certainly be ploughed for his examination at College.  Never opens a
+book.  What does he care, off after every adventure he can hear about?  An
+idle, restless youth!  Ah, my poor country, when I am gone, what may not
+be your misfortunes under Ricardo!"
+
+Here his Majesty sighed, and seemed plunged in thought.
+
+"But you are not going yet, my dear," said the queen.  "Why you are not
+forty!  And young people will be young people.  You were quite proud when
+poor Dick came home with his first brace of gigantic fierce birds, killed
+off his own sword, and with such a pretty princess he had rescued--dear
+Jaqueline?  I'm sure she is like a daughter to me.  I cannot do without
+her."
+
+"I wish she were a daughter-in-law; I wish Dick would take a fancy to
+marry her," said the king.  "A nicer girl I never saw."
+
+"And so accomplished," added Queen Rosalind.  "That girl can turn herself
+into anything--a mouse, a fly, a lion, a wheelbarrow, a church!  I never
+knew such talent for magic.  Of course she had the _best_ of teachers,
+the Fairy Paribanou herself; but very few girls, in our time, devote so
+many hours to _practice_ as dear Jaqueline.  Even now, when she is out of
+the schoolroom, she still practises her scales.  I saw her turning little
+Dollie into a fish and back again in the bath-room last night.  The child
+was delighted."
+
+In these times, you must know, princesses learned magic, just as they
+learn the piano nowadays; but they had their music lessons too, dancing,
+calisthenics, and the use of the globes.
+
+"Yes, she's a dear, good girl," said the king; "yet she looks melancholy.
+I believe, myself, that if Ricardo asked her to marry him, she would not
+say 'No.' But that's just one of the things I object to most in Dick.
+Round the world he goes, rescuing ladies from every kind of horror--from
+dragons, giants, cannibals, magicians; and then, when a girl naturally
+expects to be married to him, as is usual, off he rides!  He has no more
+heart than a flounder.  Why, at his age I--"
+
+"At his age, my dear, you were so hard-hearted that you were quite a
+proverb.  Why, I have been told that you used to ask girls dreadful
+puzzling questions, like 'Who was Caesar Borgia?'  'What do you know of
+Edwin and Morcar?' and so on."
+
+"I had not seen _you_ then," said the king.
+
+"And Ricardo has not seen _her_, whoever she may be.  Besides, he can't
+possibly marry all of them.  And I think a girl should consider herself
+lucky if she is saved from a dragon or a giant, without expecting to be
+married next day."
+
+"Perhaps; but it is usual," said the king, "and their families expect it,
+and keep sending ambassadors to know what Dick's intentions are.  I would
+not mind it all so very much if he killed the monsters off his own sword,
+as he did that first brace, in fair fight.  But ever since he found his
+way into that closet where the fairy presents lie, everything has been
+made too easy for him.  It is a royal road to glory, or giant-slaying
+made easy.  In his Cap of Darkness a poor brute of a dragon can't see
+him.  In his Shoes of Swiftness the giants can't catch him.  His Sword of
+Sharpness would cut any oak asunder at a blow!"
+
+"But you were very glad of them when you made the Ice-beast and the Fire-
+beast fight and kill each other," said the queen.
+
+"Yes, my dear; but it wanted some wit, if I may say so, to do _that_, and
+Dick just goes at it hammer and tongs: anybody could do it.  It's
+_intellect_ I miss in Ricardo.  How am I to know whether he could make a
+good fight for it without all these fairy things?  I wonder what the
+young rogue is about to-day?  He'll be late for dinner, as usual, I
+daresay.  I can't stand want of punctuality at meals," remarked his
+Majesty, which is a sign that he was growing old after all; for where is
+the fun of being expected always to come home in time for dinner when,
+perhaps, you are fishing, and the trout are rising splendidly?
+
+"Young people will be young people," said the queen.  "If you are anxious
+about him, why don't you look for him in the magic crystal?"
+
+Now the magic crystal was a fairy present, a great ball of glass in
+which, if you looked, you saw the person you wanted to see, and what he
+was doing, however far away he might be, if he was on the earth at all.
+{21}
+
+"I'll just take a look at it," said the king; "it only wants
+three-quarters of an hour to dinner-time."
+
+His Majesty rose, and walked to the crystal globe, which was in a stand,
+like other globes.  He stared into it, he turned it round and round, and
+Queen Rosalind saw him grow quite pale as he gazed.
+
+"I don't see him anywhere," said the king, "and I have looked everywhere.
+I do hope nothing has happened to the boy.  He is so careless.  If he
+dropped his Cap of Darkness in a fight with a giant, why who knows what
+might occur?"
+
+"Oh, 'Gio, how you frighten me!" said the queen.
+
+King Prigio was still turning the crystal globe.
+
+"Stop!" he cried; "I see a beautiful princess, fastened by iron chains to
+a rock beside the sea, in a lonely place.  They must have fixed her up as
+a sacrifice to a sea-monster, like what's-her-name."
+
+This proves how anxious he was, or, being so clever and learned, he would
+have remembered that her name was Andromeda.
+
+"I bet Dick is not far off, where there is an adventure on hand.  But
+where on earth can he be? . . .  My word!" suddenly exclaimed the
+monarch, in obvious excitement.
+
+"What is it, dear?" cried the queen, with all the anxiety of a mother.
+
+"Why, the sea where the girl is, has turned all red as blood!" exclaimed
+the king.  "Now it is all being churned up by the tail of a tremendous
+monster.  He is a whopper!  He's coming on shore; the girl is fainting.
+He's out on shore!  He is extremely poorly, blood rushing from his open
+jaws.  He's dying!  And, hooray! here's Dick coming out of his enormous
+mouth, all in armour set with sharp spikes, and a sword in his hand.  He's
+covered with blood, but he's well and hearty.  He must have been
+swallowed by the brute, and cut him up inside.  Now he's cutting the
+beast's head off.  Now he's gone to the princess; a very neat bow he has
+made her.  Dick's manners are positively improving!  Now he's cutting her
+iron chains off with the Sword of Sharpness.  And now he's made her
+another bow, and he's actually taking leave of her.  Poor thing!  How
+disappointed she is looking.  And she's so pretty, too.  I say, Rosalind,
+shall I shout to him through the magic horn, and tell him to bring her
+home here, on the magic carpet?"
+
+"I think not, dear; the palace is quite full," said the queen.  But the
+real reason was that she wanted Ricardo to marry her favourite Princess
+Jaqueline, and she did not wish the new princess to come in the way.
+
+"As you like," said the king, who knew what was in her mind very well.
+"Besides, I see her own people coming for her.  I'm sorry for her, but it
+can't be helped, and Dick is half-way home by now on the Shoes of
+Swiftness.  I daresay he will not keep dinner waiting after all.  But
+what a fright the boy has given me!"
+
+At this moment a whirring in the air and a joyous shout were heard.  It
+was Prince Ricardo flying home on his Seven-league Boots.
+
+"Hi, Ross!" he shouted, "just weigh this beast's head.  I've had a
+splendid day with a sea-monster.  Get the head stuffed, will you?  We'll
+have it set up in the billiard-room."
+
+"Yes, Master Dick--I mean your Royal Highness," said Ross, a Highland
+keeper, who had not previously been employed by a Reigning Family.  "It's
+a fine head, whatever," he added, meditatively.
+
+{Ross weighing the beast's head: p28.jpg}
+
+Prince Ricardo now came beneath the library window, and gave his parents
+a brief account of his adventure.
+
+"I picked the monster up early in the morning," he said, "through the
+magic telescope, father."
+
+"What country was he in?" said the king.
+
+"The country people whom I met called it Ethiopia.  They were niggers."
+
+"And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, Ricardo?"
+
+"Oh! I don't know.  Asia, perhaps," answered the prince.
+
+The king groaned.
+
+"That boy will _never_ understand our foreign relations.  Ethiopia in
+Asia!" he said to himself, but he did not choose to make any remark at
+the moment.
+
+The prince ran upstairs to dress.  On the stairs he met the Princess
+Jaqueline.
+
+"Oh, Dick! are you hurt?" she said, turning very pale.
+
+"No, not I; but the monster is.  I had a capital day, Jack; rescued a
+princess, too."
+
+"Was she--was she very pretty, Dick?"
+
+"Oh!  I don't know.  Pretty enough, I daresay.  Much like other girls.
+Why, you look quite white!  What's the matter?  Now you look all right
+again;" for, indeed, the Princess Jaqueline was blushing.
+
+"I must dress.  I'm ever so late," he said, hurrying upstairs; and the
+princess, with a little sigh, went down to the royal drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+Princess Jaqueline Drinks the Moon.
+
+
+{The King and the Prince: p30.jpg}
+
+When dinner was over and the ladies had left the room, the king tried to
+speak _seriously_ to Prince Ricardo.  This was a thing which he disliked
+doing very much.
+
+"There's very little use in preaching," his Majesty used to say, "to a
+man, or rather a boy, of another generation.  My taste was for books; I
+only took to adventures because I was obliged to do it.  Dick's taste is
+for adventures; I only wish some accident would make him take to books.
+But everyone must get his experience for himself; and when he has got it,
+he is lucky if it is not too late.  I wish I could see him in love with
+some nice girl, who would keep him at home."
+
+The king did not expect much from talking seriously to Dick.  However, he
+began by asking questions about the day's sport, which Ricardo answered
+with modesty.  Then his Majesty observed that, from all he had ever read
+or heard, he believed Ethiopia, where the fight was, to be in Africa, not
+in Asia.
+
+"I really wish, Ricardo, that you would attend to your geography a little
+more.  It is most necessary to a soldier that he should know where his
+enemy is, and if he has to fight the Dutch, for instance, not to start
+with his army for Central Asia."
+
+"I could always spot them through the magic glass, father," said Dick;
+"it saves such a lot of trouble.  I hate geography."
+
+"But the glass might be lost or broken, or the Fairies might take it
+away, and then where are you?"
+
+"Oh, _you_ would know where to go, or Mr. Belsham."
+
+Now Mr. Belsham was his tutor, from Oxford.
+
+"But I shall not always be here, and when I die--"
+
+"Don't talk of dying, sire," said Dick.  "Why, you are not so very old;
+you may live for years yet.  Besides, I can't stand the notion.  You must
+live for ever!"
+
+"That sentiment is unusual in a Crown Prince," thought the king; but he
+was pleased for all that.
+
+"Well, to oblige you, I'll try to struggle against old age," he said;
+"but there are always accidents.  Now, Dick, like a good fellow, and to
+please me, work hard all to-morrow till the afternoon.  I'll come in and
+help you.  And there's always a splendid evening rise of trout in the
+lake just now, so you can have your play after your work.  You'll enjoy
+it more, and I daresay you are tired after a long day with the big game.
+It used to tire me, I remember."
+
+"I _am_ rather tired," said Dick; and indeed he looked a little pale, for
+a day in the inside of a gigantic sea-monster is fatiguing, from the heat
+and want of fresh air which are usually found in such places.  "I think
+I'll turn in; goodnight, my dear old governor," he said, in an
+affectionate manner, though he was not usually given to many words.
+
+Then he went and kissed his mother and the Princess Jaqueline, whom he
+engaged to row him on the lake next evening, while he fished.
+
+"And don't you go muffing them with the landing-net, Jack, as you
+generally do," said his Royal Highness, as he lit his bedroom candle.
+
+"I wish he would not call me Jack," said the princess to the queen.
+
+"It's better than Lina, my dear," said her Majesty, who in late life had
+become fond of her little joke; "that always sounds as if someone else
+was fatter,--and I hope there is not someone else."
+
+The princess was silent, and fixed her eyes on her book.
+
+Presently the king came in, and played a game with Lina at picquet.  When
+they were all going to bed, he said:
+
+"Just come into the study, Lina.  I want you to write a few letters for
+me."
+
+The princess followed him and took her seat at the writing table.  The
+letters were very short.  One was to Herr Schnipp, tailor to the king and
+royal family; another was to the royal swordmaker, another to the
+bootmaker, another to the optician, another to the tradesman who supplied
+the august family with carpets and rugs, another to his Majesty's hatter.
+They were all summoned to be at the palace early next morning.  Then his
+Majesty yawned, apologised, and went to bed.  The princess also went to
+her room, or bower as it was then called, but not to sleep.
+
+She was unhappy that Dick did not satisfy his father, and that he was so
+careless, and also about other things.
+
+"And why does the king want all these tailors and hatters so suddenly,
+telescope-makers and swordmakers and shoemakers, too?" she asked herself,
+as she stood at the window watching the moon.
+
+"I _could_ find out.  I could turn myself into a dog or a cat, and go
+into the room where he is giving his orders.  But that is awkward, for
+when the servants see Rip" (that was the dog) "in two places at once,
+they begin to think the palace is haunted, and it makes people talk.
+Besides, I know it is wrong to listen to what one is not meant to hear.
+It is often difficult to be a magician and a good girl.  The temptations
+are so strong, stronger than most people allow for."  So she remained,
+with the moon shining on her pretty yellow hair and her white dress,
+wondering what the king intended to do, and whether it was something that
+Dick would not like.
+
+"How stupid of me," she said at length, "after all the lessons I have
+had.  Why, I can _drink the moon_!"
+
+Now, this is a way of knowing what anyone else is thinking of and intends
+to do, for the moon sees and knows everything.  Whether it is _quite
+fair_ is another matter; but, at all events, it is not _listening_.  And
+anyone may see that, if you are a magician, like the Princess Jaqueline,
+a great many difficult questions as to what is right and wrong at once
+occur which do not trouble other people.  King Prigio's secret, why he
+sent for the tailor and the other people, was his own secret.  The
+princess decided that she would not find it out by turning herself into
+Rip or the cat (whose name was Semiramis), and, so far, she was quite
+right.  But she was very young, and it never occurred to her that it was
+just as wrong to find out what the king meant by _drinking the moon_ as
+by listening in disguise.  As she grew older she learned to know better;
+but this is just the danger of teaching young girls magic, and for that
+very reason it has been given up in most countries.
+
+However, the princess did not think about right and wrong, unluckily.  She
+went to the bookcase and took down her _Cornelius Agrippa_, in one great
+tall black volume, with silver clasps which nobody else could open; for,
+as the princess said, there are books which it would never do to leave
+lying about where the servants or anybody could read them.  Nobody could
+undo the clasps, however strong or clever he might be; but the princess
+just breathed on them and made a sign, and the book flew open at the
+right place--Book IV., chapter vi., about the middle of page 576.
+
+The magic spell was in Latin, of course; but the princess knew Latin very
+well, and soon she had the magic song by heart.  Then she closed the book
+and put it back on the shelf.  Then she threw open the window and drew
+back the curtains, and put out all the lights except two scented candles
+that burned with a white fire under a round mirror with a silver frame,
+opposite the window.  And into that mirror the moon shone white and full,
+filling all the space of it, so that the room was steeped in a strange
+silver light.  Now the whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and
+trembling; and as it trembled it sounded and rang with a low silver
+music, as if it were filled with the waves of the sea.
+
+Then the princess took a great silver basin, covered with strange black
+signs and figures raised in the silver.  She poured water into the basin,
+and as she poured it she sang the magic spell from the Latin book.  It
+was something like this, in English:
+
+   "Oh Lady Moon, on the waters riding,
+      On shining waters, in silver sheen,
+   Show me the secret the heart is hiding,
+      Show me the truth of the thought, oh Queen!
+
+   "Oh waters white, where the moon is riding,
+      That knows what shall be and what has been,
+   Tell me the secret the heart is hiding,
+      Wash me the truth of it, clear and clean!"
+
+As she sang the water in the silver basin foamed and bubbled, and then
+fell still again; and the princess knelt in the middle of the room, and
+the moon and the white light from the mirror of the moon fell in the
+water.
+
+Then the princess raised the basin, and stooped her mouth to it and drank
+the water, spilling a few drops, and so she _drank the moon_ and the
+knowledge of the moon.  Then the moon was darkened without a cloud, and
+there was darkness in the sky for a time, and all the dogs in the world
+began to howl.  When the moon shone again, the princess rose and put out
+the two white lights, and drew the curtains; and presently she went to
+bed.
+
+{The Princess drinks the Moon: p41.jpg}
+
+"Now I know all about it," she said.  "It is clever; everything the king
+does is clever, and he is so kind that I daresay he does not mean any
+harm.  But it seems a cruel trick to play on poor Ricardo.  However,
+Jaqueline is on the watch, and I'll show them a girl can do more than
+people think,"--as, indeed, she could.
+
+After meditating in this way, the princess fell sleep, and did not waken
+till her maid came to call her.
+
+"Oh! your Royal Highness, what's this on the floor?" said the faithful
+Rosina, as she was arranging the princess's things for her to get up.
+
+"Why, what is it?" asked the princess.
+
+"Ever so many--four, five, six, seven--little shining drops of silver
+lying on the carpet, as if they had melted and fallen there!"
+
+"They have not hurt the carpet?" said the princess.  "Oh dear! the queen
+won't be pleased at all.  It was a little chemical experiment I was
+trying last night."
+
+But she knew very well that she must have dropped seven drops of the
+enchanted water.
+
+"No, your Royal Highness, the carpet is not harmed," said Rosina; "only
+your Royal Highness should do these things in the laboratory.  Her
+Majesty has often spoke about it."
+
+"You are quite right," said the princess; "but as there is no harm done,
+we'll say nothing about it this time.  And, Rosina, you may keep the
+silver drops for yourself."
+
+"Your Royal Highness is always very kind," said Rosina, which was true;
+but how much better and wiser it is not to _begin_ to deceive!  We never
+know how far we may be carried, and so Jaqueline found out.
+
+For when she went down to breakfast, there was the king in a great state
+of excitement, for him.
+
+"It's _most_ extraordinary," said his Majesty.
+
+"What is?" asked the queen.
+
+"Why, didn't you notice it?  No, you had gone to bed before it happened.
+But I was taking a walk in the moonlight, on the balcony, and I observed
+it carefully."
+
+"Observed what, my dear?" asked the queen, who was pouring out the tea.
+
+"Didn't you see it, Dick?  Late as usual, you young dog!" the king
+remarked as Ricardo entered the room.
+
+"See what, sir?" said Dick.
+
+"Oh, you were asleep hours before, now I think of it!  But it was _the_
+most extraordinary thing, an unpredicted eclipse of the moon!  You must
+have noticed it, Jaqueline; you sat up later.  How the dogs howled!"
+
+"No; I mean yes," murmured poor Jaqueline, who of course had caused the
+whole affair by her magic arts, but who had forgotten, in the excitement
+of the moment, that an eclipse of the moon, especially if entirely
+unexpected, is likely to attract very general attention.  Jaqueline could
+not bear to tell a fib, especially to a king who had been so kind to her;
+besides, fibbing would not alter the facts.
+
+"Yes, I did see it," she admitted, blushing.  "Had it not been
+predicted?"
+
+"Not a word about it whispered anywhere," said his Majesty.  "I looked up
+the almanack at once.  It is the most extraordinary thing I ever saw, and
+I've seen a good many."
+
+"The astronomers must be duffers," said Prince Ricardo.  "I never thought
+there was much in physical science of any sort; most dreary stuff.  Why,
+they say the earth goes round the sun, whereas any fool can see it is
+just the other way on."
+
+King Prigio was struck aghast by these sentiments in the mouth of his son
+and heir, the hope of Pantouflia.  But what was the king to say in reply?
+The astronomers of Pantouflia, who conceived that they knew a great deal,
+had certainly been taken by surprise this time.  Indeed, they have not
+yet satisfactorily explained this eclipse of the moon, though they have
+written volumes about it.
+
+"Why, it may be the sun next!" exclaimed his Majesty.  "Anything may
+happen.  The very laws of gravitation themselves may go askew!"
+
+At this moment the butler, William, who had been in the queen's family
+when she was a girl, entered, and announced:
+
+"Some of the royal tradesmen, by appointment, to see your Majesty."
+
+So the king, who had scarcely eaten any breakfast, much to the annoyance
+of the queen, who was not agitated by eclipses, went out and joined the
+tailors and the rest of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+The Adventure of the Shopkeepers.
+
+
+{Man with sword: p48.jpg}
+
+Dick went on with his breakfast.  He ate cold pastry, and poached eggs,
+and ham, and rolls, and raspberry jam, and hot cakes; and he drank two
+cups of coffee.  Meanwhile the king had joined the tradesmen who attended
+by his orders.  They were all met in the royal study, where the king made
+them a most splendid bow, and requested them to be seated.  But they
+declined to sit in his sacred presence, and the king observed that, in
+that case he must stand up.
+
+"I have invited you here, gentlemen," he said, "on a matter of merely
+private importance, but I must request that you will be entirely silent
+as to the nature of your duties.  It is difficult, I know, not to talk
+about one's work, but in this instance I am sure you will oblige me."
+
+"Your Majesty has only to command," said Herr Schnipp.  "There have been
+monarchs, in neighbouring kingdoms, who would have cut off all our heads
+after we had done a bit of secret business; but the merest word of your
+Majesty is law to your loving subjects."
+
+The other merchants murmured assent, for King Prigio was really liked by
+his people.  He was always good-tempered and polite.  He never went to
+war with anybody.  He spent most of the royal income on public objects,
+and of course there were scarcely any taxes to speak of.  Moreover, he
+had abolished what is called compulsory education, or making everybody go
+to school whether he likes it or not; a most mischievous and tyrannical
+measure!  "A fellow who can't teach himself to read," said the king, "is
+not worth teaching."
+
+For all these reasons, and because they were so fond of the queen, his
+subjects were ready to do anything in reason for King Prigio.
+
+Only one tradesman, bowing very deep and blushing very much, said:
+
+"Your Majesty, will you hear me for one moment?"
+
+"For an hour, with pleasure, Herr Schmidt," said the monarch.
+
+"It is an untradesman-like and an unusual thing to decline an order; and
+if your Majesty asked for my heart's blood, I am ready to shed it, not to
+speak of anything in the line of my business--namely, boot and shoe
+making.  But keep a secret from my wife, I fairly own to your Majesty
+that I can _not_."
+
+Herr Schmidt went down on his knees and wept.
+
+{Herr Schmidt went down on his knees: p52.jpg}
+
+"Rise, Herr Schmidt," said the king, taking him by the hand.  "A more
+honourable and chivalrous confession of an amiable weakness, if it is to
+be called a weakness, I never heard.  Sir, you have been true to your
+honour and your prince, in face of what few men can bear, the chance of
+ridicule.  There is no one here, I hope, but respects and will keep the
+secret of Herr Schmidt's confession?"
+
+The assembled shopkeepers could scarcely refrain from tears.
+
+"Long live King Prigio the Good!" they exclaimed, and vowed that
+everything should be kept dark.
+
+"Indeed, sire," said the swordmaker, "all the rest of us are bachelors."
+
+"That is none the worse for my purpose gentlemen," said his Majesty; "but
+I trust that you will not long deprive me of sons and subjects worthy to
+succeed to such fathers.  And now, if Herr Schmidt will kindly find his
+way to the buttery, where refreshments are ready, I shall have the
+pleasure of conducting you to the scene of your labours."
+
+Thus speaking, the king, with another magnificent bow, led the way
+upstairs to a little turret-room, in a deserted part of the palace.
+Bidding the tradesmen enter, he showed them a large collection of
+miscellaneous things: an old cap or two, a pair of boots of a sort long
+out of fashion, an old broadsword, a shabby old Persian rug, an ivory spy-
+glass, and other articles.  These were, in fact, the fairy presents,
+which had been given to the king at his christening, and by aid of which
+(and his natural acuteness) he had, in his youth, succeeded in many
+remarkable adventures.
+
+The caps were the Wishing Cap and the Cap of Darkness.  The rug was the
+famous carpet which carried its owner through the air wherever he wished
+to go.  The sword was the Sword of Sharpness.  The ivory glass showed you
+anyone you wanted to see, however far off.  The boots were the
+Seven-league Boots, which Hop-o'-my-Thumb stole from the Ogre about 1697.
+There were other valuable objects, but these were the most useful and
+celebrated.  Of course the king did not tell the tradesmen what they
+were.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," said his Majesty, "you see these old things.  For
+reasons which I must ask you to excuse me for keeping to myself, I wish
+you to provide me with objects exactly and precisely similar to these,
+with all the look of age."
+
+The tradesmen examined the objects, each choosing that in his own line of
+business.
+
+"As to the sword, sire," said the cutler, "it is an Andrea Ferrara, a
+fine old blade.  By a lucky accident, I happen to have one at home in a
+small collection of ancient weapons, exactly like it.  This evening it
+shall be at your Majesty's disposal."
+
+"Perhaps, Herr Schnitzler, you will kindly write an order for it, as I
+wish no one of you to leave the palace, if you can conveniently stay,
+till your business is finished."
+
+"With pleasure, your Majesty," says the cutler.
+
+"As to the old rug," said the upholsterer, "I have a Persian one quite
+identical with it at home, at your Majesty's service."
+
+"Then you can do like Herr Schnitzler," who was the cutler.
+
+"And I," said the hatter, "have two old caps just like these, part of a
+bankrupt theatrical stock."
+
+"We are most fortunate," said the king.
+
+"The boots, now I come to think of it, are unimportant, at least for the
+present.  Perhaps we can borrow a pair from the theatre."
+
+"As for the glass," said the optician, "if your Majesty will allow me to
+take it home with me--"
+
+"I am afraid I cannot part with it," said the king; "but that, too, is
+unimportant, or not very pressing."
+
+Then he called for a servant, to order luncheon for the shopkeepers, and
+paper for them to write their orders on.  But no one was within hearing,
+and in that very old part of the palace there were no bells.
+
+"Just pardon me for an instant, while I run downstairs," said his
+Majesty; "and, it seems a strange thing to ask, but may I advise you not
+to sit down on that carpet?  I have a reason for it."
+
+In fact, he was afraid that someone might sit down on it, and wish he was
+somewhere else, and be carried away, as was the nature of the carpet.
+
+King Prigio was not absent a minute, for he met William on the stairs;
+but when he came back, there was not one single person in the
+turret-room!
+
+"Where on earth are they?" cried the king, rushing through all the rooms
+in that part of the castle.  He shouted for them, and looked everywhere;
+but there was not a trace of tailor, hatter, optician, swordmaker,
+upholsterer.
+
+The king hastened to a window over the gate, and saw the sentinels on
+duty.
+
+"Hi!" he called.
+
+And the sentinels turned round, looked up, and saluted.
+
+"Have you seen anyone go out?" he cried.
+
+"No one, sire," answered the soldiers.
+
+The king, who began to guess what had happened, hurried back to the
+turret-room.
+
+There were all the tradesmen with parcels under their arms.
+
+"What means this, gentlemen?" said his Majesty, severely.  "For what
+reason did you leave the room without my permission?"
+
+They all knelt down, humbly imploring his compassion.
+
+"Get up, you donkeys!" said the king, forgetting his politeness.  "Get
+up, and tell me where you have been hiding yourselves."
+
+The hatter came forward, and said:
+
+"Sire, you will not believe me; indeed, I can scarcely believe it
+myself!"
+
+"Nor none of us can't," said the swordmaker.  "We have been home, and
+brought the articles.  All orders executed with punctuality and
+dispatch," he added, quoting his own advertisement without thinking of
+it.
+
+On this the swordmaker took out and exhibited the Andrea Ferrara blade,
+which was exactly like the Sword of Sharpness.
+
+The upholsterer undid his parcel, and there was a Persian rug, which no
+one could tell from the magical carpet.
+
+The hatter was fumbling with the string of his parcel, when he suddenly
+remembered, what the king in his astonishment had not noticed, that he
+had a cap on himself.  He pulled it off in a hurry, and the king at once
+saw that it was his Wishing Cap, and understood all about the affair.  The
+hatter, in his absence, had tried on the Wishing Cap, and had wished that
+he himself and his friends were all at home and back again with their
+wares at the palace.  And what he wished happened, of course, as was
+natural.  In a moment the king saw how much talk this business would
+produce in the country, and he decided on the best way to stop it.
+
+Seizing the Wishing Cap, he put it on, wished all the tradesmen,
+including the shoemaker, back in the town at their shops, and also wished
+that none of them should remember anything about the whole affair.
+
+In a moment he was alone in the turret-room.  As for the shopkeepers,
+they had a kind of idea that they had dreamed something odd; but, as it
+went no further, of course they did not talk about it, and nobody was any
+the wiser.
+
+"Owl that I am!" said King Prigio to himself.  "I might have better
+wished for a complete set of sham fairy things which would not work.  It
+would have saved a great deal of trouble; but I am so much out of the
+habit of using the cap, that I never thought of it.  However, what I have
+got will do very well."
+
+Then, putting on the Cap of Darkness, that nobody might see him, he
+carried all the _real_ fairy articles away, except the Seven-league
+Boots, to his own room, where he locked them up, leaving in their place
+the sham Wishing Cap, the sham Cap of Darkness, the sham Sword of
+Sharpness, and the carpet which was not a magic carpet at all.
+
+His idea was, of course, that Ricardo would start on an expedition
+confiding in his fairy things, and he would find that they did not act.
+Then he would be left to his own cleverness and courage to get him out of
+the scrape.  That would teach him, thought the king, to depend on
+himself, and to set a proper value on cleverness and learning, and
+minding his book.
+
+Of course he might have locked the things up, and forbidden Ricardo to
+touch them, but that might have seemed harsh.  And, as you may easily
+imagine, with all the powers at his command, the king fancied he could
+easily rescue Ricardo from any very serious danger at the hands of giants
+or magicians or monsters.  He only wanted to give him a fright or two,
+and make him respect the judgment of older and wiser people than himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+Two Lectures.
+
+
+{The Prince with the telescope: p64.jpg}
+
+For several days Prince Ricardo minded his books, and, according to his
+tutors, made considerable progress in polite learning.  Perhaps he ought
+not to be praised too highly for this, because, in fact, he saw no means
+of distinguishing himself by adventures just at that time.  Every morning
+he would climb the turret and sweep the horizon, and even _much_ beyond
+the horizon, with the ivory spy-glass.  But look as he would, he saw no
+monsters preying on human-kind anywhere, nor princesses in distress.  To
+be sure he saw plenty of poor people in distress, and, being a
+good-hearted, though careless, lad, Dick would occasionally fly off with
+the Purse of Fortunatus in his pocket, and give them as much money as
+they needed--it cost him nothing.  But this was not the kind of adventure
+which he enjoyed.  Dragons for his money!
+
+One day the Princess Jaqueline took a curious plan of showing Ricardo how
+little interest, after all, there is in performing the most wonderful
+exploits without any real difficulty or danger.  They were drifting
+before a light breeze on a hill lake; Ricardo was fishing, and Jaqueline
+was sculling a stroke now and then, just to keep the boat right with the
+wind.  Ricardo had very bad sport, when suddenly the trout began to rise
+all over the lake.  Dick got excited, and stumbled about the boat from
+stern to bow, tripping over Jaqueline's feet, and nearly upsetting the
+vessel in his hurry to throw his flies over every trout he saw feeding.
+
+{Drifting in a light breeze: p66.jpg}
+
+But, as too often occurs, they were taking one particular fly which was
+on the water, and would look at nothing else.
+
+"Oh, bother them!" cried Ricardo.  "I can't find a fly in my book in the
+least like that little black one they are feeding on!"
+
+He tried half-a-dozen different fly-hooks, but all to no purpose; he lost
+his temper, got his tackle entangled in Jaqueline's hair and then in the
+landing-net; and, though such a big boy, he was nearly crying with
+vexation.
+
+The Princess Jaqueline, with great pains and patience, disentangled the
+casting line, first from her hair, which Ricardo was anxious to cut (the
+great stupid oaf,--her pretty hair!) then from the landing-net; but Dick
+had grown sulky.
+
+"It's no use," he said; "I have not a fly that will suit.  Let's go
+home," and he threw a tin can at a rising trout.
+
+"Now, Dick," said Jaqueline, "you know I can help you.  I did not learn
+magic for nothing.  Just you look the other way for a minute or two, and
+you will find the right fly at the end of your line."
+
+Dick turned his head away (it is not proper to look on at magical arts),
+and then in a moment, saw the right hook on his cast; but Jaqueline was
+not in the boat.  She had turned herself into an artificial fly (a small
+black gnat), and Dick might set to his sport again.
+
+"What a trump that girl is," he said aloud.  "Clever, too!" and he began
+casting.  He got a trout every cast, great big ones, over a pound, and
+soon he had a basketful.  But he began to feel rather bored.
+
+"There's not much fun taking them," he said, "when they are so silly."
+
+At that very moment he noticed that the fly was off his cast, and
+Jaqueline was sitting at the oars.
+
+"You see, Ricardo," she said, "I was right after all.  There is not much
+pleasure in sport that is easy and certain.  Now, apply this moral to
+dragon-killing with magic instruments.  It may be useful when one is
+obliged to defend oneself, but surely a prince ought not to give his
+whole time to nothing else!"
+
+Dick had no answer ready, so he only grumbled:
+
+"You're always preaching at me, Jack; everybody always is.  I seem to
+have been born just to be preached at."
+
+Some people are; and it does grow rather tedious in the long run.  But
+perhaps what Jaqueline said may have made some impression on Ricardo, for
+he stuck to his books for weeks, and was got into decimal fractions and
+Euclid.
+
+All this, of course, pleased the king very much, and he began to
+entertain hopes of Ricardo's becoming a wise and learned prince, and a
+credit to his illustrious family.
+
+Things were not always to go smoothly, far from it; and it was poor
+Jaqueline who fell into trouble next.  She had been very ready to lecture
+Dick, as we saw, and took a good deal of credit to herself for his
+steadiness.  But one day King Prigio happened to meet Jaqueline's maid,
+Rosina, on the stairs; and as Rosina was a pretty girl, and the king was
+always kind to his dependents, he stopped to have a chat with her.
+
+"Why, Rosina, what a pretty little silver cross you are wearing," he
+said, and he lifted a curious ornament which hung from a chain on
+Rosina's neck.  It consisted of seven drops of silver, set like this:
+
+{The drops: p72.jpg}
+
+ "May I look at it?" his Majesty asked, and Rosina, all in a flutter,
+took it off and gave if to him.  "H'm!" said the king.  "Very curious and
+pretty!  May I ask you where you got this, Rosina?"
+
+{"H'm!" said the king.  "Very curious and pretty!": p73.jpg}
+
+Now Rosina generally had her answer ready, and I am very sorry to say
+that she did not always speak the truth when she could think of anything
+better.  On this occasion she was anxious to think of something better,
+for fear of getting Jaqueline into a scrape about the chemical experiment
+in her bedroom.  But Rosina was fluttered, as we said, by the royal
+kindness, and she could think of nothing but to curtsy, and say:
+
+"Please, your Majesty, the princess gave me the drops."
+
+"Very interesting," said the king.  "There is a little white moon shining
+in each of them!  I wonder if they shine in the dark?"
+
+He opened the door of a cupboard which had no windows, where the
+housemaid kept her mops and brooms, and shut himself in.  Yes, there was
+no mistake; the darkness was quite lighted up with the sheen of the seven
+little moons in the silver.  The king looked rather grave.
+
+"If you can trust me with this cross till to-morrow, Rosina, I should
+like to have it examined and analysed.  This is no common silver."
+
+Of course Rosina could only curtsy, but she was very much alarmed about
+the consequences to her mistress.
+
+After luncheon, the king asked Jaqueline to come into his study, as he
+often did, to help him with his letters.  When they had sat down his
+Majesty said:
+
+"My dear Jaqueline, I never interfere with your pursuits, but I almost
+doubt whether _Cornelius Agrippa_ is a good book for a very young lady to
+read.  The Fairy Paribanou, I am sure, taught you nothing beyond the
+ordinary magical accomplishments suited to your rank; but there are a
+great many things in the _Cornelius_ which I think you should not study
+till you are older and wiser."
+
+"What does your Majesty mean?" said poor Jaqueline, feeling very
+uncomfortable; for the king had never lectured her before.
+
+"Why," said his Majesty, taking the silver cross out of his pocket, "did
+you not give this to Rosina?"
+
+"Yes, sire, I did give her the drops.  She had them made up herself."
+
+"Then give it back to her when you see her next.  I am glad you are
+frank, Jaqueline.  And you know, of course, that the drops are not
+ordinary silver?  They are moon silver, and that can only be got in one
+way, so far as I know, at least--when one spills the water when he, or
+she, is drinking the moon.  Now, there is only one book which tells how
+that can be done, and there is only one reason for doing it; namely, to
+find out what is some other person's secret.  I shall not ask you _whose_
+secret you wanted to find out, but I must request you never to do such a
+thing again without consulting me.  You can have no reason for it, such
+as a great king might have whose enemies are plotting against his
+country."
+
+"Oh, sire, I will tell you everything!" cried Jaqueline.
+
+"No, don't; I don't want to know.  I am sure you will make no use of your
+information which you think I should not approve of.  But there is
+another thing--that eclipse of the moon!  Oh, Jaqueline, was it
+honourable, or fair to the astronomers and men of science, to say nothing
+about it?  Their European reputations are seriously injured."
+
+Poor Jaqueline could only cry.
+
+"Never mind," said his Majesty, comforting her.  "There is no great harm
+done yet, and perhaps they would not believe you if you did explain; but
+just think, if some people ceased to believe in Science, what would they
+have left to believe in?  But you are young, of course, and cannot be
+expected to think of everything."
+
+"I never thought about it at all," wept Jaqueline.
+
+"'Evil is wrought by want of thought,'" said the king, quoting the poet.
+"Now run away, dry your tears, and I think you had better bring me that
+book, and I'll put it back in one of the locked-up shelves.  Later, when
+you are older, we shall see about it."
+
+The princess flew to her room, and returned with her book.  And the king
+kissed her, and told her to go and see if her Majesty meant to take a
+drive.
+
+"I'll never deceive him again, never . . . unless it is _quite_
+necessary," said the princess to herself.  "Indeed, it is not so easy to
+deceive the king.  What a lot he has read!"
+
+In fact, King Prigio had been very studious when a young man, before he
+came to the throne.
+
+"Poor child!" thought the king.  "No doubt she was trying her fortune,
+wondering if Ricardo cares for her a little.  Of course I could not let
+her tell me _that_, poor child!"
+
+In this guess, as we know, his Majesty was mistaken, which seldom
+happened to him.
+
+"I wonder who she is?" the king went on speaking to himself.  "That great
+booby, Ricardo, saved her from wild birds, which were just going to eat
+her.  She was fastened to a mountain top, but _where_? that's the
+question.  Ricardo never has any notion of geography.  It was across the
+sea, he noticed _that_; but which sea,--Atlantic, Pacific, the Black Sea,
+the Caspian, the Sea of Marmora, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the
+German Ocean, the Mediterranean?  Her ornaments were very peculiar; there
+was a broad gold sun on her breast.  I must look at them again some day.
+She said she was being sacrificed to wild birds (which her people
+worshipped), because there was some famine, or war, or trouble in the
+country.  She said she was a Daughter of the Sun; but that, of course, is
+absurd, unless--By Jove!  I believe I have it," said the king, and he
+went into the royal library and was looking for some old Spanish book,
+when his secretary came and said that the Russian Ambassador was waiting
+for an interview with his Majesty.
+
+"Dismal old Muscovite!" sighed the king.  "A monarch has not a moment to
+himself for his private studies.  Ah, Prigio! why wert thou not born to a
+private station?  But Duty before everything," and wreathing his royal
+countenance in smiles, his Majesty prepared to give Count Snoreonski an
+audience.
+
+It was all about the attitude of Pantouflia in the event of a Polish
+invasion of Russia.  The king reassured Count Snoreonski, affirming that
+Pantouflia, while deeply regretting the disturbed relations between two
+States in whose welfare she was deeply interested, would ever preserve an
+attitude of benevolent neutrality, unless her own interests were
+threatened.
+
+"I may give your message to my august mistress, the Czarina?" said the
+ambassador.
+
+"By all means, adding an expression of my tender interest in her
+Majesty's health and welfare," said the king, presenting the count at the
+same time with a magnificent diamond snuffbox containing his portrait.
+
+The old count was affected to tears, and withdrew, while King Prigio
+said:
+
+"I have not lost a day; I have made an amiable but very stupid man
+happy."
+
+Such are, or rather such were, the toils of monarchs!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+Prince Ricardo Crosses the Path of History.
+
+
+{Hand reaching for a crown with wings: p83.jpg}
+
+"I say, Jack," said Prince Ricardo one morning, "here's a queer letter
+for me!"
+
+King Prigio had gone to a distant part of his dominions, on business of
+importance, and the young people were sitting in the royal study.  The
+letter, which Ricardo handed to Jaqueline, was written on a great broad
+sheet of paper, folded up without any envelope, as was the custom then,
+and was sealed with a huge seal in red wax.
+
+"I don't know the arms," Ricardo said.
+
+"Oh, Ricardo, how you _do_ neglect your Heraldry!  Old Green Stocking is
+in despair over your ignorance."
+
+Now Green Stocking was the chief herald of Pantouflia, just like Blue
+Mantle in England.
+
+"Why, these are the Royal Arms of England, you great ignorant Dick!"
+
+"But Rome isn't in England, is it?--and the post-mark is 'Roma': that's
+Rome in some lingo, I expect.  It is in Latin, anyhow, I know.  _Mortuus
+est Romae_--'He died at Rome.'  It's in the Latin Grammar.  Let's see
+what the fellow says, anyhow," added Ricardo, breaking the seal.
+
+"He begins, 'Prins and dear Cousin!'  I say, Jaqueline, he spells it
+'Prins;' now it is P-R-I-N-C-E.  He _must_ be an ignorant fellow!"
+
+"People in glass houses should not throw stones, Dick," said Jaqueline.
+
+"He signs himself 'Charles, P. W.,'" said Ricardo, looking at the end.
+"Who on earth can he be?  Why does he not put 'P. W. Charles,' if these
+are his initials?  Look here, it's rather a long letter; you might read
+it to us, Jack!"
+
+The princess took the epistle and began:
+
+"How nice it smells, all scented!  The paper is gilt-edged, too."
+
+"Luxurious beggar, whoever he is," said Ricardo.
+
+"Well, he says: 'Prins and dear Cousin,--You and me' (oh, what grammar!)
+'are much the same age, I being fifteen next birthday, and we should be
+better _ackwainted_.  All the wurld has herd of the fame of Prins
+Ricardo, whose name is _feerd_, and his _sord_ dreded, wherever there are
+Monsters and Tirants.  Prins, you may be less well informed about my
+situation.  I have not killed any Dragguns, there being nun of them here;
+but I have been _under fiar_, at Gaeta.'  Where's Gaeta, Dick?"
+
+"Never heard of it," said Ricardo.
+
+"Well, it is in Italy, and it was besieged lately.  He goes on: 'and I am
+told that I did not misbehave myself, nor disgrace _the blud of Bruce_.'"
+
+"I've heard of Robert Bruce," said Dick; "he was the man who did not kill
+the spider, but he cracked the head of Sir Harry Bohun with one whack of
+his axe.  I remember _him_ well enough."
+
+"Well, your correspondent seems to be a descendant of his."
+
+"That's getting more interesting," said Dick.  "I wish my father would go
+to war with somebody.  With the Sword of Sharpness I'd make the enemy
+whistle!  Drive on, Jack."
+
+"'As a prins in distress, I apeal to your valler, so renouned in Europe.
+I am kept out of my own; my royal father, King Gems,'--well, this is the
+worst spelling I ever saw in my life!  He means King _James_,--'my royal
+father, King Gems, being druv into exile by a crewl Usurper, the Elector
+of Hannover.  King Gems is _old_, and likes a quiat life; but I am
+determined to make an effort, if I go alone, and Europe shall here of
+Prince Charles.  Having heard--as who has not?--of your royal Highness's
+courage and sordsmanship, I throw myself at your feet, and implore you to
+asist a prins in distres.  Let our sords be drawn together in the caus of
+freedom and an outraged country, my own.
+
+"'I remain,
+"'Prins and dear Cuzen,
+"'CHARLES, P. W.'
+
+"P. W. means Prince of Wales," added Jaqueline.  "He is turned out of
+England you know, and lives at Rome with his father."
+
+"I like that chap," said Prince Ricardo.  "He does not spell very well,
+as you say, but I sometimes make mistakes myself; and I like his spirit.
+I've been looking out for an adventure; but the big game is getting shy,
+and my sword rusts in his scabbard.  I'll tell you what, Jack--I've an
+idea!  I'll put him on the throne of his fathers; it's as easy as
+shelling peas: and as for that other fellow, the Elector, I'll send him
+back to Hanover, wherever that may be, and he can go on electing, and
+polling his vote in peace and quietness, at home.  Just wait till I spot
+the places."
+
+The prince ran up to the turret, fetched the magic spy-glass, and looked
+up London, Rome, and Hanover, as you would in a map.
+
+"Well, Dick, but how do you mean to do it?"
+
+"Do it?--nothing simpler!  I just take my Seven-league Boots, run over to
+Rome, pick up Prince Charles, put him on the magic carpet, fly to London,
+clap the Cap of Darkness on him so that nobody can see him, set him down
+on the throne of his fathers; pick up the Elector, carry him over to his
+beloved Hanover, and the trick is done--what they call a bloodless
+revolution in the history books."
+
+"But if the English don't like Prince Charles when they get him?"
+
+"Like him? they're sure to like him, a young fellow like that!  Besides,
+I'll take the sword with me in case of accidents."
+
+"But, Dick, it is your father's rule that you are never to meddle in the
+affairs of other countries, and never to start on an expedition when he
+is not at home."
+
+"Oh, he won't mind this time!  There's no kind of danger; and I'm sure he
+will approve of the _principle_ of the thing.  Kings must stick up for
+each other.  Why, some electing characters might come here and kick _us_
+out!"
+
+"Your father is not the sort of king who is kicked out," said Jaqueline.
+
+But there was no use in talking to Dick.  He made his simple
+preparations, and announced that he would be back in time for luncheon.
+
+What was poor Jaqueline to do?  She was extremely anxious.  She knew, as
+we saw, what King Prigio had intended about changing the fairy things for
+others that would not work.  She was certain Dick would get himself into
+a scrape; how was she to help him?  She made up her mind quickly, while
+Dick was putting his things together.  She told the queen (it was the
+nearest to the truth she could think of) that she "was going for a turn
+with Dick."  Then she changed herself into a mosquito--a kind of gnat
+that bites--and hid herself under a fold of Dick's coat.  Of course he
+knew nothing about her being there.  Then he started off in his Seven-
+league Boots, and before you could say "Jack Robinson" he was in Rome, in
+the grounds of a splendid palace called the Villa Borghese.
+
+There he saw an elderly gentleman, in a great curled wig, sound asleep on
+a seat beneath a tree.  The old gentleman had a long, pale, melancholy
+face, and across his breast was a broad blue ribbon with a star.  Ah! how
+changed was King James from the handsome Prince who had loved fair
+Beatrix Esmond, thirty years ago!  Near him were two boys, not quite so
+old as Prince Ricardo.  The younger was a pretty dark boy, with a funny
+little roundabout white wig.  He was splendidly dressed in a light-blue
+silk coat; a delicate little lace scarf was tied round his neck; he had
+lace ruffles falling about his little ringed hands; he had a pretty
+sword, with a gold handle set with diamonds--in fact, he was the picture
+of a little dandy.  The other lad had a broad Scotch bonnet on, and no
+wig; beautiful silky yellow locks fell about his shoulders.  He had laid
+his sword on the grass.  He was dressed in tartan, which Ricardo had
+never seen before; and he wore a kilt, which was also new to Ricardo, who
+wondered at his bare legs--for he was wearing shoes with no stockings.  In
+his hand he held a curious club, with a long, slim handle, and a head
+made heavy with lead, and defended with horn.  With this he was aiming at
+a little white ball; and suddenly he swung up the club and sent the ball
+out of sight in the air, over several trees.
+
+Prince Ricardo stepped up to this boy, took off his cap, and said:
+
+"I think I have the honour of addressing the Prince of Wales?"
+
+Prince Charles started at the sight of a gentleman in long riding-boots,
+girt with a broadsword, which was not then generally worn, and carrying a
+Persian rug under his arm.
+
+"That is what I am called, sir," he said, "by those who give me the title
+which is mine by right.  May I inquire the reason which offers me the
+pleasure of this unexpected interview?"
+
+"Oh, I'm Ricardo of Pantouflia!" says Dick.  "I had a letter from you
+this morning, and I believe you wanted to see me."
+
+"From Pantouflia, sir," said Prince Charles; "why, that is hundreds of
+leagues away!"
+
+"It is a good distance," said Dick; "but a mere step when you wear Seven-
+league Boots like mine."
+
+"My dear prince," said Charles, throwing himself into his arms with
+rapture, and kissing him in the Italian fashion, which Dick did not half
+like, "you are, indeed, worthy of your reputation; and these are the
+celebrated Seven-league Boots?  Harry," he cried to his brother, "come
+here at once and let me present you to his Royal Highness, our
+illustrious ally, Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia.  The Duke of York--Prince
+Ricardo of Pantouflia.  Gentlemen, know each other!"
+
+The prince bowed in the most stately manner.
+
+"I say," said Dick, who was seldom at all up to the standard of royal
+conversation, "what's that game you were playing?  It's new to me.  You
+sent the ball a tremendous long shot."
+
+"The game is called golf, and is the favourite pastime of my loyal
+Scottish subjects," said Prince Charles.  "For that reason, that I may be
+able to share the amusements of my people, whom I soon hope to lead to a
+glorious victory, followed by a peaceful and prosperous reign, I am
+acquiring a difficult art.  I'm practising walking without stockings,
+too, to harden my feet," he said, in a more familiar tone of voice.  "I
+fancy there are plenty of long marches before me, and I would not be a
+spear's length behind the hardiest Highlander."
+
+"By Jove!  I respect you," said Dick, with the greatest sincerity; "but I
+don't think, with me on your side, you will need to make many marches.  It
+will all be plain sailing."
+
+"Pray explain your plan," said Prince Charles.  "The task of conquering
+back the throne of my fathers is not so simple as you seem to suppose."
+
+"I've done a good many difficult things," said Dick, modestly.
+
+"The conqueror of the magician, Gorgonzola, and the Giant Who never Knew
+when he had Enough, need not tell me that," said Prince Charles, with a
+courteous allusion to two of Ricardo's most prodigious adventures.
+
+"Oh!  I've very little to be proud of, really," said Dick, blushing;
+"anyone could do as much with my fairy things, of which, no doubt, you
+have heard.  With a Sword of Sharpness and a Cap of Darkness, and so
+forth, you have a great pull over almost anything."
+
+"And you really possess those talismans?" said the prince.
+
+"Certainly I do.  You see how short a time I took in coming to your call
+from Pantouflia."
+
+"And has Holy Church," asked the Duke of York, with anxiety, "given her
+sanction and her blessing to those instruments of an art, usually, in her
+wisdom, forbidden?"
+
+"Oh, never mind Holy Church, Harry!" said Prince Charles.  "This is
+_business_.  Besides, the English are Protestants."
+
+"I pray for their conversion daily," said the Duke of York.
+
+"The end justifies the means, you know," answered Prince Charles.  "All's
+fair in love and war."
+
+"I should think so," said Ricardo, "especially against those brutes of
+Electors; they give trouble at home sometimes."
+
+"You, too, are plagued with an Elector?" asked Prince Charles.
+
+"_An_ Elector? thousands of them!" answered Dick, who never could
+understand anything about politics.
+
+Prince Charles looked puzzled, but requested Dick to explain his great
+plan.
+
+They sat down on the grass, and Ricardo showed them how he meant to
+manage it, just as he had told Jaqueline.  As he said, nothing could be
+simpler.
+
+"Let's start at once," he said, and, inducing Prince Charles to sit down
+on the magic carpet, he cried:
+
+"England!  St. James's Palace!"
+
+But nothing happened!
+
+The carpet was not the right magic carpet, but the one which King Prigio
+had put in its place.
+
+"Get on!  England, I said!" cried Dick.
+
+But there they remained, under the chestnut tree, sitting on the carpet
+above the flowery grass.
+
+{But there they remained: p99.jpg}
+
+Prince Charles leaped to his feet; his face like fire, his eyes glowing.
+
+"Enough of this fooling, sir!" he said.  "It is easy, but cowardly, to
+mock at an unfortunate prince.  Take your carpet and be off with you, out
+of the gardens, or your shoulders shall taste my club."
+
+"There has been some mistake," Ricardo said; "the wrong carpet has been
+brought by accident, or the carpet has lost its power."
+
+"In this sacred city, blessed by the presence of his Holiness the Pope,
+and the relics of so many martyrs and saints, magic may well cease to be
+potent," said the Duke of York.
+
+"Nonsense!  You are an impostor, sir!  Leave my presence!" cried Prince
+Charles, lifting his golf-club.
+
+Dick caught it out of his hand, and broke across his knee as fine a
+driver as ever came from Robertson's shop at St. Andrew's.
+
+"The quarrels of princes are not settled with clubs, sir!  Draw and
+defend yourself!" he said, kicking off his boots and standing in his
+socks on the grass.
+
+Think of the horror of poor Jaqueline, who witnessed this terrible scene
+of passion from a fold in Prince Ricardo's dress!  What could the girl do
+to save the life of two princes, the hopes of one nation, and of a
+respectable minority in another?
+
+In a moment Prince Charles's rapier was shining in the sunlight, and he
+fell on guard in the most elegant attitude, his left hand gracefully
+raised and curved.
+
+Dick drew his sword, but, as suddenly, threw it down again.
+
+"Hang it!" he exclaimed, "I can't hit you with _this_!  This is the Sword
+of Sharpness; it would cut through your steel and your neck at a touch."
+
+He paused, and thought.
+
+"Let me beseech your Royal Highness," he said to the Duke of York, who
+was in a terrible taking, "to lend your blade to a hand not less royal
+than your own."
+
+"Give him it, Hal!" said Prince Charles, who was standing with the point
+of his sword on the ground, and the blade bent.  "He seems to believe in
+his own nonsense."
+
+The duke yielded his sword; Dick took it, made a nourish, and rushed at
+Prince Charles.
+
+Now Ricardo had always neglected his fencing lessons.  "Where's the good
+of it," he used to ask, "all that stamping, and posture-making, and ha-
+haing?  The Sword of Sharpness is enough for _me_."
+
+But now he could not, in honour, use the Sword of Sharpness; so on he
+came, waving the rapier like a claymore, and made a slice at Prince
+Charles's head.
+
+The prince, very much surprised, parried in prime, riposted, and touched
+Dick on the hand.
+
+At this moment the Princess Jaqueline did what she should have thought of
+sooner.  She flew out of Dick's coat, and stung old King James on his
+royal nose.  The king wakened, nearly crushed the princess (so dangerous
+is the practice of magic to the artist), and then leaped up, and saw
+Dick's blade flying through the air, glittering in the sun.  The prince
+had disarmed him.
+
+"Hullo! what's all this?  _A moi_, _mes gardes_!" cried the old king, in
+French and English; and then he ran up, just in time to hear Prince
+Charles say:
+
+"Sir, take your life!  I cannot strike an unarmed man.  A prince you may
+be, but you have not learned the exercises of gentlemen."
+
+"What is all this, Carluccio?" asked the old king.  "Swords out! brawling
+in my very presence! blood drawn!" for Dick's hand was bleeding a good
+deal.
+
+Prince Charles, as briefly as possible, explained the unusual nature of
+the circumstances.
+
+"A king must hear both sides," said King James.  "What reply have you,
+sir, to make to his Royal Highness's statements?"
+
+"The carpet would not work, sir," said Dick.  "It never happened before.
+Had I used my own sword," and he explained its properties, "the Prince of
+Wales would not be alive to tell his story.  I can say no more, beyond
+offering my apology for a disappointment which I could not have foreseen.
+A gentleman can only say that he is sorry.  But wait!" he added; "I can
+at least prove that my confidence in some of my resources is not
+misplaced.  Bid me bring you something--anything--from the ends of the
+earth, and it shall be in your hands.  I can't say fairer."
+
+King James reflected, while Prince Ricardo was pulling on the
+Seven-league Boots, which he had kicked off to fight more freely, and
+while the Duke of York bandaged Dick's hand with a kerchief.
+
+"Bring me," said his Majesty, "Lord Lovat's snuff-mull."
+
+"Where does he live?" said Dick.
+
+"At Gortuleg, in Scotland," answered King James.
+
+Dick was out of sight before the words were fairly spoken, and in ten
+minutes was back, bearing a large ram's-horn snuff-box, with a big
+cairngorm set in the top, and the Frazer arms.
+
+"Most astonishing!" said King James.
+
+"A miracle!" said the Duke of York.
+
+"You have entirely cleared your character," said the king.  "Your honour
+is without a stain, though it is a pity about the carpet.  Your nobility
+in not using your magical sword, under the greatest provocation,
+reconciles me to this fresh blighting of my hopes.  All my allies fail
+me," said the poor king with a sigh; "you alone have failed with honour.
+Carluccio, embrace the prince!"
+
+They fell into each other's arms.
+
+"Prince," said Dick, "you have taught me a lesson for which I shall not
+be ungrateful.  With any blade a gentleman should be able to hold his own
+in fair fight.  I shall no longer neglect my fencing lessons."
+
+"With any blade," said Prince Charles, "I shall be happy to find Prince
+Ricardo by my side in a stricken field.  We shall not part till I have
+induced you to accept a sword which I can never hope to draw against
+another adversary so noble.  In war, my weapon is the claymore."
+
+Here the prince offered to Ricardo the ruby-studded hilt of his rapier,
+which had a beautiful white shark-skin sheath.
+
+"You must accept it, sir," said King James; "the hilt holds the rubies of
+John Sobieski."
+
+"Thank you, prince," said Ricardo, "for the weapon, which I shall learn
+to wield; and I entreat you to honour me by receiving this fairy
+gift--which _you_ do not need--a ring which makes all men faithful to the
+wearer."
+
+The Prince of Wales bowed, and placed the talisman on his finger.
+
+Ricardo then, after a few words of courtesy on both parts, picked up his
+useless carpet, took his farewell of the royal party, and, with Jaqueline
+still hidden under his collar, returned at full speed, but with a heavy
+heart, to Pantouflia, where the palace gong was just sounding for
+luncheon.
+
+Ricardo never interfered in foreign affairs again, but his ring proved
+very useful to Prince Charles, as you may have read in history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+Ricardo's Repentance.
+
+
+{Bottle of weapon salve: p109.jpg}
+
+The queen, as it happened fortunately, was lunching with one of the
+ladies of her Court.  Ricardo did not come down to luncheon, and
+Jaqueline ate hers alone; and very mournful she felt.  The prince had
+certainly not come well out of the adventure.  He had failed (as all
+attempts to restore the Stuarts always did); he had been wounded, though
+he had never received a scratch in any of his earlier exploits; and if
+his honour was safe, and his good intentions fully understood, that was
+chiefly due to Jaqueline, and to the generosity of King James and Prince
+Charles.
+
+"I wonder what he's doing?" she said to herself, and at last she went up
+and knocked at Ricardo's door.
+
+"Go away," he said; "I don't want to see anybody.  Who is it?"
+
+"It's only me--Jaqueline."
+
+{"It's only me": p111.jpg}
+
+"Go away!  I want nobody."
+
+"Do let me in, dear Dick; I have good news for you," said the princess.
+
+"What is it?" said Ricardo, unlocking the door.  "Why do you bother a
+fellow so?"
+
+He had been crying--his hand obviously hurt him badly; he looked, and
+indeed he was, very sulky.
+
+"How did you get on in England, Dick?" asked the princess, taking no
+notice of his bandaged hand.
+
+"Oh, don't ask me!" said Ricardo.  "I've not been to England at all."
+
+"Why, what happened?"
+
+"Everything that is horrid happened," said Dick; and then, unable to keep
+it any longer to himself, he said: "I've failed to keep my promise; I've
+been insulted, I've been beaten by a fellow younger than myself; and, oh!
+how my hand does hurt, and I've got such a headache!  And what am I to
+say to my mother when she asks why my arm is in a sling? and what will my
+father say?  I'm quite broken down and desperate.  I think I'll run away
+to sea;" and indeed he looked very wild and miserable.
+
+"Tell me how it all happened, Dick," said the princess; "I'm sure it's
+not so bad as you make out.  Perhaps I can help you."
+
+"How can a girl help a man?" cried Dick, angrily; and poor Jaqueline,
+remembering how she _had_ helped him, at the risk of her own life, when
+King James nearly crushed her in the shape of a mosquito, turned her head
+away, and cried silently.
+
+"I'm a beast," said Dick.  "I beg your pardon, Jack dear.  You are always
+a trump, I will say; but I don't see what you can do."
+
+Then he told her all the story (which, of course, she knew perfectly well
+already), except the part played by the mosquito, of which he could not
+be aware.
+
+"I was sure it was not so bad as you made it out, Dick," she said.  "You
+see, the old king, who is not very wise, but is a perfectly honourable
+gentleman, gave you the highest praise."  She thought of lecturing him a
+little about disobeying his father, but it did not seem a good
+opportunity.  Besides, Jaqueline had been lectured herself lately, and
+had not enjoyed it.
+
+"What am I to say to my mother?" Dick repeated.
+
+"We must think of something to say," said Jaqueline.
+
+"I can't tell my mother anything but the truth," Ricardo went on.  "Here's
+my hand, how it does sting! and she must find out."
+
+"I think I can cure it," said Jaqueline.  "Didn't you say Prince Charles
+gave you his own sword?"
+
+"Yes, there it is; but what has that to do with it?"
+
+"Everything in the world to do with it, my dear Dick.  How lucky it is
+that he gave it to you!"
+
+And she ran to her own room, and brought a beautiful golden casket, which
+contained her medicines.
+
+Taking out a small phial, marked (in letters of emerald):
+
+"WEAPON SALVE,"
+
+the princess drew the bright sword, extracted a little of the ointment
+from the phial, and spread it on a soft silk handkerchief.
+
+"What are you going to do with the sword?" asked Ricardo.
+
+"Polish it a little," said Jaqueline, smiling, and she began gently to
+rub, with the salve, the point of the rapier.
+
+As she did so, Ricardo's arm ceased to hurt, and the look of pain passed
+from his mouth.
+
+"Why, I feel quite better!" he said.  "I can use my hand as well as
+ever."
+
+Then he took off the stained handkerchief, and, lo, there was not even a
+mark where the wound had been!  For this was the famous Weapon Salve
+which you may read about in Sir Kenelm Digby, and which the Lady of
+Branxholme used, in _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_.  But the secret of
+making it has long been lost, except in Pantouflia.
+
+"You are the best girl in the world, Jaqueline," said Ricardo.  "You may
+give me a kiss if you like; and I won't call you 'Jack,' or laugh at you
+for reading books, any more.  There's something in books after all."
+
+The princess did not take advantage of Dick's permission, but advised him
+to lie down and try to sleep.
+
+"I say, though," he said, "what about my father?"
+
+"The king need never be told anything about it," said Jaqueline, "need
+he?"
+
+"Oh, that won't do!  I tell my father everything; but then, I never had
+anything like this to tell him before.  Don't you think, Jaqueline, you
+might break it to him?  He's very fond of you.  Just tell him what I told
+you; it's every word of it true, and he ought to know.  He might see
+something about it in the _Mercure de France_."
+
+This was the newspaper of the period.
+
+"I don't think it will get into the papers," said Jaqueline, smiling.
+"Nobody could tell, except the king and the princes, and they have
+reasons for keeping it to themselves."
+
+"I don't trust that younger one," said Dick, moodily; "I don't care for
+that young man.  Anyway, my father _must_ be told; and, if you won't, I
+must."
+
+"Well, I'll tell him," said Jaqueline.  "And now lie down till evening."
+
+After dinner, in the conservatory, Jaqueline told King Prigio all about
+it.
+
+His Majesty was very much moved.
+
+"What extraordinary bad luck that family has!" he thought.  "If I had not
+changed the rug, the merest accident, Prince Charles would have dined at
+St. James's to-night, and King George in Hanover.  It was the very
+nearest thing!"
+
+"This meddling with practical affairs will never do," he said aloud.
+
+"Dick has had a lesson, sire," said the princess.  "He says he'll never
+mix himself up with politics again, whatever happens.  And he says he
+means to study all about them, for he feels frightfully ignorant, and,
+above all, he means to practise his fencing."
+
+These remarks were not part of the conversation between Ricardo and
+Jaqueline, but she considered that Dick _meant_ all this, and, really, he
+did.
+
+"That is well, as far as it goes," said the king.  "But, Jaqueline, about
+that mosquito?" for she had told him this part of the adventure.  "That
+was a very convenient mosquito, though I don't know how Dick was able to
+observe it from any distance.  I see _your_ hand in that, my dear, and I
+am glad you can make such kind and wise use of the lessons of the good
+Fairy Paribanou.  Jaqueline," he added solemnly, laying his hand on her
+head, "You have saved the honour of Pantouflia, which is dearer to me
+than life.  Without your help, I tremble to think what might have
+occurred."
+
+The princess blushed very much, and felt very happy.
+
+"Now run away to the queen, my dear," said his Majesty, "I want to think
+things over."
+
+He did think them over, and the more he thought the more he felt the
+inconvenience attending the possession of fairy things.
+
+"An eclipse one day, as nearly as possible a revolution soon after!" he
+said to himself.  "But for Jaqueline, Ricardo's conduct would have been
+blazed abroad, England would have been irritated.  It is true she cannot
+get at Pantouflia very easily; we have no sea-coast, and we are
+surrounded by friendly countries.  But it would have been a ticklish and
+discreditable position.  I must really speak to Dick," which he did next
+morning after breakfast.
+
+"You have broken my rules, Ricardo," he said.  "True, there is no great
+harm done, and you have confessed frankly; but how am I to trust you any
+longer?"
+
+"I'll give you my sacred word of honour, father, that I'll never meddle
+with politics again, or start on an expedition, without telling you.  I
+have had enough of it.  And I'll turn over a new leaf.  I've learned to
+be ashamed of my ignorance; and I've sent for Francalanza, and I'll fence
+every day, and read like anything."
+
+"Very good," said the king.  "I believe you mean what you say.  Now go to
+your fencing lesson."
+
+"But, I say, father," cried Ricardo, "was it not strange about the magic
+carpet?"
+
+"I told you not to trust to these things," said the king.  "Some
+enchanter may have deprived it of its power, it may be worn out, someone
+may have substituted a common Persian rug; anything may happen.  You
+_must_ learn to depend on yourself.  Now, be off with you, I'm busy.  And
+remember, you don't stir without my permission."
+
+The prince ran off, and presently the sounds of stamping feet and "_un_,
+_deux_; _doublez_, _degagez_, _vite_; _contre de carte_," and so forth,
+might be heard over a great part of the royal establishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+Prince Ricardo and an Old Enemy.
+
+
+{The Yellow Dwarf: p123.jpg}
+
+"There is one brute I wish I could get upsides with," said Ricardo, at
+breakfast one morning, his mouth full of sardine.
+
+"Really, Ricardo, your language is most unprincely," said his august
+father; "I am always noticing it.  You mean, I suppose, that there is one
+enemy of the human race whom you wish to abolish.  What is the name of
+the doomed foe?"
+
+"Well, he is the greatest villain in history," said Ricardo.  "You must
+have read about him, sir, the Yellow Dwarf."
+
+"Yes, I have certainly studied what is told us about him," said the king.
+"He is no favourite of mine."
+
+"He is the only one, if you notice, sir, of all the scoundrels about whom
+our ancestors inform us, who escaped the doom which he richly merited at
+the sword of a good knight."
+
+You may here remark that, since Dick took to his studies, he could speak,
+when he chose, like a printed book, which was by no means the case
+before.
+
+"If you remember, sir, he polished off--I mean, he slew--the King of the
+Golden Mines and the beautiful, though frivolous, Princess Frutilla.  All
+that the friendly Mermaid could do for them was to turn them into a pair
+of beautiful trees which intertwine their branches.  Not much use in
+_that_, sir!  And nothing was done to the scoundrel.  He may be going on
+still; and, with your leave, I'll go and try a sword-thrust with him.
+Francalanza says I'm improving uncommon."
+
+"You'll take the usual Sword of Sharpness," said his Majesty.
+
+"What, sir, to a dwarf?  Not I, indeed: a common small sword is good
+enough to settle _him_."
+
+"They say he is very cunning of fence," said the king; "and besides, I
+have heard something of a diamond sword that he stole from the King of
+the Golden Mines."
+
+"Very likely he has lost it or sold it, the shabby little miscreant;
+however, I'll risk it.  And now I must make my preparations."
+
+The king did not ask what they were; as a rule, they were simple.  But,
+being in the shop of the optician that day, standing with his back to the
+door, he heard Dick come in and order a pair of rose-coloured spectacles,
+with which he was at once provided.  The people of Pantouflia were
+accustomed to wear them, saying that they improved the complexions of
+ladies whom they met, and added cheerfulness to things in general.
+
+"Just plain rose-coloured glass, Herr Spex," said Dick, "I'm not short-
+sighted."
+
+"The boy is beginning to show some sense," said the king to himself,
+knowing the nature and the difficulties of the expedition.
+
+Ricardo did not disguise his intention of taking with him a Dandie
+Dinmont terrier, named Pepper, and the king, who understood the motive of
+this precaution, silently approved.
+
+"The lad has come to some purpose and forethought," the king said, and he
+gladly advanced a considerable sum for the purchase of crocodiles' eggs,
+which can rarely be got quite fresh.  When Jaqueline had made the
+crocodiles' eggs, with millet-seed and sugar-candy, into a cake for the
+Dwarf's lions, Ricardo announced that his preparations were complete.
+
+Not to be the mere slave of custom, he made this expedition on horseback,
+and the only magical thing he took with him was the Cap of Darkness (the
+one which would not work, but he did not know that), and this he put in
+his pocket for future use.  With plenty of egg sandwiches and marmalade
+sandwiches, and cold minced-collop sandwiches, he _pricked forth_ into
+the wilderness, making for the country inhabited by the Yellow Dwarf.  The
+princess was glad he was riding, for she privately accompanied him in the
+disguise of a wasp; and a wasp, of course, could not have kept up with
+him in his Seven-league Boots.
+
+"Hang that wops!" said Prince Ricardo several times, buffeting it with
+his pocket-handkerchief when it buzzed in his ear and round his horse's
+head.
+
+{"Hang that wops!" said Prince Ricardo: p129.jpg}
+
+Meanwhile, King Prigio had taken his precautions, which were perfectly
+simple.  When he thought Ricardo was getting near the place, the king put
+on his Wishing Cap, sat down before the magic crystal ball, and kept his
+eye on the proceedings, being ready to wish the right thing to help
+Ricardo at the right moment.  He left the window wide open, smoked his
+cigar, and seemed the pattern of a good and wise father watching the
+conduct of a promising son.
+
+The prince rode and rode, sometimes taking up Pepper on his saddle;
+passing through forests, sleeping at lonely inns, fording rivers, till
+one day he saw that the air was becoming Yellow.  He knew that this
+showed the neighbourhood of Jaunia, or Daunia, the country of the Yellow
+Dwarf.  He therefore drew bridle, placed his rose-coloured spectacles on
+his nose and put spurs to his horse, for the yellow light of Jaunia makes
+people melancholy and cowardly.  As he pricked on, his horse stumbled and
+nearly came on its nose.  The prince noticed that a steel chain had been
+drawn across the road.
+
+"What caitiff has dared!" he exclaimed, when his hat was knocked off by a
+well-aimed orange from a neighbouring orange-tree, and a vulgar voice
+squeaked:
+
+"Hi, Blinkers!"
+
+There was the Yellow Dwarf, an odious little figure, sitting sucking an
+orange in the tree, swinging his wooden shoes, and grinning all over his
+wrinkled face.
+
+"Well, young Blinkers!" said the Dwarf, "what are you doing on my
+grounds?  You're a prince, by your look.  Yah! down with kings!  I'm a
+man of the people!"
+
+"You're a dwarf of the worst description, that's what _you_ are," said
+Ricardo; "and let me catch you, and I'll flog the life out of you with my
+riding-whip!"
+
+The very face of the Dwarf, even seen through rose-coloured spectacles,
+made him nearly ill.
+
+"Yes, when you can catch me," said the Dwarf; "but that's not to-day, nor
+yet to-morrow.  What are you doing here?  Are you an ambassador, maybe
+come to propose a match for me?  I'm not proud, I'll hear you.  They say
+there's a rather well-looking wench in your parts, the Princess
+Jaqueline--"
+
+"Mention that lady's name, you villain," cried Dick, "and I'll cut down
+your orange-tree!" and he wished he had brought the Sword of Sharpness,
+for you cannot prod down a tree with the point of a rapier.
+
+"Fancy her yourself?" said the Dwarf, showing his yellow teeth with a
+detestable grin; while Ricardo turned quite white with anger, and not
+knowing how to deal with this insufferable little monster.
+
+"I'm a widower, I am," said the Dwarf, "though I'm out of mourning," for
+he wore a dirty clay-coloured Yellow jacket.  "My illustrious consort,
+the Princess Frutilla, did not behave very nice, and I had to avenge my
+honour; in fact, I'm open to any offers, however humble.  Going at an
+alarming sacrifice!  Come to my box" (and he pointed to a filthy clay
+cottage, all surrounded by thistles, nettles, and black boggy water),
+"and I'll talk over your proposals."
+
+"Hold your impudent tongue!" said Dick.  "The Princess Frutilla was an
+injured saint; and as for the lady whom I shall not name in your
+polluting presence, I am her knight, and I defy you to deadly combat!"
+
+We may imagine how glad the princess was when (disguised as a wasp) she
+heard Dick say he was her knight; not that, in fact, he had thought of it
+before.
+
+"Oh! you're for a fight, are you?" sneered the Dwarf.  "I might tell you
+to hit one of your own weight, but I'm not afraid of six of you.  Yah!
+mammy's brat!  Look here, young Blinkers, I don't want to hurt you.  Just
+turn old Dobbin's head, and trot back to your mammy, Queen Rosalind, at
+Pantouflia.  Does she know you're out?"
+
+"I'll be into _you_, pretty quick," said Ricardo.  "But why do I bandy
+words with a miserable peasant?"
+
+"And don't get much the best of them either," said the Dwarf,
+provokingly.  "But I'll fight, if you will have it."
+
+The prince leaped from his horse, leaving Pepper on the saddle-bow.
+
+No sooner had he touched the ground than the Dwarf shouted:
+
+"Hi! to him, Billy! to him, Daniel! at him, good lions, at him!" and,
+with an awful roar, two lions rushed from a neighbouring potato-patch and
+made for Ricardo.  These were not ordinary lions, history avers, each
+having two heads, each being eight feet high, with four rows of teeth;
+their skins as hard as nails, and bright red, like morocco. {135}
+
+The prince did not lose his presence of mind; hastily he threw the cake
+of crocodiles' eggs, millet-seed, and sugar-candy to the lions.  This is
+a dainty which lions can never resist, and running greedily at it, with
+four tremendous snaps, they got hold of each other by their jaws, and
+their eight rows of teeth were locked fast in a grim and deadly _struggle
+for existence_!
+
+The Dwarf took in the affair at a glance.
+
+"Cursed be he who taught you this!" he cried, and then whistled in a
+shrill and vulgar manner on his very dirty fingers.  At his call rushed
+up an enormous Spanish cat, ready saddled and bridled, and darting fire
+from its eyes.  To leap on its back, while Ricardo sprang on his own
+steed, was to the active Dwarf the work of a moment.  Then clapping spurs
+to its sides (his spurs grew naturally on his bare heels, horrible to
+relate, like a cock's spurs) and taking his cat by the head, the Dwarf
+forced it to leap on to Ricardo's saddle.  The diamond sword which slew
+the king of the Golden Mines--that invincible sword which hews iron like
+a reed--was up and flashing in the air!
+
+At this very moment King Prigio, seeing, in the magic globe, all that
+passed, and despairing of Ricardo's life, was just about to wish the
+dwarf at Jericho, when through the open window, with a tremendous whirr,
+came a huge vulture, and knocked the king's wishing cap off!  Wishing was
+now of no use.
+
+This odious fowl was the Fairy of the Desert, the Dwarf's trusted ally in
+every sort of mischief.  The vulture flew instantly out of the window;
+and ah! with what awful anxiety the king again turned his eyes on the
+crystal ball only a parent's heart can know.  Should he see Ricardo
+bleeding at the feet of the abominable dwarf?  The king scarcely dared to
+look; never before had he known the nature of fear.  However, look he
+did, and saw the dwarf un-catted, and Pepper, the gallant Dandie Dinmont,
+with his teeth in the throat of the monstrous Spanish cat.
+
+No sooner had he seen the cat leap on his master's saddle-bow than
+Pepper, true to the instinct of his race, sprang at its neck, just behind
+the head--the usual place,--and, with an awful and despairing mew, the
+cat (Peter was its name) gave up its life.
+
+The dwarf was on his feet in a moment, waving the diamond sword, which
+lighted up the whole scene, and yelling taunts.  Pepper was flying at his
+heels, and, with great agility, was keeping out of the way of the
+invincible blade.
+
+"Ah!" screamed the Dwarf as Pepper got him by the ankle.  "Call off your
+dog, you coward, and come down off your horse, and fight fair!"
+
+At this moment, _bleeding yellow blood_, dusty, mad with pain, the dwarf
+was a sight to strike terror into the boldest.
+
+Dick sprang from his saddle, but so terrific was the appearance of his
+adversary, and so dazzling was the sheen of the diamond sword, that he
+put his hand in his pocket, drew out, as he supposed, the sham Cap of
+Darkness, and placed it on his head.
+
+"Yah! who's your hatter?" screamed the infuriated dwarf.  "_I_ see you!"
+and he disengaged, feinted in carte, and made a lunge in seconde at Dick
+which no mortal blade could have parried.  The prince (thanks to his
+excellent training) just succeeded in stepping aside, but the dwarf
+recovered with astonishing quickness.
+
+"Coward, _lache_, poltroon, runaway!" he hissed through his clenched
+teeth, and was about to make a thrust in tierce which must infallibly
+have been fatal, when the Princess Jaqueline, in her shape as a wasp,
+stung him fiercely on the wrist.
+
+With an oath so awful that we dare not set it down, the dwarf dropped the
+diamond sword, sucked his injured limb, and began hopping about with
+pain.
+
+In a moment Prince Ricardo's foot was on the blade of the diamond sword,
+which he passed thrice through the body of the Yellow Dwarf.  Squirming
+fearfully, the little monster expired, his last look a defiance, his
+latest word an insult:
+
+"Yah!  Gig-lamps!"
+
+Prince Ricardo wiped the diamond blade clean from its yellow stains.
+
+{The fight with the Yellow Dwarf: p141.jpg}
+
+"Princess Frutilla is avenged!" he cried.  Then pensively looking at his
+fallen foe, "Peace to his ashes," he said; "he died in harness!"
+
+Turning at the word, he observed that the two lions were stiff and dead,
+locked in each other's gory jaws!
+
+At that moment King Prigio, looking in the crystal ball, gave a great
+sigh of relief.
+
+"All's well that ends well," he said, lighting a fresh cigar, for he had
+allowed the other to go out in his excitement, "but it was a fight!  I am
+not satisfied," his Majesty went on reflecting, "with this plan of
+changing the magical articles.  The first time was of no great
+importance, and I could not know that the boy would start on an
+expedition without giving me warning.  But, in to-day's affair he owes
+his safety entirely to himself and Pepper," for he had not seen the wasp.
+"The Fairy of the Desert quite baffled me: it was terrible.  I shall
+restore the right fairy things to-night.  As to the Fairy of the Desert,"
+he said, forgetting that his Wishing Cap was on, "I wish she were dead!"
+
+A hollow groan and the sound of a heavy body falling interrupted the
+king.  He looked all about the room, but saw nothing.  He was alone!
+
+"She must have been in the room, invisible," said the king; and, of
+course, she has died in that condition.  "But I must find her body!"
+
+The king groped about everywhere, like a blind man, and at last
+discovered the dead body of the wicked fairy lying on the sofa.  He could
+not see it, of course, but he felt it with his hands.
+
+"This is very awkward," he remarked.  "I cannot ring for the servants and
+make them take her away.  There is only one plan."
+
+So he wished she were in her family pyramid, in the Egyptian desert, and
+in a second the sofa was unoccupied.
+
+"A very dangerous and revengeful enemy is now removed from Ricardo's path
+in life," said his Majesty, and went to dress for dinner.
+
+Meanwhile Ricardo was riding gaily home.  The yellow light of Jaunia had
+vanished, and pure blue sky broke overhead as soon as the dauntless Dwarf
+had drawn his latest breath.  The poor, trembling people of the country
+came out of their huts and accompanied Dick, cheering, and throwing roses
+which had been yellow roses, but blushed red as soon as the Dwarf
+expired.  They attended him to the frontiers of Pantouflia, singing his
+praises, which Ricardo had the new and inestimable pleasure of knowing to
+be deserved.
+
+"It was sharp work," he said to himself, "but much more exciting and
+glorious than the usual business."
+
+On his return Dick did not fail to mention the wasp, and again the king
+felt how great was his debt to Jaqueline.  But they did not think it well
+to trouble the good queen with the dangers Dick had encountered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+The Giant who does not know when he has had Enough. {146}
+
+
+{The enormous letter: p146.jpg}
+
+One morning the post brought a truly enormous letter for Dick.  It was as
+broad as a table-cloth, and the address was written in letters as long as
+a hoop-stick.  "I seem to know that hand," said Ricardo; "but I thought
+the fingers which held the pen had long been cold in death."
+
+He opened, with his sword, the enormous letter, which was couched in the
+following terms:
+
+   "The Giant as does not know when he has had _enuf_, presents his
+   compliments to Prince Ricardo; and I, having recovered from the
+   effects of our little recent _rally_, will be happy to meet you in the
+   old place for a return-match.  I not being handy with the pen, the
+   Giant hopes you will excuse mistakes and bad writing."
+
+Dick simply gazed with amazement.
+
+"If ever I thought an enemy was killed and done for, it was that Giant,"
+said he.  "Why, I made mere mince-collops of him!"
+
+However, he could not refuse a challenge, not to speak of his duty to rid
+the world of so greedy and odious a tyrant.  Dick, therefore, took the
+usual things (which the king had secretly restored), but first he tried
+them--putting on the Cap of Darkness before the glass, in which he could
+not see himself.  On second thoughts, he considered it unfair to take the
+cap.  All the other articles were in working order.  Jaqueline on this
+occasion followed him in the disguise of a crow, flying overhead.
+
+On reaching the cavern--a huge tunnel in the rock--where the Giant lived,
+Ricardo blew a blast on the horn which hung outside, and in obedience to
+a written notice, knocked also with a mace provided by the Giant for that
+purpose.  Presently he heard heavy footsteps sounding along the cavern,
+and the Giant came out.  He was above the common height for giants, and
+his whole face and body were seamed over with little red lines, crossing
+each other like tartan.  These were marks of encounters, in which he had
+been cut to bits and come together again; for this was his peculiarity,
+which made him so dangerous.  If you cut off his head, he went on just as
+before, only without it; and so about everything else.  By dint of magic,
+he could put his head on again, just as if it had been his hat, if you
+gave him time enough.  On the last occasion of their meeting, Ricardo had
+left him in a painfully scattered condition, and thought he was done for.
+But now, except that a bird had flown away with the little finger of his
+left hand and one of his ears, the Giant was as comfortable as anyone
+could be in his situation.
+
+"Mornin' sir," he said to Dick, touching his forehead with his hand.
+"Glad to see you looking so well.  No bad feeling, I hope, on either
+side?"
+
+"None on mine, certainly," said Ricardo, holding out his hand, which the
+Giant took and shook; "but Duty is Duty, and giants must go.  The modern
+world has no room for them."
+
+"That's hearty," said the Giant; "I like a fellow of your kind.  Now,
+shall we toss for corners?"
+
+"All right!" said Dick, calling "Heads" and winning.  He took the corner
+with the sun on his back and in the Giant's face.  To it they went, the
+Giant aiming a blow with his club that would have felled an elephant.
+
+Dick dodged, and cut off the Giant's feet at the ankles.
+
+"First blood for the prince!" said the Giant, coming up smiling.  "Half-
+minute time!"
+
+He occupied the half-minute in placing the feet neatly beside each other,
+as if they had been a pair of boots.
+
+_Round II._--The Giant sparring for wind, Ricardo cuts him in two at the
+waist.
+
+The Giant folded his legs up neatly, like a pair of trousers, and laid
+them down on a rock.  He had now some difficulty in getting rapidly over
+the ground, and stood mainly on the defensive, and on his waist.
+
+_Round III._--Dick bisects the Giant.  Both sides now attack him on
+either hand, and the feet kick him severely.
+
+"No kicking!" said Dick.
+
+"Nonsense; all fair in war!" said the Giant.
+
+But do not let us pursue this sanguinary encounter in all its _horrible
+details_.
+
+Let us also remember--otherwise the scene would be too painful for an
+elegant mind to contemplate with entertainment--that the Giant was in
+excellent training, and thought no more of a few wounds than you do of a
+crack on the leg from a cricket-ball.  He well deserved the title given
+him by the Fancy, of "The Giant who does not Know when he has had
+Enough."
+
+* * * * *
+
+The contest was over; Dick was resting on a rock.  The lists were strewn
+with interesting but imperfect fragments of the Giant, when a set of
+double teeth of enormous size flew up out of the ground and caught
+Ricardo by the throat!  In vain he strove to separate the teeth, when the
+crow, stooping from the heavens, became the Princess Jaqueline, and
+changed Dick into a wren--a tiny bird, so small that he easily flew out
+of the jaws of the Giant and winged his way to a tree, whence he watched
+the scene.
+
+But the poor Princess Jaqueline!
+
+To perform the feat of changing Dick into a bird she had, of course,
+according to all the laws of magic, to resume her own natural form!
+
+There she stood, a beautiful, trembling maiden, her hands crossed on her
+bosom, entirely at the mercy of the Giant!
+
+No sooner had Dick escaped than the monster began to _collect himself_;
+and before Jaqueline could muster strength to run away or summon to her
+aid the lessons of the Fairy Paribanou, the Giant who never Knew when he
+had Enough was himself again.  A boy might have climbed up a tree (for
+giants are no tree-climbers, any more than the grizzly bear), but
+Jaqueline could not climb.  She merely stood, pale and trembling.  She
+had saved Dick, but at an enormous sacrifice, for the sword and the Seven-
+league Boots were lying on the trampled grass.  He had not brought the
+Cap of Darkness, and, in the shape of a wren, of course he could not
+carry away the other articles.  Dick was rescued, that was all, and the
+Princess Jaqueline had sacrificed herself to her love for him.
+
+The Giant picked himself up and pulled himself together, as we said, and
+then approached Jaqueline in a very civil way, for a person of his
+breeding, head in hand.
+
+"Let me introduce myself," he said, and mentioned his name and titles.
+"May I ask what _you_ are doing here, and how you came?"
+
+{"Let me introduce myself," he said: p154.jpg}
+
+Poor Jaqueline threw herself at his feet, and murmured a short and not
+very intelligible account of herself.
+
+"I don't understand," said the Giant, replacing his head on his
+shoulders.  "What to do with you, I'm sure I don't know.  '_Please don't
+eat me_,' did you say?  Why, what do you take me for?  I'm not in that
+line at all; low, _I_ call it!"
+
+Jaqueline was somewhat comforted at these words, dropped out of the
+Giant's lips from a considerable height.
+
+"But they call you 'The Giant who does not Know when he has had Enough,'"
+said Jaqueline.
+
+"And proud of the title: not enough of fighting.  Of _punishment_ I am a
+glutton, or so my friends are pleased to say.  A brace of oxen, a drove
+of sheep or two, are enough for me," the Giant went on complacently, but
+forgetting to mention that the sheep and the oxen were the property of
+other people.  "Where am I to put you till your friends come and pay your
+ransom?" the Giant asked again, and stared at Jaqueline in a perplexed
+way.  "I can't take you home with me, that is out of the question.  I
+have a little woman of my own, and she's not very fond of other ladies;
+especially, she would like to poison them that have good looks."
+
+Now Jaqueline saw that the Giant, big as he was, courageous too, was
+afraid of his wife!
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll hand you over to a neighbour of mine,
+who is a bachelor."
+
+"A bachelor giant; would that be quite proper?" said Jaqueline, trying to
+humour him.
+
+"He's not a giant, bless you; he's a queer fellow, it is not easy to say
+what he is.  He's the Earthquaker, him as shakes the earth now and then,
+and brings the houses about people's ears."
+
+Jaqueline fairly screamed at hearing this awful news.
+
+"Hush! be quiet, do!" said the Giant.  "You'll bring out my little woman,
+and she is not easy to satisfy with explanations when she finds me
+conversing with a lady unbeknown to her.  The Earthquaker won't do you
+any harm; it's only for safe keeping I'll put you with him.  Why, he
+don't waken, not once in fifty years.  He's quite the dormouse.  Turns on
+his bed now and then, and things upstairs get upset, more or less; but,
+as a rule, a child could play with him.  Come on!"
+
+Then, taking Jaqueline up on one hand, on which she sat as if on a chair,
+he crossed a few ranges of mountains in as many strides.  In front was
+one tall blue hill, with a flattened peak, and as they drew near the
+princess felt a curious kind of wind coming round her and round her.  You
+have heard of whirlpools in water; well, this was just like a whirlpool
+of air.  Even the Giant himself could hardly keep his legs against it;
+then he tossed Jaqueline up, and the airy whirlpool seized her and
+carried her, as if on a tide of water, always round and round in
+narrowing circles, till she was sucked down into the hollow hill.  Even
+as she went, she seemed to remember the hill, as if she had dreamed about
+it, and the shape and colour of the country.  But presently she sank
+softly on to a couch, in a beautifully-lighted rocky hall.  All around
+her the floor was of white and red marble, but on one side it seemed to
+end in black nothing.
+
+Jaqueline, after a few moments, recovered her senses fully, and changing
+herself into an eagle, tried to fly up and out.  But as soon as she was
+in the funnel, the whirlpool of air always sucking down and down, was too
+strong for her wings.  She was a prisoner in this great gleaming hall,
+ending in black nothingness.  So she resumed her usual form, and walking
+to the edge of the darkness, found that it was not empty air, but
+something black, soft, and strong--something living.  It had no form or
+shape, or none that she could make out; but it pulsed with a heart.
+Jaqueline placed her foot on this curious thing, when a voice came, like
+thunder heard through a feather-bed:
+
+"Not near time to get up yet!" and then there was a snore, and the great
+hall rocked like a ship at sea.
+
+It was the Earthquaker!
+
+The habits of this monstrous animal are very little known, as, of course,
+he never comes above ground, or at least very seldom, when he makes
+tracks like a dry river-bed across country.  We are certain that there
+_are_ Earthquakers, otherwise how can we account for earthquakes?  But
+how to tackle an Earthquaker, how to get at him, and what to do with him
+when you have got at him, are questions which might puzzle even King
+Prigio.
+
+It was not easy to have the better of an enchantress like Jaqueline and a
+prince like Ricardo.  In no ordinary circumstances could they have been
+baffled and defeated; but now it must be admitted that they were in a
+very trying and alarming situation, especially the princess.  The worst
+of it was, that as Jaqueline sat and thought and thought, she began to
+remember that she was back in her own country.  The hills were those she
+used to see from her father's palace windows when she was a child.  And
+she remembered with horror that once a year her people used to send a
+beautiful girl to the Earthquaker, by way of keeping him quiet, as you
+shall hear presently.  And now she heard light footsteps and a sound of
+weeping, and lo! a great troop of pretty girls passed, sweeping in and
+out of the halls in a kind of procession, and looking unhappy and lost.
+
+Jaqueline ran to them.
+
+"Where am I? who are you?" she cried, in the language of her own country,
+which came back to her on a sudden.
+
+"We are nurses of the Earthquaker," they said.  "Our duty is to sing him
+asleep, and every year he must have a new song; and every year a new
+maiden must be sent down from earth, with a new sleepy song she has
+learned from the priests of Manoa, the City of the Sun.  Are you the new
+singer?"
+
+"No, I'm _not_," said Jaqueline.  "I don't know the priests of Manoa; I
+don't know any new sleepy song.  I only want to find the way out."
+
+"There is no way, or we should have found it," said one of the maidens;
+"and, if you are the wrong girl, by the day after to-morrow they must
+send the right one, otherwise the Earthquaker will waken, and shake the
+world, and destroy Manoa, the City of the Sun."  Then they all wept
+softly in the stillness.  "Can we get anything to eat here?" asked poor
+Jaqueline, at last.
+
+She was beginning to be very hungry, and however alarmed she might be,
+she felt that dinner would not be unwelcome.  The tallest of the maidens
+clapped her hands, and immediately a long table was spread by unseen
+sprites with meringues and cold chicken, and several sorts of delicious
+ices.
+
+We shall desert Jaqueline, who was rather less alarmed when she found
+that she was not to be starved, at all events, and return to Prince
+Ricardo, whom we left fluttering about as a little golden-crested wren.
+He followed the Giant and Jaqueline into the whirlpool of air as far as
+he dared, and when he saw her vanish down the cone of the hill, he flew
+straight back to Pantouflia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+Prigio has an Idea.
+
+
+{Ricardo and Semiramis: p165.jpg}
+
+A weary and way-worn little bird was Prince Ricardo when he fluttered
+into the royal study window, in the palace of Pantouflia.  The king was
+out at a council meeting; knowing that Ricardo had the right things, all
+in good order, he was not in the least anxious about him.  The king was
+out, but Semiramis was in--Semiramis, the great grey cat, sitting on a
+big book on the top of the library steps.  Now Semiramis was very fond of
+birds, and no sooner did Ricardo enter and flutter on to a table than
+Semiramis gathered herself together and made one fell spring at him.  She
+just caught his tail feather.  In all his adventures the prince had never
+been in greater danger.  He escaped, but no more, and went flying round
+the ceiling, looking for a safe place.  Finally he perched on a
+chandelier that hung from the roof.  Here he was safe; and so weary was
+he, that he put his head under his wing and fell fast asleep.  He was
+awakened by the return of the king, who threw himself on a sofa and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, that Prime Minister! his dulness is as heavy as lead; much heavier,
+in fact!"
+
+Then his Majesty lit a cigar and took up a volume; he certainly was a sad
+bookworm.
+
+Dick now began to fly about the room, brushing the king's face and trying
+to attract his notice.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said his Majesty.
+
+And Dick alighted, and nestled in his breast.
+
+On seeing this, Semiramis began to growl, as cats do when they are angry,
+and slowly approached his Majesty.
+
+"Get out, Semiramis!" said the king; and lifting her by the neck, he put
+her out of the room and shut the door, at which she remained scratching
+and mewing.
+
+Dick now crept out of the royal waistcoat, flew to the king's ear,
+twittered, pointed out of the window with one claw, and, lying down on
+his back, pretended to be dead.  Then he got up again, twittered afresh,
+pointed to the Wishing Cap, and, finally, convinced the king that this
+was no common fowl.
+
+"An enchanted prince or princess," said Prigio, "such as I have often
+read of.  Who can it be?  Not Jaqueline; she could change herself back in
+a moment.  By the way, where _is_ Jaqueline?"
+
+He rang the bell, and asked the servant to look for the princess.
+
+Semiramis tried to come in, but was caught and shut up downstairs.
+
+After doing this, the man replied that her Royal Highness had not been in
+the palace all day.
+
+The king rushed to the crystal ball, looked all the world over; but no
+princess!  He became very nervous, and at that moment Dick lighted on the
+crystal ball, and put his claw on the very hill where Jaqueline had
+disappeared.  Then he cocked his little eye at the king.
+
+"Nay, she is somewhere in the unknown centre of South America," said his
+Majesty; "somewhere behind Mount Roraima, where nobody has ever been.  I
+must look into this."
+
+Then he put on the Wishing Cap, and wished that the bird would assume his
+natural shape if he was under enchantment, as there seemed too good
+reason to believe.
+
+Instantly Dick stood before him.
+
+{Instantly Dick stood before him: p170.jpg}
+
+"Ricardo!" cried the king in horror; "and in this disguise!  Where have
+you been?  What have you done with Jaqueline?  Where are the Seven-league
+Boots?  Where is the Sword of Sharpness?  Speak!  Get up!" for Dick was
+kneeling and weeping bitterly at the royal feet.
+
+"All lost!" said Dick.  "Poor Jaqueline! she was the best girl, and the
+prettiest, and the kindest.  And the Earthquaker's got her, and the
+Giant's got the other things," Dick ended, crying bitterly.
+
+"Calm yourself, Ricardo," said his Majesty, very pale, but calm and
+determined.  "Here, take a glass of port, and explain how all this
+happened."
+
+Dick drank the wine, and then he told his miserable story.
+
+"You may well sob!  Why didn't you use the Cap of Darkness?  Mere
+conceit!  But there is no use in crying over spilt milk.  The thing is,
+to rescue Jaqueline.  And what are we to say to your mother?"
+
+"That's the worst of it all," said Dick.  "Mother will break her heart."
+
+"I must see her at once," said the king, "and break it to her."
+
+This was a terrible task; but the queen had such just confidence in her
+Prigio that she soon dried her tears, remarking that Heaven would not
+desert Jaqueline, and that the king would find a way out of the trouble.
+
+His Majesty retired to his study, put his head in his hands, and thought
+and thought.
+
+"The thing is, of course," he said, "to destroy the Earthquaker before he
+wakens; but how?  What can kill such a monster?  Prodding him with the
+sword would only stir him up and make him more vicious.  And I know of no
+other beast we can set against him, as I did with the Fire-beast and the
+Ice-beast, when I was young.  Oh, for an idea!"
+
+Then his mind, somehow, went back to the Council and the ponderous
+stupidity of the Prime Minister.
+
+"Heavier than lead," said the king.  "By George!  I have a plan.  If I
+could get to the place where they keep the Stupidity, I could carry away
+enough of it to flatten out the Earthquaker."
+
+Then he remembered how, in an old Italian poem, he had read about all the
+strange lumber-room of odd things which is kept in the moon.  That is the
+advantage of reading: _Knowledge is Power_; and you mostly get knowledge
+that is really worth having out of good old books which people do not
+usually read.
+
+"If the Stupidity is kept in stock, up in the moon, and comes from there,
+falling naturally down on the earth in small quantities, I might obtain
+enough for my purpose," thought King Prigio.  "But--how to get to the
+moon?  There are difficulties about that."
+
+But difficulties only sharpened the ingenuity of this admirable king.
+
+"The other fellow had a Flying Horse," said he.
+
+By "the other fellow" King Prigio meant an Italian knight, Astolfo, who,
+in old times, visited the moon, and there found and brought back the
+common sense of his friend, Orlando, as you may read in the poem of
+Ariosto.
+
+"Now," reasoned King Prigio, "if there is a Flying Horse at all, he is in
+the stables of the King of Delhi.  I must look into this."
+
+Taking the magic spy-glass, the king surveyed the world from China to
+Peru, and, sure enough, there was the famous Flying Horse in the king's
+stable at Delhi.  Hastily the king thrust his feet into the Shoes of
+Swiftness--so hastily, indeed, that, as the poet says, he "madly crammed
+a left-hand foot into a right-hand shoe."  But this, many people think,
+is a sign of good luck; so he put the shoes on the proper feet, and in a
+few minutes was in the presence of the Great Mogul.
+
+The monarch received him with some surprise, but with stately kindness,
+and listened to Prigio while he explained what he wanted.
+
+"I am only too happy to assist so adventurous a prince," remarked the
+Great Mogul.  "This is like old times!  Every horse in my stable is at
+your service, but, as you say, only the Flying Horse is of any use to you
+in this expedition."
+
+He clapped his hands, the Grand Vizier appeared, and the king gave orders
+to have the Flying Horse saddled at once.  He then presented King Prigio
+with a large diamond, and came down into the courtyard to see him mount.
+
+"He's very fresh," said the groom who held the bridle; "has not been out
+of the stable for three hundred years!"
+
+Prigio sprang into the saddle among the salaams of the dusky multitude,
+and all the ladies of the seraglio waved their scented handkerchiefs out
+of the windows.
+
+The king, as he had been instructed, turned a knob of gold in the saddle
+of the Flying Horse, then kissed his hand to the ladies, and, giving the
+steed his head, cried, in excellent Persian:
+
+"To the moon!"
+
+Up flew the horse with an easy action, and the king's head nearly swam
+with the swiftness of the flight.  Soon the earth below him was no bigger
+than a top, spinning on its own axis (see Geography books for this), and,
+as night fell, earth was only a great red moon.
+
+{King Prigio on the Flying Horse: p178.jpg}
+
+Through the dark rode King Prigio, into the silver dawn of the moon.  All
+now became clear and silvery; the coasts of the moon came into sight,
+with white seas breaking on them; and at last the king reached the silver
+walls, and the gate of opal.  Before the gate stood two beautiful ladies.
+One was fair, with yellow locks, the colour of the harvest moon.  She had
+a crown of a golden snake and white water-lilies, and her dress now shone
+white, now red, now golden; and in her hand was the golden pitcher that
+sheds the dew, and a golden wand.  The other lady was as dark as
+night--dark eyes, dark hair; her crown was of poppies.  She held the
+ebony Wand of Sleep.  Her dress was of the deepest blue, sown with stars.
+The king knew that they were the maidens of the bright and the dark side
+of the moon--of the side you see, and of the side that no one has ever
+seen, except King Prigio.  He stopped the Flying Horse by turning the
+other knob in the saddle, alighted, and bowed very low to each of the
+ladies.
+
+"Daring mortal! what make you here?" they asked.
+
+And then the king told them about Jaqueline and the Earthquaker, and how
+he needed a great weight of Stupidity to flatten him out with.
+
+The ladies heard him in silence, and then they said:
+
+"Follow us," and they flew lightly beside the Flying Horse till they had
+crossed all the bright side of the moon, above the silver palaces and
+silver seas, and reached the summit of the Mountains of the Moon which
+separate the bright from the dark side.
+
+"Here I may go no further," said the bright lady; "and beyond, as you
+see, all is darkness and heavy sleep."
+
+Then she touched Prigio with her golden wand with twisted serpents, and
+he became luminous, light raying out from him; and the dark lady, too,
+shone like silver in the night: and on they flew, over black rocks and
+black rivers, till they reached a huge mountain, like a mountain of coal,
+many thousand feet high, for its head was lost in the blackness of
+darkness.  The dark Moon-Lady struck the rock with her ebony wand, and
+said, "Open!" and the cliffs opened like a door, and they were within the
+mountain.
+
+"Here," said the dark lady, "is the storehouse of all the Stupidity;
+hence it descends in showers like Stardust on the earth whenever this
+mountain, which is a volcano, is in eruption.  Only a little of the
+Stupidity reaches the earth, and that only in invisible dust; yet you
+know how weighty it is, even in that form."
+
+"Indeed, madam," said the king, "no one knows it better than I do."
+
+"Then make your choice of the best sort of Stupidity for your purpose,"
+said the dark lady.
+
+And in the light which flowed from their bodies King Prigio looked round
+at the various kinds of Solid Stupidity.  There it all lay in masses--the
+Stupidity of bad Sermons, of ignorant reviewers, of bad poems, of bad
+speeches, of dreary novels, of foolish statesmen, of ignorant mobs, of
+fine ladies, of idle, naughty boys and girls; and the king examined them
+all, and all were very, very heavy.  But when he came to the Stupidity of
+the Learned--of dull, blind writers on Shakspeare, and Homer, and the
+Bible--then King Prigio saw that he had found the sort he wanted, and
+that a very little of it would go a long way.  He never could have got it
+on the saddle of the Flying Horse if the dark lady had not touched it
+with her ebony wand, and made it light to carry till it was wanted for
+his purpose.  When he needed it for use, he was to utter a certain spell,
+which she taught him, and then the lump would recover its natural weight.
+So he easily put a great block on his saddle-bow, and he and the dark
+lady flew back till they reached the crest of the Mountains of the Moon.
+There she touched him with her ebony wand, and the silver light which the
+bright lady had shed on him died from his face and his body, and he
+became like other men.
+
+"You see your way?" said the dark lady, pointing to the bright moon of
+earth, shining far off in the heavens.
+
+Then he knelt down and thanked her, and she murmured strange words of
+blessing which he did not understand; but her face was grave and kind,
+and he thought of Queen Rosalind, his wife.
+
+Then he jumped on the Flying Horse, galloped down and down, till he
+reached his palace gate; called for Ricardo, set him behind him on the
+saddle, and away they rode, above land and wide seas, till they saw the
+crest of the hollow hill, where Jaqueline was with the Earthquaker.
+Beyond it they marked the glittering spires and towers of Manoa, the City
+of the Sun; and "Thither," said King Prigio, who had been explaining how
+matters stood, to Ricardo, "we must ride, for I believe they stand in
+great need of our assistance."
+
+"Had we not better go to Jaqueline first, sir?" said Ricardo.
+
+"No," said the king; "I think mine is the best plan.  Manoa, whose golden
+spires and pinnacles are shining below us, is the City of the Sun, which
+Sir Walter Raleigh and the Spaniards could never find, so that men have
+doubted of its existence.  We are needed there, to judge by that angry
+crowd in the marketplace.  How they howl!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+The End.
+
+
+{Man with rock: p186.jpg}
+
+It was on a strange sight that the king and Ricardo looked down from the
+Flying Horse.  Beneath them lay the City of Manoa, filling with its
+golden battlements and temples a hollow of the mountains.  Here were
+palaces all carved over with faces of men and beasts, and with twisted
+patterns of serpents.
+
+The city walls were built of huge square stones, and among the groves
+towered pyramids, on which the people did service to their gods.  From
+every temple top came the roar of beaten drums, great drums of
+serpentskin.
+
+But, in the centre of the chief square of the town, was gathered a wild
+crowd of men in shining copper armour and helmets of gold and glittering
+dresses of feathers.  Among them ran about priests with hideous masks,
+crying them on to besiege and break down the royal palace.  From the
+battlements of the palace the king's guardsmen were firing arrows and
+throwing spears.  The mob shot arrows back, some of them tipped with
+lighted straw, to burn the palace down.
+
+But, in the very centre of the square, was a clear space of ground, on
+which fell the shadow of a tall column of red stone, all carved with
+serpents and faces of gods.  Beside it stood a figure horrible to see: a
+man clothed in serpent skins, whose face was the grinning face of a
+skull; but the skull was shining black and red in patches, and a long
+white beard flowed from beneath it.  This man, mounted on a kind of altar
+of red stone, waved his hand and yelled, and seemed to point to the
+shadow of the column which fell across the square.
+
+The people were so furious and so eager that they did not, at first,
+notice King Prigio as he slowly descended.  But at last the eyes within
+the skull looked up and saw him, and then the man gave a great cry, rent
+his glittering dress of serpentskin, and held up his hands.
+
+Then all the multitude looked up, and seeing the Flying Horse, let their
+weapons fall; and the man of the skull tore it from his face, and knelt
+before King Prigio, with his head in the dust.
+
+"Thou hast come, oh, Pachacamac, as is foretold in the prophecy of the
+Cord of the Venerable Knots!  Thou hast come, but behold the shadow of
+the stone!  Thou art too late, oh Lord of the Earth and the Sea!"
+
+Then he pointed to the shadow, which, naturally, was growing shorter, as
+the sun drew near mid-day.
+
+He spoke in the language of the ancient Incas of Peru, which of course
+Prigio knew very well; and he also knew that Pachacamac was the god of
+that people.
+
+"I have come," Prigio said, with presence of mind, "as it has been
+prophesied of old."
+
+"Riding on a beast that flies," said the old priest, "even as the oracle
+declared.  Glory to Pachacamac, even though we die to-day!"
+
+"In what can I help my people?" said Prigio.
+
+"Thou knowest; why should we instruct thee?  Thou knowest that on
+midsummer-day, every year, before the shadow shrinks back to the base of
+the _huaca_ {190} of Manoa, we must offer a maiden to lull the
+Earthquaker with a new song.  Lo, now the shadow shrinks to the foot of
+the _huaca_, and the maid is not offered!  For the lot fell on the
+daughter of thy servant the Inca, and he refuses to give her up.  One
+daughter of his, he says, has been sacrificed to the sacred birds, the
+_Cunturs_: the birds were found slain on the hill-top, no man knows how;
+but the maiden vanished."
+
+"Why, it must have been Jaqueline.  I killed the birds," said Ricardo, in
+Pantouflian.
+
+"Silence, not a word!" said the king, sternly.
+
+"And what makes you bear arms against the Inca?" he asked the old man.
+
+"We would slay him and her," answered the priest; "for, when the shadow
+shrinks to the foot of the stone, the sun will shine straight down into
+the hollow hill of the Earthquaker, and he will waken and destroy Manoa
+and the Temples of the Sun."
+
+"Then wherefore would you slay them, when you must all perish?"
+
+"The people, oh Pachacamac, would have revenge before they die."
+
+"Oh, folly of men!" said the king, solemnly; then he cried: "Lead me to
+the Inca; this day you shall not perish.  Is it not predicted in the Cord
+of the Venerable Knots that I shall slay this monster?"
+
+"Hasten, oh Pachacamac, for the shadow shortens!" said the priest.
+
+"Lead me to the Inca," answered Prigio.
+
+At this the people arose with a great shout, for they, too, had been
+kneeling; and, sending a flag of truce before King Prigio, the priest led
+him into the palace.  The ground was strewn with bodies of the slain, and
+through them Prigio rode slowly into the courtyard, where the Inca was
+sitting in the dust, weeping and throwing ashes on his long hair and his
+golden raiment.  The king bade the priest remain without the palace
+gates; then dismounted, and, advancing to the Inca, raised him and
+embraced him.
+
+"I come, a king to a king," he said.  "My cousin, take courage; your
+sorrows are ended.  If I do not slay the Earthquaker, sacrifice me to
+your gods."
+
+"The Prophecy is fulfilled," said the Inca, and wept for joy.  "Yet thou
+must hasten, for it draws near to noon."
+
+Then Prigio went up to the golden battlements, and saying no word, waved
+his hand.  In a moment the square was empty, for the people rushed to
+give thanks in the temples.
+
+"Wait my coming, my cousin," said Prigio to the Inca; "I shall bring you
+back the daughter that was lost, when I have slain your enemy."
+
+The Inca would have knelt at his feet; but the king raised him, and bade
+him prepare such a feast as had never been seen in Manoa.
+
+"The lost are found to-day," he said; "be you ready to welcome them."
+
+Then, mounting the Flying Horse, with Dick beside him, he rose towards
+the peak of the hill where the Earthquaker had his home.  Already the
+ground was beginning to tremble; the Earthquaker was stirring in his
+sleep, for the maiden of the new song had not been sent to him, and the
+year ended at noon, and then he would rise and ruin Manoa.
+
+The sun was approaching mid-day, and Prigio put spurs to the Flying
+Horse.  Ten minutes more, and the sun would look straight down the crater
+of the hollow hill, and the Earthquaker would arouse himself when the
+light and the heat fell on his body.
+
+Already the light of the sun shone slanting half-way down the hollow cone
+as the whirlpool of air caught the Flying Horse, and drew him swiftly
+down and down to the shadowy halls.  There knelt and wept the nurses of
+the Earthquaker on the marble floor; but Jaqueline stood a little apart,
+very pale, but not weeping.
+
+Ricardo had leaped off before the horse touched the ground, and rushed to
+Jaqueline, and embraced her in his arms; and, oh! how glad she was to see
+him, so that she quite forgot her danger and laughed for joy.
+
+"Oh! you have come, you have come; I knew you would come!" she cried.
+
+Then King Prigio advanced, the mighty weight in his hand, to the verge of
+the dreadful gulf of the Earthquaker.  The dim walls grew radiant; a long
+slant arm of yellow light touched the black body of the Earthquaker, and
+a thrill went through him, and shook the world, so that, far away, the
+bells rang in Pantouflia.  A moment more, and he would waken in his
+strength; and once awake, he would shatter the city walls and ruin Manoa.
+Even now a great mass of rock fell from the roof deep down in the secret
+caves, and broke into flying fragments, and all the echoes roared and
+rang.
+
+King Prigio stood with the mighty mass poised in his hands.
+
+"Die!" he cried; and he uttered the words of power, the magic spell that
+the dark Moon Lady had taught him.
+
+Then all its invincible natural weight came into the mass which the king
+held, and down it shot full on the body of the Earthquaker; and where
+that had been was nothing but a vast abyss, silent, empty, and blank, and
+bottomless.
+
+Far, far below, thousands of miles below, in the very centre of the
+earth, lay the dead Earthquaker, crushed flat as a sheet of paper, and
+the sun of midsummer-day shone straight down on the dreadful chasm, and
+could not waken him any more for ever.
+
+The king drew a long breath.
+
+"Stupidity has saved the world," he said; and, with only strength to draw
+back one step from the abyss, he fell down, hiding his face in his hands.
+
+But Jaqueline's arms were round his neck, and the maidens brought him
+water from an ice-cold spring; and soon King Prigio was himself again,
+and ready for anything.  But afterwards he used to say that the moment
+when the Earthquaker stirred was the most dreadful in his life.
+
+Now, in Manoa, where all the firm foundations of the city had trembled
+once, when the sun just touched the Earthquaker, the people, seeing that
+the shadow of the sacred column had crept to its foot, and yet Manoa
+stood firm again, and the Temple of the Sun was not overthrown, raised
+such a cry that it echoed even through the halls within the hollow hill.
+
+Who shall describe the joy of the maidens, and how often Jaqueline and
+Ricardo kissed each other?
+
+"You have saved me!" she cried to the king, throwing her arms round him
+again.  "You have saved Manoa!"
+
+"And _you_ have saved the Hope of Pantouflia, not once or twice," said
+his Majesty, grandly.
+
+And he told Dick how much he had owed to Jaqueline, in the fight with the
+Yellow Dwarf, and the fight with the Giant, for he did not think it
+necessary to mention the affair at Rome.
+
+Then Dick kissed Jaqueline again, and all the maidens kissed each other,
+and they quite cried for gladness.
+
+"But we keep his Majesty the Inca waiting," said Prigio.  "Punctuality is
+the courtesy of kings.  You ladies will excuse me, I am sure, if I remove
+first from the dungeon her whom we call the Princess Jaqueline.  The
+Inca, her father, has a claim on us to this preference."
+
+Then placing Jaqueline on the saddle, and leaving Dick to comfort the
+other young ladies, who were still rather nervous, the king flew off to
+Manoa, for the wind, of course, died with the death of the Earthquaker.
+
+I cannot tell you the delight of all Manoa, and of the Inca, when they
+saw the Flying Horse returning, and recognised their long-lost princess,
+who rushed into the arms of her father.  They beat the serpent drums, for
+they had no bells, on the tops of the temples.  They went quite mad with
+delight: enemies kissed in the streets; and all the parents, without
+exception, allowed all the young people who happened to be in love to be
+married that very day.  Then Prigio brought back all the maidens, one
+after the other, and Dick last; and he fell at the Inca's feet, and
+requested leave to marry Jaqueline.
+
+But, before that could be done, King Prigio, mounted on the palace
+balcony, made a long but very lucid speech to the assembled people.  He
+began by explaining that he was not their God, Pachacamac, but king of a
+powerful country of which they had never heard before, as they lived very
+much withdrawn in an unknown region of the world.  Then he pointed out,
+in the most considerate manner, that their religion was not all he could
+wish, otherwise they would never sacrifice young ladies to wild birds and
+Earthquakers.  He next sketched out the merits of his own creed, that of
+the Lutheran Church; and the Inca straightway observed that he proposed
+to establish it in Manoa at once.
+
+Some objection was raised by the old priest in the skull mask; but when
+the Inca promised to make him an archbishop, and to continue all his
+revenues, the priest admitted that he was perfectly satisfied; and the
+general public cheered and waved their hats with emotion.  It was
+arranged that the Inca, with his other daughters, should visit Pantouflia
+immediately, both because he could not bear to leave Jaqueline, and also
+because there were a few points on which he felt that he still needed
+information.  The Government was left in the hands of the archbishop, who
+began at once by burning his skull mask (you may see one like it in the
+British Museum, in the Mexican room), and by letting loose all the birds
+and beasts which the Manoans used to worship.
+
+So all the young people were married in the Golden Temple of the Sun, and
+all the Earthquaker's nurses who were under thirty were wedded to the
+young men who had been fond of them before they were sent into the hollow
+hill.  These young men had never cared for any one else.  Everybody wore
+bridal favours, all the unengaged young ladies acted as bridesmaids, and
+such a throwing of rice and old shoes has very seldom been witnessed.  As
+for the happy royal pair, with their fathers, and the other princess (who
+did not happen to be engaged), back they flew to Pantouflia.
+
+And there was Queen Rosalind waiting at the palace gates, and crying and
+laughing with pleasure when she heard that the wish of her heart was
+fulfilled, and Jaqueline was to be her daughter.
+
+"And, as for the Earthquaker," said her Majesty, "I never was really
+anxious in the least, for I knew no beast in the world was a match for
+_you_, my dear."
+
+So, just to make everything orderly and correct, Ricardo and Jaqueline
+were married over again, in the Cathedral of Pantouflia.  The marriage
+presents came in afterwards, of course, and among them, what do you
+think?  Why, the Seven-League Boots and the Sword of Sharpness, with a
+very polite note of extraordinary size:
+
+   "The Giant who does not Know when he has had Enough presents his
+   hearty congratulations to the royal pair, and begs to lay at their
+   feet the Seven-league Boots (they not fitting me) and the Sword which
+   Prince Ricardo left in the Giant's keeping recently.  The Giant hopes
+   _no bad blood_; and I am,
+
+   "Yours very faithfully,
+   "THE G., &c.
+
+"P.S.--His little woman sends her congratulations."
+
+So you see the Giant was not such a bad sort of fellow after all, and
+Prince Ricardo always admitted that he never met a foe more gallant and
+good-humoured.
+
+With such a clever wife, Ricardo easily passed all his examinations; and
+his little son, Prince Prigio (named after his august grandfather), never
+had to cry, "Mamma, mamma, father's plucked again."
+
+So they lived happily in a happy country, occasionally visiting Manoa;
+and as they possessed the magical Water o Life from the Fountain of
+Lions, I do not believe that any of them ever died at all, but that
+Prigio is still King of Pantouflia.
+
+"No need such kings should ever die!"
+
+{The coach: p204.jpg}
+
+PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{21}  You can buy these glasses now from the Psychical Society, at half-a-
+crown and upwards.
+
+{135}  See the works of D'Aulnoy.
+
+{146}  This Giant is mentioned, and his picture is drawn, in an old
+manuscript of about 1875.
+
+{190}  _Huaca_, sacred stone.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCE RICARDO OF PANTOUFLIA***
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