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diff --git a/old/52402-8.txt b/old/52402-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9086677..0000000 --- a/old/52402-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3344 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Princess Pourquoi, by Margaret Sherwood - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Princess Pourquoi - -Author: Margaret Sherwood - -Release Date: June 23, 2016 [EBook #52402] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS POURQUOI *** - - - - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - By Margaret Sherwood - - - =THE PRINCESS POURQUOI.= Illustrated. $1.50. - - =THE COMING OF THE TIDE.= With frontispiece. 12mo, $1.50. - - =DAPHNE=: An Autumn Pastoral. 12mo, $1.00. - - - HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. - BOSTON AND NEW YORK - - - - - THE - - PRINCESS POURQUOI - - [Illustration] - - - - - [Illustration: EVERY DAY HER BIG EYES GREW WISER] - - - - - THE PRINCESS - POURQUOI - - BY - - MARGARET SHERWOOD - - ILLUSTRATED - - [Illustration] - - - BOSTON AND NEW YORK - HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY - MDCCCCVII - - - - - COPYRIGHT 1902 AND 1903 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - COPYRIGHT 1907 BY THE S. S. McCLURE CO. - - COPYRIGHT 1906 AND 1907 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. - - COPYRIGHT 1907 BY MARGARET SHERWOOD - - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - _Published October 1907_ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - THE PRINCESS POURQUOI 1 - - THE CLEVER NECROMANCER 43 - - THE PRINCESS AND THE MICROBE 81 - - THE SEVEN STUDIOUS SISTERS 131 - - THE GENTLE ROBBER 175 - - - [asterism] The Princess Pourquoi, The Princess and the Microbe, - and The Seven Studious Sisters appeared first in _Scribner's - Magazine_, The Clever Necromancer in the _Atlantic Monthly_, and - The Gentle Robber in _McClure's Magazine_. They are here - reprinted by the courteous permission of the publishers of those - magazines. - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - EVERY DAY HER BIG EYES GREW WISER _Frontispiece_ - - SIDE BY SIDE THEY WALKED TOGETHER 22 - - "IT'S GOT TO BE KILLED," SAID THE PRINCESS STURDILY 101 - - "WHAT!" THUNDERED HIS MAJESTY 142 - - CAME RIDING FROM ALL PARTS OF THE KINGDOM 148 - - HE BEGAN TO WEAR THE LOOK OF THOSE WHO SEE MORE - THAN MEETS THE EYE 185 - - FOR SOME HALF SMILED AND HID THEIR SMILES AS - BEST THEY COULD 203 - - A GLIMPSE OF AN HERETIC BEING BURNED TO DEATH 210 - - - - - THE PRINCESS POURQUOI - - - - - THE - - PRINCESS POURQUOI - - [Illustration] - - -Once upon a time, in a country very far away, a new princess was born. -As is usual in such cases, the King, her father, and the Queen, her -mother, held a great christening feast, to which were invited all the -crowned heads for miles around, all the nobility of their own kingdom, -and the fairies whose good wishes were considered desirable. In the -middle of the ceremony, as is also customary, a very angry little old -lady, with a nose like a beak, burst into the room. - -"May I ask why I was not invited?" she demanded. "These are here," and -she pointed to the fairy who rules the hearts of men, and to the fairy -who rules circumstance. She herself was the fairy who rules men's minds. - -"You!" stammered his Majesty. "Why, it is only a girl. We--we thought -you would be offended. Later, if a son should be born"-- - -"You thought!" shrieked the enraged little creature, gathering her -shoulder-shawl about her. "You thought nothing whatever about it. I am -insulted, and I shall be revenged. Before anything yet has been given to -this child I shall curse her"-- - -"Oh!" begged the crowned heads and the nobility. - -"Yes," said the fairy, stamping and growing angrier, "I shall curse her -with a _mind_." - -"Anything but that," groaned his Majesty. - -"Not that for a woman-child," moaned the mother, from under her silken -coverlid. - -"Yes," said the fairy, and her wicked black eyes snapped over her -withered red cheeks. "She is a woman-child, and yet she shall think. She -shall be alien to her own sex, and undesired by the other. She shall ask -and it will not be given her. She shall achieve and it shall count her -for naught. Men shall point the finger at her like this" (and she -pointed one skinny forefinger at the King), "and shall whisper, 'There -goes the woman with brains, poor thing!' As for your Majesty, in her -shall you find your punishment. She shall think what you do not know, -and divine what you cannot find out. Now," added the wicked fairy, -turning to the two godmothers who stood by the child's cradle, "see if -you, with all your giving, can do anything to lessen the curse that I -have spoken," and she rushed away like a whirlwind, leaving every face -dismayed. - -The fairy who rules circumstance stood by the cradle and spoke. Her face -was the face of one who wavers two ways, and her voice was unsure. - -"The child shall have fortune," she said, "good-fortune, so far as is -consistent with what has already been given. I wish," she added -apologetically, "that I had spoken first." - -"Why didn't you?" grumbled his Majesty under his whiskers, but he dared -not speak aloud, for he was afraid of circumstance, being a king. - -The other fairy stood silent, looking down into the child's face. - -"But she shall know love," she said softly, after a little time. The -sleeping princess smiled. - -From the time that it was spoken the curse was felt. Before the baby -could talk, she would lie in the royal cradle, fixing upon the King, her -father, and the Queen, her mother, when they came to see her, eyes so -big, so wise, so full of question, that his Majesty fled, and her -Majesty covered her face with her hands, wondering what it could be that -the child remembered and she forgot. The first word the Princess uttered -was "Why." She said it so often that presently, through the whole length -and breadth of the kingdom, she was known as the "Princess Pourquoi," -though her real name was Josefa Maria Alexandra Renée Naftaline. - -"Why," she asked, when she was very small, "did trees grow this way, -instead of the other end up? Why did people stand on their feet instead -of on their heads? Why did you like some people better than others, and -why couldn't it be just as easy to like them all alike?" - -She was a good little girl, but she had all the credit of being a bad -one. She saw through what she was not intended to see through; she heard -what she was not meant to hear; she understood what others wished to -keep hidden. Therefore it came to pass that she was very lonely. She had -a way of climbing affectionately up to the neck of some favored person, -drawing down the head for a loving embrace, and then asking some -terrible question, whereupon she was quickly put down on the floor and -left alone. There she would sit, with so grieved a look in her big blue -eyes that the next one who entered would pity the golden-haired baby, -and would take her up, only to become a victim to some other -unanswerable inquiry. - -When she was four and five, her questions were theological or -philosophical. "Why was she made at all, if she were as naughty as -people said? Wouldn't it have been less trouble not to have made her, or -to have made her good? Why were you you, and I I? Who was going to bury -the last man?" The king's philosophers stood about in silence and gnawed -their beards. They were terribly afraid of the little girl with chubby -legs and dimples. As she grew older, her questioning turned more toward -social matters and practical affairs. "Why," she asked his Majesty, her -father, who also was afraid of her, "did he say that he loved his -neighbor and yet make war? Why was he king? Was it because he was wiser -and better than other people?" She looked at him so long and so -doubtfully that his Majesty wriggled in the royal chair. He felt that -this wretched child was endangering his power. Sometimes he was so -miserable that he would willingly have abdicated, but he could not -abdicate his little daughter. Besides, he was a king, and he did not -have any place to go. Other children had been granted him, a line of -little princesses, who wore long, stiff embroidered robes; and a nice, -fat, stupid little prince, who was a great comfort to his father. All -these other princelets obeyed the court etiquette and wore the court -clothes, and never felt the ripple of an idea across their little minds, -but they could not atone to the King for the thorn in his flesh known as -Josefa Maria Alexandra Renée Naftaline. - -The Princess Pourquoi objected to wearing a stomacher, for she liked to -lie flat on her face in the park, watching the ants. She objected to -making the court bow, and smiling the court smile, and putting out her -hand to be kissed. Why should she? The ladies-in-waiting could only tell -her, "It was so." She objected to taking mincing walks in the royal -gardens among the peacocks, and sometimes, to the horror of all the -court, escaped and played games with peasant children outside. She -disliked her lessons. Why should she say, like a parrot, what her -governess told her to, when there were birds and beasts and creeping -things outside to study, and a library inside full of things really -worth learning? So she went her own way, growing wistful and more -lonely, and every day her big eyes grew wiser and fuller of secrets. -Those who saw her crossed themselves and murmured, "The Curse!" - -Once his Majesty held a great festival to celebrate the thousandth -anniversary of the founding of his kingdom by his imperial ancestor, -Multus Pulvius Questus, who had conquered 500,000 men with his own arm, -and had laid the cornerstone of a great principality. The festival was a -brilliant one, and all the royal neighbors came. Just before the -ceremonies began, in the large audience chamber, the governess of the -Princess Pourquoi, stung by questions she could not answer regarding the -achievements of Multus Pulvius, burst out with: - -"You are a naughty little girl, and if you act this way, the fairy -prince will never come." - -"I don't want a fairy prince," replied the Princess proudly, looking at -her governess with steady blue eyes. "I want a real one." - -A little prince standing near, in a red velvet suit, looked at her very -hard. - -As time went on, the Princess Pourquoi was not quite content. She was -too eager for that. - -"I shall be happy when I find out," she said sadly one day. - -"Find out what, your Highness?" asked the chief philosopher. - -"It," answered the girl, and she pointed toward the horizon. "What it -means, where we came from, what you are for and I am for." - -The chief philosopher took a golden goblet of wine that a page had -brought him and drank it to its dregs. Perhaps he meant this for an -answer. Then he winked at his fellow-philosopher, and the two went arm -in arm down a long path between box hedges in the garden. The Princess -entered the royal palace and knelt at the feet of the King. - -"Your Majesty," she asked, "why are people who do not know anything -called wise men and philosophers?" - -It was soon after this that the King made a great proclamation, offering -the hand of his daughter to any one who would answer one of her -questions satisfactorily. Suitors came by scores, although her -unfortunate propensity was known, for the Princess was growing to be -very beautiful, and his Majesty the King was very rich. The aspirant to -her hand usually stood before the royal throne in the presence of the -court, and the Princess was ushered in by the major domo. The Princess -Pourquoi did not trouble herself to find new questions; she only asked -some of the old ones over again, and the Crown Prince of Kleptomania, -the Heir Apparent to the throne of Rumfelt Holstein, the reigning King -of Nemosapientia, besides dozens of others, went sorrowfully back to -their homes, rejected. When it was found that the ordeal was terrible, -and the result always the same, the suitors gradually ceased coming, and -the Princess Pourquoi remained a great matrimonial problem, aged -fifteen, on the hands of her parents. - -It was at this time that the Princess resolved to study, and to achieve -something that was really her own. People should respect her, not -because she was a princess, but because she could do great things. She -pleaded with his Majesty until he ordered the greatest scholar in his -kingdom to act as tutor for her, the greatest sculptor to teach her -modeling, the greatest painter to teach her how to draw. For five long -years the Princess worked and was happy, but the eyes of her mother were -full of pity when they rested on her, and the passers-by in the streets -whispered, "Poor thing!" Mothers drew their little ones closer to them -when they saw her, and said: "Take care! It is the woman with a mind!" -And the young ladies of the court, when they came out into the park with -their long trains, and saw the Princess seated by herself with a book -under a tree, said to themselves, under their breath: "Like that, too, -but for the grace of God!" - -At one of the annual exhibitions of works of art in the city was a -statue, anonymously exhibited, that won great praise. It was of white -marble, and represented a woman standing on tiptoe and reaching up and -out with one hand. The fingers closed on nothing, and the look of the -face was disappointed. Perhaps the greatest skill was shown in the -rendering of the eyes. Their expression was baffling, and no one could -say whether the woman was blind or not. - -"What masculine strength of handling!" said the artists. - -"What wonderful inner meaning!" said the philosophers. - -The Princess Pourquoi came one day to visit it, and stood a long time -watching the people who saw it. The outspoken praise made her eyes -glisten. A workingman, in a peasant's blue blouse, strolled near. There -was fine powder of chipped stone upon his sleeve. - -"There is great power there," said the workingman, "but the work is -crude." - -The peasant was hustled out of the room, and an admiring crowd gathered -about the statue of the groping woman. Some one whispered that it was -not a man's work at all, but the work of a woman. Surprise, incredulity, -disapproval passed in waves over the faces of the crowd. The rumor was -established as a fact, though the woman's name was withheld. Every one -could see faults now. - -"We suspected it from the first," said the philosophers. "The lack of -virility is apparent." - -"You can see the woman's carelessness in regard to details in every fold -of the drapery!" said the artists. - -The Princess Pourquoi listened. Presently she faced the crowd. - -"It is my work," she said simply. Then she summoned her lackeys and -ordered her carriage, and disappeared before artists or philosophers -could find any knot-holes to crawl through. - -Their Majesties, the royal parents, were greatly pleased when they heard -of this scene. Perhaps this condemnation of her statue would bring their -daughter to her senses. - -It was very fortunate that just at this time there came rumors of the -advent of the Fairy Prince. From Bobitania, a kingdom leagues away, he -was reported to be approaching, presumably to woo the Princess Pourquoi. -The King and the Queen chuckled in secret together the day a messenger -arrived to announce the advent of his Royal Highness, Prince Ludwig -Jerome Victor Christian Ernst, Heir-Apparent to the throne of Bobitania. -This was a very great principality, indeed. Surely the Princess would -for once act like other people, and would, for the sake of all that was -to be gained, profess herself satisfied in regard to her questions. - -The royal household was ordered into its very best clothing. The King -and the Queen, the Prince and the Princesses, shimmered in velvet and -jewels. The pages were resplendent in yellow and silver. The -philosophers were profound in rich black. The woolly white dogs of the -ladies-in-waiting were combed and tied with the colors of Bobitania, -crimson and black. Everywhere, in jewels, in flower devices, among the -hangings on the wall, were displayed the arms of Bobitania, a crimson -star on a dusky background. - -After the ceremonies of greeting were over, when Prince Ludwig Jerome -Victor had bent before the King and the Queen on their throne, and had -had presented to him all the royal offspring, the Princess Pourquoi was -requested to show his Highness the garden of flowers, that his eyes -might be refreshed after his long journey. So side by side they walked, -talking together, between long rows of stately chrysanthemums, white, -yellow, and red, she very erect in her brocaded gown, whose deep blue -folds swept the grass, he all smiles and obeisance, in a slashed suit of -scarlet and black. The waiting-women, by two and two, came on behind. - - [Illustration: SIDE BY SIDE THEY WALKED TOGETHER] - -As they paced the garden, the peacocks retreated slowly, a statelier -procession than they. They passed a fountain where a single workman was -busy sculpturing a figure from a block of gray granite. His face was -shaded by a cap, but the splendid action of strong arms and muscular -shoulders was visible. The Princess paused, and the waiting-women -turned, pretending to be busy with the box of the hedges or the -pink-tipped daisies at their feet. The face of Prince Ludwig Jerome -Victor grew uneasy, for he felt that the hour for his questioning had -come. But the Princess was not thinking of him, for her eyes were -following the workman's fingers. - -"Why blue jean for one man's arm and velvet with pearls for another?" -she said half to herself. "Why hunger for that man, and for me surfeit?" - -"Most gracious Princess," answered Prince Ludwig Jerome Victor, secure -in his reply, "the earth with all upon it is glad to lie as dirt beneath -the feet of the most beautiful lady in the world." - -He fell upon one knee and kissed her hand. She looked down intently into -his narrow, upraised face. - -"Queen among princesses," he begged, "question me and accept my answer. -From far Bobitania I have come to woo, and if I fail, I die. What is the -question I must answer?" - -"You have answered," said the Princess. "Rise." - -The hand of the workman had paused, uplifted, with a sculptor's hammer -in its grasp. There was a queer little smile upon his face below the -shadow of the cap. - -The waiting-women paced in silence behind the Princess back to the -presence of the King. - -"Most august Sovereign," said the Prince, bending his knee in the royal -presence, "I have come to place my kingdom at your daughter's feet. -Deign to ask her if I have found favor in her eyes." - -"What say you, my daughter?" asked the King, his delight shining through -his face. "Is it not a noble prince and a fair offer?" - -"My Lord and Father," said the Princess Pourquoi, bending in courtesy, -then standing erect, more haughty than before, "it is no prince, but a -man with a lackey's soul. He may come to reign, but a king he can never -be. As for my hand, he may not again touch it. I go to make it clean." - -Then she turned and walked, in a great silence, between the parted lines -of frightened people, out of the audience-chamber and away. - -How Prince Ludwig Jerome Victor Christian Ernst went away in great -anger, how the royal apologies were presented in vain, how the Princess -Pourquoi was imprisoned for three days in her chamber with no books to -read and was held in deep disgrace by all the court, is a long story, -and one that would take much time to tell. But the Princess only smiled -serenely, presented her duty to her parents, saying that she was deeply -grieved if her necessary words had hurt them, and, the first day she was -free, went walking in the royal garden alone. - -The artisan was there at the fountain, working at the same stone figure. -The Princess stood in silence and watched him. At her approach he had -taken off his cap and had laid it on the grass. Yellow autumn leaves -fell on his blue blouse and on her crimson velvet robe. - -"Do you like to work?" asked the Princess Pourquoi timidly. - -A look of amusement crept into the man's keen, dark eyes, and his lips -quivered with a suppressed smile. - -"Yes, your Highness," he answered, making an inclination of his head. -And he went on working. - -"Why?" asked the Princess Pourquoi. - -"Gracious Lady and Princess," replied the artisan, "I do not know." - -The Princess stared at his deft fingers and the quivering muscles of his -arms. Then she strolled away to pick a late white rose, and presently -wandered back, as if forgetful where her feet were going. - -"I have seen you before," she remarked absent-mindedly. - -He bent again, and murmured something respectful that she could not -hear. The chance given him to continue the subject he did not improve. - -"Once," continued the Princess, "in a hovel among other hovels at the -foot of the hill. Through the open door of the sick-room where I stood, -I saw you sitting at a poor man's table, sharing his black bread and -muddy ale. Why were you there?" - -"He was my friend," said the artisan. "His hut was then my home." - -"Why do you wear a workingman's blouse and carve in stone?" demanded the -Princess abruptly. - -"Madame and Princess," replied the man, "it is the work that I have -chosen," and he went on chipping away fine flakes of stone. - -The lady walked away again, this time following a wayward peacock across -the grass. The workingman paused to look after her, with the sunshine -falling on her brown hair. Then he picked up a chisel that he had -dropped, and, in doing so, bent to kiss the grass where her feet had -rested, for she had trodden very close. - -When the Princess came back the next time, she spoke with the quiet air -of one who is greeting an old friend. - -"You criticised my statue," she remarked. "You called it crude." - -"Whoever reported my poor opinion to the Princess," said the man, "had -evidently heard but part of what I said." - -The Princess showed no curiosity as to the rest. - -"Why were the others so unjust?" she demanded. "They praised my work -when they thought it was a man's. They turned upon it and called it bad -when they knew a girl had done it, and did not yet know that it was a -princess. What can one do when it is all so unfair?" - -The artisan answered not a word, but went on chipping, chipping, bending -all his energy to the curve of a finger. The Princess watched with eyes -in which all the blue of the autumn sky and all the shining of the -autumn sun seemed centred. When the young man at length looked at her, -her head was thrown back, and her face wore the look of one who feels -her blood to be royal. - -"Do you know," she asked sternly, though the expression of her eyes was -of one who pleads, "what fate is reserved for the man who answers even -one of my questions satisfactorily." - -"Gracious Lady and Princess," he said humbly, "I have answered nothing, -for I did not know. My mind, too, has questioned ceaselessly into the -injustice of many things. I only"-- - -"You only," said the Princess, with a sweep of her hand,--"you only -_kept on working_! Come!" - -Refusing to walk at her side, he followed at a little distance, stepping -unsurely, as one would walk in a dream. The lackeys looked at him and -sneered as he went. His Majesty the King and her Majesty the Queen -looked down in impatience from the throne when they saw the Princess -Pourquoi leading in a peasant clad in blue jean. - -"Some injury to redress!" muttered his Majesty. "Always a new grievance! -I never have time to sleep or think." - -The Princess swept across the audience-chamber with the air of one whom -nature, not circumstance alone, had made a queen. She bent before her -royal parents, then laid her hand upon that of the artisan. - -"Your Majesties will remember," she said, "the decree made regarding me -when I was fifteen years old. This man alone has answered one question -of mine to my satisfaction. I come to beg"--and her face wore a -frightened look, yet shone with a sudden gleam of mischief--"I come to -beg that he incur the penalty." - -Her Majesty fainted and was carried from the room. His Majesty -turned purple, and the calves of his legs swelled with rage. The -ladies-in-waiting hid their faces behind their hands and whispered, -"Shameless!" The philosophers shook their heads and muttered, "The -Curse!" As soon as the King could find his voice he thundered: "Away -with him to the donjon keep! Let the executioner come and do his duty! -Cut off the head of the impostor who would steal my daughter's hand!" - -"He is no impostor," said the Princess scornfully. "Whatever his birth -may be, his soul is royal." - -The men-at-arms came forward to seize him, but the Princess flung -herself between him and them. He put her gently aside, and stepped -forward to defy them all, but his eyes rested all the while on her with -a look that made great throbbings in her wrists. The clash of arms in -the chamber was interrupted by the sound of commotion outside. Shouts of -"Make way!" were heard. Then there were cries of: "A messenger, a -messenger from his Grace of Bobitania!" Free way was left in the crowded -hall for a man in a travel-stained riding-costume, who entered and -hurried toward the throne. - -"May it please your Grace," he panted, "his Majesty the King of -Bobitania desires to make known that the Heir-Apparent to the throne, -who disappeared many weeks ago, has not been discovered. News has just -reached Bobitania that his valet, who stole much of the Prince's -clothing after his disappearance, has been here representing himself to -be the Prince. Let it therefore be known that the person who of late -called himself Prince Ludwig Jerome Victor Christian Ernst of Bobitania -is an impostor, being the son of a liberated serf, and the grandson of a -swineherd." - -The nobles, the ladies-in-waiting, the philosophers crowded about the -messenger. While he was explaining that Prince Ludwig Jerome Victor was -eccentric, though deeply loved by every man, woman, and child in -Bobitania; how he had insisted on learning a trade; how he had often -disappeared for a time, living in disguise among his poorest -subjects--the Princess was looking at the stone-cutter's face and -smiling. She forbore to cast one glance of triumph upon the King. - -The messenger took his leave of his Majesty and turned to go. Suddenly -he fell upon his knees and kissed the hand of the peasant. - -"My Lord the Prince!" he cried. And the vaulted ceiling gave back the -cry, for all the people in waiting took it up and shouted for the Prince -who wore blue jean. - - * * * * * - -"Why did you do it?" asked the Princess Pourquoi, two hours later, when -she stood in the garden with her betrothed, the real Ludwig Jerome -Victor Christian Ernst, Heir-Apparent to the throne of Bobitania. - -"Gracious Lady and Princess," he answered, laughing, "I wanted to be -real." - -Then he told her how, many years ago, he, a tiny princeling, had heard a -naughty little princess, in that very audience-chamber, demanding, not a -fairy prince, but a real one. - -"I took the only way I knew to become real," he said. "Have I found -favor in your eyes, O beloved of my heart?" - -"How long beloved?" asked the Princess anxiously, for she was much -ashamed of the way in which she had wooed him. - -"All my life long," he answered. And the peacocks never told how he -kissed her. - -His Majesty the King and her Majesty the Queen were delighted with the -match. The royal father spent hours in telling the young Prince how -great a delight his daughter's mind had always been to him, and how he -should miss companionship with her when she was far away in Bobitania. -All the court agreed with their Highnesses that they had had suspicions -of the valet-prince from the very first, and the lackeys mentioned to -the Princess the fact that from the first they had suspected the -stone-cutter to be something more than appeared on the outside. The -Princess Pourquoi became very popular up and down the length and breadth -of the kingdom, and the philosophers, as they sipped their wine in the -afternoon sunshine, said over and over what a wonderful child she had -been, and how they had always prophesied a great destiny for her. - -So there was a great wedding, the preparations for which shook -Christendom to its foundations. All the crowned heads that were known -were there. Barbaric kings from beyond Bobitania graced the ceremony in -gorgeous embroidered robes sewn with diamonds and rubies and pearls. No -colors that are known could paint the procession with its rainbow tints -of banners and of clothing. Man has not senses enough to take in a -description of the food that was provided. Peacocks' brains, served in -golden dishes, were the simplest viands there. - -The Princess Pourquoi was attired in white velvet, with a train eleven -feet and six inches long; her lord and master glowed like a tropical -bird in scarlet, and Christendom exclaimed that there had never been so -beautiful a pair. While the trumpets were blowing and the dishes were -rattling, and the after-dinner speeches of the philosophers were -reaching their most blatant point, Prince Victor was quietly telling his -bride that he had no intention of giving up his occupation of -stone-cutter, and none of sitting upon his father's throne unless -requested to by all the inhabitants of Bobitania. They talked in -snatched whispers about the drawing-schools they would establish for the -poor, and the model cottages that should be built from end to end of -Bobitania, and they made great plans for the Princess's further work in -sculpture. What else they said in sweet whispers, I shall not tell, for -it was no one's affair but their own. - -The most magnificent guest of all was the fairy godmother who had cursed -the bride in her cradle. This wicked person was attired in black samite, -made with incredible puffs and a train. She had a stomacher picked out -with jet, and wore a very stiff ruff underneath her hooked chin. Her -general expression was very fierce, but once she was heard to murmur, -hiding a pleased smile behind her bony hand:-- - -"A pretty age of the world, when not even the curse of a mind can harm a -woman!" - - - - - THE CLEVER NECROMANCER - - - - - THE CLEVER NECROMANCER - - [Illustration] - - -Once, a long, long, long, long, _long_ time ago, there was a city by the -sea, and it was called Marmorante. Little gray mists floated down the -gray streets, past the tall gray houses with carven windows and doors; -pale, silvery fogs wrapped tower and spire, and oftentimes low, dark -clouds hung sullenly for days together over gabled roofs and dull red -chimneys; nor could the bravest winds that blew nor the swiftest golden -sunbeams drive mist and cloud and fog away. - -In Marmorante lived all manner of folk: a duke, a count, two marquises, -and several squires; there were merchants many, with white-sailed ships -that cut the waves; there were wool-combers and flax-beaters and -haberdashers and marketmen; but most of all there were women: -countesses, duchesses, and stately marchionesses; wives of merchants, -wool-combers, haberdashers, flax-beaters,--women, women, women, maidens -innumerable, and hosts of little girls. There were little girls with -flaxen ringlets, little girls with long braids of yellow hair; -dark-haired, slender maidens, maidens with white arms, maidens with blue -eyes, brown eyes, or gray--every kind of maiden that ever lived, in life -or in story. - -Life went on quietly in the city by the sea. In the gray mornings count -and countess talked amicably together in their great hall, and -wool-carder and his wife gossiped cheerily as they rolled and carded the -white fleece; in the gray afternoons Sir Knight walked in the castle -garden among the flowers with my lady, and the butcher's 'prentice met -his maid by the postern door: by embroidery frame and spinning-wheel, by -tiring-room and kitchen spit, all was gray peace. - -Then one day, when the clouds hung low, a raven croaked above the castle -wall; black rooks cawed dismally with hints of coming disaster; and -bats, mistaking clouded noon for night, flew out with squeaks and -gibberings at noonday--yet nothing happened. Peasants' carts came -creaking, as was their wont, to the city gate, with blue-smocked Jean or -yellow-trousered Pierrot driving roan mare or piebald steed, and -bringing bags of grain and great rolls of tanned skins to market. Old -women with their flower baskets on their arms came nodding and -courtesying, giving hollyhock or rose for toll to the porter, who would -not say them nay because of their skinny arms and hungry faces. At last -came one who was not of the line of sun-browned farmers, withered dames, -or ruddy boys who drove in flocks of sheep. - -It was a man, tall and long, and thin of face, clad in doublet and hose -of sober drab, and he had naught with him save three small, transparent -bags or bladders, one rose-colored, one purple, and one yellow, which -seemed to be filled with but empty air. - -"What bringest hither?" asked the porter, in a surly voice. - -"Naught save my rattle," answered the tall man in drab; and with that he -struck the bags together, so that there came out a tinkling sound -wondrous cunning and small. - -"Is danger therein?" said the man at the gate, holding back. "Mayhap -they go off, like powder, and do harm." - -Then the tall man smiled a strange, three-cornered smile, for his chin -was long and protruding, and strained his lips that way. - -"Ay," he confessed, "they go off, but they do no hurt;" then he paid his -penny toll and went unmolested in. The porter stood long, with arms -akimbo, and looked after him. - -"'Tis some fool," said the porter, and went back to his mug of ale. - -The sad-hued man went on through the narrow streets that let in only a -strip of the sky's blue, and anon he came to the open market-place, -where little was doing that day, for the flowers were wilted, and the -vegetables for the most part gone; only the lambs that were left bleated -piteously now and then. The stranger sprang upon a counter where wheat -had been sold, and he struck his little bags together, so that they -rattled merrily as he called aloud:-- - -"Come, hear, hear, hear! Come, hear the words of wisdom I shall say, the -greatest words that shall ever meet your ears. Come, hear, hear, hear! -To-day I speak, and to-morrow I may not: 'tis the chance of a lifetime, -and not to be overlooked. Come, hear, hear, hear!" - -Now with the rattling of the bags, and the rattling of the man's voice, -many people came running hither: squire and 'prentice and count, -marchioness and merchant's lady, and the cook from the castle, all -hurrying toward the empty sound. Soon a great crowd was gathered, of men -and of maidens, of women with white wimples and folded kerchiefs, and of -little girls with yellow hair. - -"Come, hear, hear, hear!" repeated the man, in slow singsong, watching -the people with his narrow blue eyes which were rimmed with red; then, -so swiftly that none could see, he bent his head and touched his lips to -the transparent bags. He spoke, and lo! a miracle, for out of his mouth -came a beautiful, iridescent mist of words that floated and floated and -broke against the gray fog, and rested across the eyes of an elderly -woman who stood buxom and comely, and fell like a halo upon the fair -hair of a young girl standing bareheaded in the sun, and flashed like an -opal, flickered like a flame, so that at last the whole market-place was -full of floating color; yet all that the man had said was, "Be good and -you will be happy," with variations. - -"A necromancer!" said the red-faced butcher under his breath. - -"A prophet!" cried the countess, as a floating bit of the colored mist -lighted on her lips. - -"I never heard such truth," said the fair-haired maiden, with a bar of -iridescent cloud across her eyes. - -Watching and silent the Necromancer stood, the three-cornered smile upon -his lips. They prayed him to do his trick again, but he shook his head -and would not. - -"To-morrow," he said, "at two P.M.;" and he smiled at the shower of -golden coin that rained into his bell-crowned hat. - -When they were sure that nothing more was forthcoming, they went -marveling away; but all about the silvery fog that clung to the -steeples, and the gray mists that lay along the streets, and the clouds -that hung sullenly above, still hovered little rosy flecks of flame and -hints of rainbow color. - -Day after day the Necromancer stood in the market-place, and put his -lips secretly to his colored bags, and spoke. He had searched all the -copy-books of the kingdom, and had taken familiar truths, such as: "The -good die young;" "To be selfish is to be miserable;" "Haste makes -waste;" "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;" and he clothed -them in rainbow colors and breathed his mist about them, so that they -stalked in beauty wonderful and strange, and the folk who listened did -not know their own ideas when they met them face to face, because of the -garment of many-colored words in which they came. Then the women went -mad throughout the city, mad for the loud-sounding voice and the rattle -of the bags, rose-colored, purple, and yellow. By her broidery frame the -Countess Angélique forgot to draw green thread of silk through the dim -web, and in her lap her white hands lay idle. Walking to and fro by her -spinning-wheel, little Jeanne wove into the blue yarn the glittering -phrases of yesterday, so that the strands tangled and knotted at the -spindle. Margot, the cook, forgot her chickens roasting on the spit, but -turned and turned them by the glowing coals till they were burned and -black; and Joan the butcher's wife could no longer tell haunch of -venison from flitch of bacon, but greeted customers with a vacant stare, -for her mind was quite gone, gone the way of the wind, after the -wonderful bits of colored fog. - -Now the fair-haired maid who had stood awed in the market-place on the -day when the enchanter came was a rich merchant's daughter, and her -given name was Blanche. She was betrothed to one Hugh of a neighboring -city, and he came often to Marmorante, lodging always at the sign of the -Red Dragon. Thus had been his wooing, as he stood one day with the maid -and her father by the lattice that looked forth on the street. - -"Wilt have me?" he asked, and the words cost him much, for he was a man -of plain speech, and oft of no speech at all. - -The maid stood in the sunshine and looked upon him, and he thought her a -goodly sight. Green was her gown, and cut square at the throat, and with -it the color of her eyes seemed green, and he knew not if her hand or -her neck were whiter. - -"I could give thee white velvet to thy train," he stammered, and the old -man, her father, stood and watched. - -"Dost love me?" asked the maid, for she was one that had heard old -ballads sung; and the man opened wide his honest eyes. - -"Ay, surely, else had I not asked thee to wife." - -"Then will I wed thee," said the maid, and the wooer stood gazing at -her, not daring the kiss that was in his mind. - -"'Tis a good chaffer," said young Hugh. "We shall get on rarely -together;" and thereafter, as heretofore, he had no eyes for aught save -the maiden's face. All this was a month agone, and to-day, when he came -again, the maid would have it that he must needs go forth with her to -the market-place to listen to this wonder; and he followed, willing -enough, for he would have gone into the very dragon's teeth after the -hem of her gown. Howsoever, the thought of going to listen to mere -speech seemed to him but folly. - -When they came to the open place, and he saw what was there, his eyes -opened wide, and he whistled softly for sheer amazement, for never yet -had he seen so great a concourse gathered together. There were women in -velvet and in satin, women in homespun and in blue jean, even women in -rags; and there were maidens as many and as lovely as the leaves upon -the maple tree when it turns to rosy color in the fall, maidens dull or -bright of hair as the case might be, but always bright of eye and of -cheek. Far and near they gathered, crowding close together; many stood -on bench or on counter, straining white necks forward; and all the -windows that looked upon the market were crowded with fair faces. -Presently, with long and pensive stride, came the lean man in drab; and -as he came, honest Hugh heard the sudden, sharp breathing of the maid at -his side, and felt her lean forward as if she were one quivering ear. - -What followed puzzled the young man sorely. It was one of the great days -of the Necromancer: forth from his mouth came a violet speech in the -form of a bubble, and it floated over the heads of the people in lovely -changing shades that ranged all the way from deep purple to the palest -tint that is not yet white. Midway across the gray cloud it burst, and -its gleaming bits drifted hither and yon, and the speaker smiled as he -saw the eager fingers raised to catch the tiny vapors which melted as -soon as touched. Forth came another and another; it was a day of -loveliest froth. Anon came a speech of the color of gold that shimmered -and shone in the sunlight, and burst into sparkles a thousand ways, and -so golden bubble followed golden bubble. All the little girls with -floating hair or yellow braids ran after them, with hands lifted high to -catch them before they burst, and the least maids wept because the -taller ones caught more than they. - -Young merchant Hugh stood watching, with his hand upon his chin. - -"'Tis a strange sight," he murmured to himself. "Jugglers enow have I -seen in the East, and many of their devices have I learned, but I have -seen naught like this." - -Then he turned to his betrothed. - -"Dost know the trick, Blanche?" he asked, but when he saw her face, he -knew that there was somewhat amiss with his words. All awed was she, and -in her eyes was the look of one who had seen a vision; and, glancing -about, he saw that the other women and maids wore the same expression. -He came home pondering, having noted the shower of coin that had fallen -into the Necromancer's hat; nor could he understand, for he gave ever -good measure for the gold that was given him. Also he was sore troubled, -for his betrothed had no words for him, only looks of high disdain. - -"Well, daughter," said the old merchant, as the two came in, "what saith -the prophet to-day?" - -"Oh!" cried the maiden, "all was wonderful and full of beauty. Each day -is his discourse more marvelous than yesterday's." - -"But what was it all about?" he asked, laying his hand upon her hair, -for he was tender of her. - -"How could I presume to tell?" she asked, with a grieved red lip. "'Twas -too wonderful to put into words;" and she swept from the room, with no -glance for her lover. - -Young merchant Hugh, to whom the very rushes on which the maiden stepped -were dear because of his great speechless love, gazed after her, jealous -of the look upon her face, and cruelly wounded by her scorn. - -"I will find out the trick," said the young man to himself, between set -teeth; and he was one who ever made good his words. - -Now the maiden Blanche was glad when her lover begged to go forth with -her the next day and the next, at two P.M. - -"Mayhap he may learn something of this wondrous speech," she said -wistfully, thinking to herself that it would be sweet to be wooed in -violet words and words of the color of gold. When he bent shyly to kiss -her before they went, with lips that trembled for the great love they -might not say, she drew stiffly back, nor would she thereafter permit -touch or caress, and much she spoke of the joy of a maiden's life that -would leave time free for thought; yet she took him gladly with her for -a week of days. Ever he listened, as one spellbound, nor once removed -his glance from the Necromancer's face; and he was keen of eye, and wont -in traffic to detect word or look of fraud, and he saw what no one else -had seen. - -"I have it!" he cried, and he slapped his fist upon the palm of his left -hand. "Those be bags of many-colored words that he hath with him, and he -but sucks them up and breathes them forth." - -That day he sent his sweetheart home with Dame Cartelet, that lived hard -by, and was as besotted as she on the man with the magic words; then he -went and lay in wait in the street through which the Necromancer passed -each day in going home; and as he waited, he turned back his velvet -cuffs, and felt lovingly of the muscle of shoulder and arm. So it was -not long before a tall man in drab went running through the narrow -streets on the outskirts of the town, crying and wringing his hands, and -the rattling bags of rose color, and purple, and gold were gone from his -neck. - -"Oh, my vocabulary!" he wailed. "Oh, my bags, my bags, my bags! What am -I but a man undone without my bag of adjectives!" - -The dogs and the children that ran at his heels did not understand, nor -did smith and weaver as they stood in their doorways. - -"Oh, my other bag, my bag of epithets, of polysyllabic epithets!" cried -the fugitive as he ran. - -A squealing pig joined the chase, and the men children and maid children -who ran after laughed aloud. The women who watched from lattice or stone -doorstep were of those who, by means of ten skillfully selected -adjectives from the rose-colored bag, and a dozen golden epithets from -the bag of yellow, had been made to gape and quiver with the sense of -the birth of new truth, yet they failed to recognize the juggler, for -iridescent mist and ruddy vapor had vanished from his head and -shoulders, and they saw naught save a lean and ugly man fleeing under a -gray sky; and, hearing, they yet did not understand his cry of deep -dismay. - -"Oh, my exclamation points, my lost exclamation points! Oh, my pet -hiatus that laid all low when nothing else would avail!"--and so he -passed out of their sight, and out of the city of Marmorante. - -At the sign of the Red Dragon that afternoon, young merchant Hugh was -closely locked in his room. Behind great iron bolts he sat upon a -three-legged stool, and worked with the colored, rattling bags. - -"'Tis well that men have devised this thing," he said, holding a mirror -before his face, as he sucked air from the bag of rose; "else could I -not see if all goes well." And his heart was well-nigh bursting with joy -when he saw that the breath of his mouth was even as the breath of the -Necromancer upon the air. Then he slipped downstairs and begged for a -cup of ale, and as the maid served him in the kitchen, he blew out a -whiff from the bag of gold, and of a sudden her face became as the faces -of the women who stood in the market-place under the spell of the -juggler, and Hugh was glad. - -The next day he hid the bags in a neckerchief of fine silk, and went to -the house of his sweetheart, asking to see her; but when she came, it -was with a face set and cold, and she paused with the great oaken table -between them. - -"Hugh," she said, unsmiling, "I have been thinking." - -"'Tis foolish work for a woman," he answered stoutly. - -"That which thou dost say but confirms my thought," she answered, still -more coldly. "We cannot be wed; waking and sleeping have I considered -this matter, and thus have I resolved." - -"Now, why?" cried honest Hugh bluntly. - -"We have so little in common," said Blanche. - -"Thou shalt have all," he stammered, forgetting, in his hurt, the magic -bags. "Why, 'tis for thee I send forth all my ships. I will be but thy -pensioner." - -A shadow of pain passed over the maiden's face. - -"I mean not goods nor possessions, nor any manner of vulgar things; 'tis -of mind and soul I speak, and ours be far apart." - -"My goods be not vulgar!" cried young merchant Hugh. "Rare silks and -cloths from the East have I, and purest pearls, for thy white throat. No -common thing is there in all my store." - -Then the little foot of Blanche tapped impatiently on the stone floor. - -"'Tis of no avail that I try to make thee understand! I say there be -depths in my nature that thou mayst not satisfy; also am I full busy -this morning and must beg to be excused"--and with that she drew open -the heavy oaken door, leaving him in the long room as one dazed. - -Then he bethought him of his bags, and drew them out too late, taking a -whiff from each as a sob rose in his throat. Suddenly the fair hair of -Blanche appeared again in the doorway, and she smiled as a stranger upon -him. - -"I forgot to say that I wish thee all manner of good, and great -prosperity," she said amiably. - -Then out of Hugh's mouth came a purple speech, and a speech of the color -of gold; and little iridescent mists floated through the air, while a -rose-colored bubble rested for a moment on the white eyelids of the -maiden. The dull-paneled room was as the breaking of a rainbow; yet all -he had said was, "Wilt not wed me, Blanche?" But he said it in rose -color and purple and gold. - -"What have I done?" cried the maiden sorrowfully; and he rejoiced to see -that the look upon her face was as it had been when she had listened to -the Necromancer's philosophies and faiths. - -Then he turned and smiled, saying: "I love thee, Blanche," and he spoke -in the juggler's speech, which made a glory on the maiden's hair, and -about her gown of green. With outstretched hands she came toward him, -and she laid her head upon his breast, smiling up at him. - -"I was mad but now, Hugh," she breathed. "Our two souls be but one." - -"Wilt come with me to the market-place this afternoon?" he asked. - -"Nay," sighed the maiden. "I care not for the market-place, for I am -happy here, where I have found my home." - -"I speak there," he said bluffly, "at two P.M." - -"Thou!" and the maiden's laughter rang out like the touch of silver -bells, "and of what?" - -"Of phases of occult thought," he answered gravely. - -"Ay," cried Blanche, and she raised her face to kiss him. "Ay, Hugh, be -sure that I shall be there when thou dost talk philosophies." - -The young merchant was good as his word, and that afternoon he stood in -the market-place upon a counter, rattling the juggler's bags as he -waited. As before, men, women, and maidens came, by tens, by twenties, -by hundreds, till there was no spot where he could look without meeting -a pair of wistful eyes. - -"It looks to be but plain Hugh, the merchant," whispered one to another. - -"Hath he undertaken to sell his wares here?" asked one. - -"He hath choice pearls," whispered a maiden who was not yet wholly given -over to occult thought. - -But Hugh had begun to speak, and faces of wonder were lifted to him, for -he was strong of lung, and the breath from the magic bags went farther -than ever before. - -"Our friend the Necromancer is indisposed, and I must take his place," -he began. "Like him, I have chosen a theme from the depths of human -thought; and now, hear! hear! hear!" - -Then eloquence poured forth from the man's lips so fast, so full a -stream, that the very welkin was rose-tinted, and a great rainbow seemed -to overspread the sky. Gray clouds above the tallest spires broke into -tints of opal, and all the air shaded into the violet and purple of -exclamation points, and of the pet hiatus, which was hard to work, but -came well off. Golden glory haunted carven door and window, and words of -flame crept around the tracery of arch and gable. Women sobbed for very -joy; others wrote madly on their tablets; maidens gasped with red lips -slightly opened; never, during the whole lecture season, had come so big -a wind from out the bags, and honest Hugh blushed with mingled shame and -triumph when he saw the face of his betrothed, for it wore the look of -one who had seen the white vision of naked truth. - -Following the fashion of the Necromancer, he had taken a maxim, and had -dressed it up so that men knew it not, and so that it came forth as -revelation. All that he had said from the first to the last was the -truth that he knew best: "Honesty is the best policy;" but this was the -way in which he had said it, with constantly shifting color: - -"Glory awaits the equable! All-hails are the portion of him, who, -unswerving, with eyes upon the path ahead, with lofty head erect, -perambulates his chosen path through this world's tangled wilderness, -turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, though golden cohorts -beckon. The goal is for the upright feet. The crown waits.... What -matter if the victor be sobbing and breathless, so that he be -conqueror?" (Observe the hiatus.) "So saith golden-tongued Plato; so -saith heavy-browed Aristotle of persuasive speech; so saith Aulus -Gellius, withdrawn in his inner truth, and his brother, Currant Gellius, -whose essence clings; so say the holy fathers, subtle Basil, -myriad-minded Chrysostom; so saith the copy-book." - -When the speech was over, and the bags hidden away, Hugh bore as best he -might the tears and congratulations of the women, their murmured -plaudits, and inspired looks. - -"'Tis the first time I have ever failed to give honest measure," he said -shamefacedly to himself as they flocked about him. - -That night, as he sat with the maiden and her father, he spoke of -departing on the morrow with a ship that would sail for Morocco to be -gone many months, and his sweetheart came to him, creeping into his -arms. - -"Do not leave me, Hugh," she pleaded. "It is so far away." - -"I must go, little one," he answered, smoothing her fair hair. "Men sit -not ever by the fire to hear tabby purr." - -"Say them again," she pleaded, "say again the words thou didst speak -this morning, that I may have them with me when thou art far away." - -"Far in illimitable recesses of time and of space," he began -shamefacedly, "before phenomena existed, thy bodiless soul and mine met -and mingled as one"-- - -"Where hast learned that jargon, Hugh?" asked the old merchant, with a -loud guffaw. - -"Hush!" said Hugh, with loving hands upon the maiden's ears so that she -might not hear. "All is fair in love, father!" - -But Hugh was still an honest merchant, and never in his long and happy -life did he use the stolen vocabulary in bargaining, or to gain -dishonest advantage in trade. Only, when the face of Blanche, his wife, -grew sad, he would take out the colored bags, which he kept secretly -locked in an iron chest, and then the old smiles would come back to her -beautiful face, and with them the look of awe wherewith she regarded her -husband, as the mist of purple, and the flecks of rose color, and the -bubbles of gold, fell on hair and eye and ear. - - - - - THE PRINCESS - AND THE MICROBE - - - - - THE - PRINCESS AND THE MICROBE - - [Illustration] - - -The Princess Olivera Rinalda Victorine sat on a stone seat by the -mermaid fountain in the royal gardens, crying bitterly because she was -not a prince. The sun was warm, the water splashed merrily over the -mermaids' tails, and not far away two infant counts, an archduckling, -and a baby baroness were playing on the green grass, but the Princess -would have none of their game of tag. She only howled with her mouth -open, and paused for breath, and howled again. Then Lady Marie Françoise -Godolphin and the Duchess Louise of Werthenheim, who were pacing the -garden paths by box hedge and rose bed (Lady Marie was superb in pink -chiffon over white silk, and the Duchess wore blue embroidered tulle -looped with clusters of artificial lilies), frowned and whispered to -each other that the naughty child ought to be punished, which was -manifestly unfair, as it was all their fault. Never would the Princess -Olivera Rinalda Victorine have thought of being wickedly ungrateful for -the privilege of being a girl, if the following conversation had not -reached her through the box hedge:-- - -_Lady Marie_: His Majesty will be _so_ relieved that it is a son. Think, -the boy will be Auguste Philippe the Twenty-fourth! - -_The Duchess_: I distinctly remember the grief of both the King and -Queen when the Princess turned out to be a girl. - -It was then that the Princess Victorine, who had been dandling her doll -and gaining great comfort from this distinctly feminine occupation, -threw this same doll from her with violence, unconscious of the symbolic -character of the act, and digging her little fists into her eyes, burst -into weeping so loud that Lady Marie Françoise and Duchess Louise -dragged their buckram-stiffened trains away over the grass to escape -from their victim's cries. - -Presently sobbing became hard work, and the Princess sat still in the -sunshine, thinking. Her blue eyes had red rims about them, her yellow -hair was dried in wisps on her forehead, her fat legs hung dejectedly -down. She was reaching back farther and farther into her dim little -consciousness, trying to remember how she ever came to make that -dreadful initial mistake. She had disappointed the Queen, her -mother--here the sobs began again, for the Princess loved that royal -lady; she had chosen, though she could not remember when, and had chosen -wrongly. Then she began to wonder what it was to be this thing that the -King and Queen and Lady Marie and the Duchess were so grateful for, a -boy. She candidly thought that she was nicer than the two little counts -and the archduckling, and she found her riddle hard to read, for no one -had ever before suggested to her, much less explained, the disgrace of -sex. - -Crying was difficult, and thinking was harder still--for the Princess. -Presently she jumped down from her bench and trotted away almost -joyfully, for a happy thought had struck her. The Princess was the -sweetest, most obliging little soul in the world, and helpful withal. A -way of escape had suggested itself to her: she would find out what boys -were like and be one. The Queen, her mother, should be no longer -disappointed in her, nor should any ladies of the court make invidious -remarks through box hedges. Whatever happened, she would never again -turn out to be a girl. So, in an unfortunate comparison, made by two -people who could obviously ill afford to be critics, began the evolution -of that unnatural monster, more "fell than hunger, anguish, or the sea," -a mannish woman. - -At first the Princess Victorine prayed about it. Every night, in her -little golden crib, which had the arms of her house--a spotless leopard, -_couchant_--embroidered on the blue satin hangings, she shut her eyes -and begged to be made into a prince with yellow love-locks and scarlet -doublet and pink hose. Would he be Olivero Rinaldo Victor the -Twenty-fourth, she wondered? But every morning she wakened with -indignation to the fact that she was still a girl. As her faith in -miracle weakened, her determination to succeed by her own efforts grew -stronger, and she never doubted that she could do it if she tried hard -enough. Her face took on an expression of firmness, "most unfeminine," -said Lady Marie, who was her governess. - -"Do not run, my dear--it is so masculine," said Lady Marie, often; or -"Do not climb trees, your Highness--such rough playing is fit only for -boys." - -Then the Princess would look at her with non-committal, wide-opened eyes -and say nothing. She had a secret, inner knowledge, dating from that -moment of revelation in the garden, of the superiority of being a boy, -and henceforward nothing could take it from her, not precept, nor -example, nor soft insinuation of the beauty and propriety of -womanliness. She knew that people were trying to deceive her; she had -heard of conspiracies before--but she never let them see that she knew. -On occasions like this she had a way of looking stupid which was nearer -cleverness than anything else that she ever did. - -Now, there are people for whom one idea, with variations, will last a -lifetime, and the Princess Olivera Rinalda Victorine was one of them. As -to questions about the whys and wherefores of things, she never asked -one in her life, nor answered one. Very systematically she set about her -life-work. As his Highness, her baby brother, grew up, she imitated him. -Once she was found standing with her sturdy legs apart and her arms -akimbo, whistling. Lady Marie and the Queen both wept, and deprived the -Princess that day of her bread and jam, but to no effect. She seemed -inspired by the energy of the small boy or the demon. Her legs could not -keep still; she ran, she jumped, she leaped, she climbed, she played all -boyish games, and once, but my ink blushes red in recording this, she -was caught by the Duchess turning somersaults in the garden. Terrible -were the reproaches heaped upon her, and her misdeeds seemed greater -because they went unexplained. On this occasion Lady Marie and the -Duchess were both sent to discipline her. (Lady Marie was attired in -rose satin covered with black lace, and the Duchess was charming in -Nile-green brocade, with pearls.) When Lady Marie said, with her scented -handkerchief at her eyes: "My dear, your actions are bringing me into -disrepute; what will their Majesties think of me?" the Princess, who -detested scents, only turned red and said nothing. Not once did she -retort that she never would have tried to be a boy if these two had not -taught her the desirability of it; she only trudged on in her own way -toward the longed-for goal, sure that the scoldings, the reproaches, -and, saddest of all, her mother's tears, came because she had not tried -hard enough and had not succeeded. - -There were times when the Princess Victorine surpassed Auguste Philippe. -One sunshiny morning, when the two were playing knight and ogre in the -courtyard, the Prince announced that he meant to climb the castle wall. -He did it only out of bravado, for, being a boy, with a boy's common -sense, he knew that it was impossible. - -"I'm going to climb it, too," said Olivera Rinalda Victorine stubbornly. - -"Pshaw, you can't! You're only a girl," said Auguste Philippe, strutting -up and down in his slashed velvet doublet and his feathered cap. - -"And you are only a boy," said the Princess, meditatively eying him. She -did not say it to be saucy--she was only thinking. Then she deliberately -took the hem of her embroidered blue satin skirt in her teeth and began -to climb the wall, while Auguste Philippe watched from below with wrath -and terror in his eyes. By means of a niche here, a clinging ivy vine -there, a window ledge, and, now and then, a friendly, grinning gargoyle, -the Princess succeeded, and stood at last triumphant upon the -battlements, waving her blue skirt for a flag. But all that she got for -it was a scolding, and, to the day of his death, Auguste Philippe never -admitted that it was true. In fact, he never entirely believed it, -though he had watched every step from the courtyard below. - -Better even than boyish sports, the Princess loved stories of knightly -deeds, and the very pith and marrow of chivalry entered into her bones. -She could not read, but that did not matter, for the story-tellers could -not write, but oh! they could tell tales. Stories of dragons slain and -ogres vanquished, stories of maidens rescued, enchanters caught and -prisoned, stories of caitiff knights thrust through at the moment of -their greatest villainy by the swords of heroes, all these the Princess -Victorine drank up with greedy ears and mind, and her heroic little -heart throbbed within her. Often--it was most unmaidenly--she furtively -felt of her muscle in leg or arm, wondering when she would be strong -enough to go forth in quest, for not one tale roused in her the desire -to become a teller of stories herself--she only wanted to act one. Once -she took Auguste Philippe aside, saying:-- - -"I'll tell you a secret, if you won't tell." - -"Go ahead!" said Auguste Philippe graciously. He had doubly the air of a -sovereign, being at once a brother and heir presumptive. - -"I'm going out to find and fight a dragon," said Princess Victorine. - -"Huh!" sneered the Prince. "There aren't any dragons any more. You are -behind the times." - -"Aren't any dragons!" cried the Princess. "What do you mean?" - -"There haven't been any for a long time," remarked Auguste Philippe -nonchalantly, his hands in his pockets. But the Princess would not have -the foundations of her faith shaken too easily. - -"What do they mean by telling us about them all the time?" she demanded. -"Every minstrel that comes here does, and so does old Lord Jean, and the -Countess Madeline, and everybody nice." - -"I don't care," asserted the Prince. "There aren't any--there's only the -Microbe." - -"What's the Microbe?" gasped the Princess. - -"It's worse than dragons, that's what it is," said Auguste Philippe -viciously. - -"What does it do?" asked the Princess. - -"It bites," answered the Prince. "It stays somewhere in the woods and -swamps, and every year it eats a great number of youths and maidens, and -old men and children. It's always hungry." - -"Why doesn't somebody go and kill it?" said the Princess. - -"Dunno!" answered Auguste Philippe. - -"What does it look like?" - -"It has one great eye," answered the Prince unhesitatingly, knowing that -life demanded that he should instruct the feminine mind whether he had -information or not; "it has ten great rows of teeth, and what it does -not bite with one set it bites with another. It never roars--that makes -it worse than a dragon, for you can't tell when it is coming. And it has -a hundred thousand claws reaching everywhere." - -The Princess went and sat by a rosebush, wearing her most enigmatical -expression. If she was overawed, she was too plucky to show it. Prince -Auguste Philippe looked at her, not without remorse. He was aware that -he knew nothing of the Microbe save its name, but he decided not to -confess--it would only shake a sister's confidence, so he went away to -fly his kite. - -Now, years flew past, and every day the Princess's bosom swelled with -knightly ardor, and every waking thought was of the slaying of the -Microbe. The words of Auguste Philippe that day by the rosebush became -the second inspiration of her life, and the second only completed and -strengthened the first. At eighteen, as at six, the Princess Olivera -Rinalda Victorine was round of face and pink of cheek. Her big blue -eyes, set in the baby fairness of her face under the yellow hair, had -the confiding look of a little child. All this was very pretty, but -manly sports had developed her physique far beyond the bounds of -feminine propriety. There were muscles on her lovely shoulders, and they -made her tiring-women weep. As for her biceps, she had always to wear -loose, flowing sleeves, for the strong arms broke through the embroidery -of tight ones. She was taller than she should have been, and her waist -refused to taper. If her sex had been different, the royal parents would -have gloried in her strength and her agility, but as it was, they cast -down their eyes in her presence and begged her, if she had any filial -reverence, to talk mincingly and small, at least in their presence. - -One day the Princess Olivera Rinalda Victorine sought out Lady Marie. - -"I am going on a quest, to find and fight the Microbe," she remarked -briefly. Lady Marie gave her one look, and fainted, and the Princess -revived her by means of her vinaigrette. - -"My dear!" whimpered Lady Marie, "think how many gray hairs you are -bringing down in sorrow. I do not mean mine," she added hastily; and, -in truth, hers were no longer gray. - -"It's got to be killed," said the Princess sturdily. "It's a pest." - - [Illustration: "IT'S GOT TO BE KILLED," SAID THE PRINCESS STURDILY] - -"But what is it?" whispered Lady Marie, blushing through her rouge. "Is -it a thing that a young girl ought to know about?" - -There was hubbub in the court for ten days. Counts, marchionesses, -dukes, and earls gathered in corners and talked under their breath. Some -thought that the Princess should be imprisoned in a dungeon; others -spoke of her with pity, believing her mad. One party, headed by old Lord -Jean and the Countess Madeline, said that it was all nonsense. Everybody -knew that there was no such thing as the Microbe; it was only a new -heresy, wickedly devised to shake the established faith in dragons. The -Princess might just as well be allowed to go the way of her folly and -find out the truth. Another faction, made up of believers, spoke darkly -of the mystery that enshrouded the foe, for he lived in a fog, and went -out to kill veiled in cloud, and they hinted that if the Princess went -to find him, she would not return alive. His Majesty and her Majesty, -bewildered, agreed with both parties, wept, protested, but did not -forbid the Princess to go, for fear that she would not mind. Auguste -Philippe said a bad word. - -At first the Princess tried to reason with them--an unwonted occupation -for her. - -"It really is a combat that a lady could very well engage in," she said -earnestly. "It isn't as if it were a dragon, you know." But they only -pooh-poohed and ha-haed until she shut her lips very tightly together, -and went on her way as usual, unexplained. - -Just here attention was diverted from her, for his Majesty, who had been -hurt in hunting, sickened and died, and amid sobs and whisperings and -discussions, Auguste Philippe the Twenty-fourth came to the throne. -There were many rumors and whispers of how the late King had come to his -death: some said that it was a fall from his steed; others hinted the -Microbe, shivering with horror at the name. No one was sure of anything, -and the court physicians very cleverly gave out that they could not -explain at length his Majesty's ailment because nobody knew enough to -understand. - -But the Princess Victorine, who was not a person of doubts, was -convinced from the first. With her head held very erect, she went to the -court armorer, and gave orders that he dared not disobey; then she went -to the royal stables and made her choice, while all stood still to watch -her, spellbound, no one venturing to lift a hand. Her Majesty was too -much overcome with grief to care what happened; Lady Marie and the -Duchess were absorbed and happy getting the court into mourning, and so -there was no one but Auguste Philippe to say good-by to the Princess -when she went away. He had risen very early, and stood upon the -battlements to see her go. - -It was one brave June day when the Princess Olivera Rinalda Victorine, -armed _cap-à-pie_, went forth to war. She was mounted on a charger of -dapple gray; a palfrey she would not have. On her head was a shining -steel helmet, through the back of which her tawny hair floated down her -back--there was not room to do it high. Through her visor her blue eyes -sparkled with a steady light. On her arm she carried a blue shield, for -even in her battle mood she could not forget what color was becoming. It -bore the device that she had chosen for herself, a virgin _rampant_, -gules. The armor that covered her from head to foot was of wrought rings -of finest steel, made with a flowing skirt that fell in protecting folds -about her feet. Her right hand held a spear; with her left she guided -her steed. - -"Good-by, dear!" called the Princess, waving her hand to Auguste -Philippe. - -"You are a silly thing," he remarked, affectionately, from the -battlements. "You won't do anything but tear your clothes." - -He did not try to stop her. In the strain of becoming Auguste Philippe -the Twenty-fourth he found that there were many things he was not so -sure of as he had been before. The flame in his sister's eyes he did not -understand, and he wondered why she was not content to stay at home and -play at quoits and dance to music, as he was; but he resolved that -Victorine should make a fool of herself in her own way, and that it -should not cost her too dear. So he stood long watching her as she went -shining across the great green plain with the light flashing from a -thousand glittering points on her armor. - -Now, the Princess rode by night and day, and not once did her courage -fail or her arm grow weary. She left behind the green plain and the -pleasant trees, and traveled in a grievous waste beyond the songs of -birds, and anon she came to a woodland that was dark and old. She was -sorely puzzled as to the habitat of the Microbe, for in his raids he -came from east and west and north and south, and no one could tell if he -had a permanent abiding-place. Often in the dusky shadows of the wood, -she stopped to call a challenge: "What, ho! Come out and try thy skill!" -But that was not his way of fighting, and he stayed hidden. Sometimes -she inquired at a cottage door or at a shepherd's hut on the edge of the -wood, but all thought that the lovely lady in armor was surely mad, -wearing such strange clothing and asking such strange questions. Once -she came upon a witch-wife who was gathering simples by a swamp in the -wood. - -"Is the pretty lady looking for the pretty knight that passed this way -yestere'en?" asked the witch-wife, with a horrible leer of her sunken -eyes. - -The Princess elevated her eyebrows with a look of scorn. - -"No," she answered coldly; "I am looking for the Microbe." - -"How?" asked the witch-woman, with her hand behind her ear. - -"The Microbe!" shouted the Princess. - -"Is it a man, or a lady, or a place?" - -"It's a monster!" shrieked the Princess. "It kills, and eats, and -destroys." And then followed a faithful repetition of Auguste Philippe's -description of the beast. The witch-wife laughed and rocked to and fro, -her yellow teeth showing in her shrunken gums. - -"Oh, deary, deary, deary!" she said, "there ain't any such critter, -truly there ain't. I've lived here in the swamp seventy-nine year; I -never saw one, and I sees pretty nigh everything." - -"Who eats the youths and the maidens, and the old men and the children?" -demanded the Princess sternly. - -"How do I know? How do I know?" cackled the old woman. "_I_ don't." - -The Princess Victorine rode away, and behind her the witch-wife laughed. - -"That's the way the pretty knight went," she called. "You'll find him -further on." - -The Princess indignantly turned her charger and rode in the opposite -direction. That morning came her moment of great reward, for, by the -side of a noxious swamp, a gray mist met her, blinding her eyes, and she -thought she heard sounds of gurgling and lashing and clawing. Once she -caught sight of the great shining eye of which Auguste Philippe had told -her, and then she dimly detected the grin of teeth. Olivera Rinalda -Victorine was sure that she had met the Microbe at last. With lifted -spear, and with the shout, "A maiden to the rescue!" she rode into the -floating cloud and thrust it through and through. Her spear crashed -on--something; her charger seemed to trample a living creature under -foot, and snorted with terror. Thrice came swift blows upon the -Princess's shield, but whether they were of claws or tail, she could not -tell. Her ears were deafened by the noise; her armor ripped in the -gathers at the waist; her good steed for a moment lost his footing in -the morass, but she reined him up, and, mad with the thrill of victory, -struck out again and again with more than woman's strength. Then, was it -fancy, or did she hear a roar as of mortal pain? Did she catch the sound -of swift retreat of a hundred thousand wounded legs? - -At home, upon the battlements, that morning, stood Auguste Philippe with -some ladies of the court. (Lady Marie was lovely in deepest crêpe, and -the Duchess was looking her best in heavy mourning.) - -"It was in that direction that she went, did you say?" sobbed the -Duchess, with a black-bordered handkerchief at her eyes. - -The young king nodded. - -"How can I bear it?" asked Lady Marie, raising her clasped hands to -heaven. "Oh, your Highness, send out a searching party! Send fifty armed -knights! Think what may happen at any moment!" - -"Pshaw!" said Auguste Philippe the Twenty-fourth, "Victorine can take -care of herself. She is four inches taller than I, and her arms are like -iron. Let her be. She is foolish, but she has got to have her fling." - -"In my day," said Lady Marie, "no modest girl would have suggested such -a thing." - -"I dare say," sighed his Majesty; "but the thing has got to come; they -must sow their wild oats! She will come back all right." - -Though Lady Marie did not know it, his Majesty Auguste Philippe then, as -always, spoke the truth. - -At that very moment, beyond the wide green plain, and beyond the sandy -waste, a young knight, riding slowly, with his head bent down upon his -breast, came upon a maiden sitting at the edge of a wood. Near her, -cropping the grass, strayed a gray charger, with his bridle falling -loose upon his neck. The maiden was curiously clad in shining armor, -only her helmet was off, and tears were trickling down her cheeks. Now -and then she dried them with strands of her yellow hair, and then she -shuddered, gazing at a bloody spear that she held in her left hand. - -"Fair lady," said the Knight, riding toward her, "tell me your trouble, -that I may help you." - -The Princess Olivera Rinalda Victorine looked up at him and sobbed, and -her chain armor rose and fell upon her bosom. She had not cried this way -since that memorable day on the stone bench in the garden, twelve years -ago. - -"I've--I've killed the Microbe!" gasped Princess Victorine. - -"Indeed?" said the Knight, raising his visor and showing a pleasant -smile upon a pale face. "And are you not glad?" - -"Ye-es!" said the Princess, with a great heave of her bosom as she -looked at the disfigured spear. - -The stranger alighted from his horse and came slowly toward the -Princess. He was tall and strongly built, but he walked as one to whom -every motion brings pain. - -"Are you quite sure that the beast is dead?" - -The Princess nodded. - -"Quite." - -"I wonder," said the Knight meditatively, "if you brought away his head -or a claw?" - -"No, I didn't; but I feel very sure. Men are so skeptical!" said the -Princess, with some heat. - -"Not at all," answered the Knight courteously, "only your quest is the -same as mine, and I should be glad to know that it is over. I, too, am -hunting him." - -A beautiful expression swept over the Princess's face and into her blue -eyes. She looked less like a baby than she had done at any time for -seventeen years. - -"I thought men didn't care." - -"Some do." - -"Auguste Philippe doesn't--he only laughs, and so does old Lord Jean; -but I think that this will convince them," and Princess Victorine -triumphantly brandished her spear. - -"Ah!" said the Knight, looking at it with sudden interest, "may I see -your point?" But as he moved to take it, he gave a sudden groan and -fainted at the Princess's feet. - -"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Olivera Rinalda Victorine. In a trice she unlaced -the Knight's helmet and corselet, and was horrified to find blood -flowing from an open wound in his shoulder. Hastily she brought water in -her helmet from a spring hard by, and bathed his forehead and eyes, and -then ran for more to pour on the wound, saying, as she went, something -unpleasant about her skirt of chain armor, which kept getting in her -way. As she worked, the eyelids fluttered, and the dark eyes slowly -opened. - -"Are you hurt?" asked the Princess eagerly. - -"I'm afraid that I am rather badly cut up," he answered, with a groan. - -"Did that--Beast do it?" asked the Princess. - -"It may be," said the Knight. - -The Princess rose and put on her helmet. - -"Where are you going?" asked the Knight. - -"After It," said Victorine sternly. - -"Lovely lady," he said feebly, "don't you think you ought to wait until -I am better?" - -"I'm not a lovely lady, I'm a warrior," said the Princess; "but of -course I'll stay if you want me to." - -"You are both," said the Knight. "Do you know I think that it would make -me forget my pain if you should tell me of your fight." - -So the Princess, with a shining face, told him of her battle in the -mist, and of the monster with the great, glowing eye, and as she talked, -she failed to see that the wounded man kept looking toward the spot -where his gleaming helmet lay. - -"And now," said the Princess reproachfully, with red flushing her -cheeks, "tell me how you were wounded. Do you mind explaining how you -came to be hurt in the back?" - -"Somebody or something attacked me from behind," said the Knight, with a -smile half hiding the look of pain on his face. - -"The coward!" cried the Princess Victorine, in great anger. - -"It may have been some one who did not know the rules of the game," said -the Knight. - -"That makes _no_ difference," said Princess Victorine loftily. - -"Well, it was a strange combat," remarked the Knight, "and the blows -were the oddest I ever received. They came thrashing from all sides, in -defiance of all the laws of fighting. Whether they came from man or -beast I could not see--you know yourself that it is foggy in the woods, -and I was disabled by the blow in the back." - -"I know," nodded the Princess sympathetically. "You've been fighting -that same monster that I killed." And for the life of her, she could not -help a little feeling of triumph that the beast had gone down before her -rather than before him. - -"When did you kill him?" asked the wounded man. - -"This morning," beamed the Princess. "When were you hurt?" - -"Oh, I believe it was this morning," said the Knight carelessly. - -"I wish, for your sake, I had done it sooner," said Victorine -regretfully. One of her greatest charms was her slowness in putting two -and two together. Now she had little time for it, for the Knight fainted -again. For the first time in her life, the Princess repented of her -aversion to smelling-salts. However, there was plenty of water in the -spring, and she kept her best lawn handkerchief, which she had carried -up her sleeve, wet upon the sick man's brow. Through the fever of that -day she watched him, and all night, and again a second one, and on the -third day there was a look of weariness upon her face that had never -been there before. As the fever abated, and the Knight was aware of the -tender nursing that he was receiving, he watched the Princess with eyes -full of gratitude. She had laid aside her armor, and was becomingly -attired in blue brocade, which she had worn underneath the steel. The -sun shone pleasantly on her yellow hair, and if the color in her cheeks -was less pink than it had been, it meant, with the dark shadows under -her eyes, only new beauty. When he spoke his thanks, she turned red as a -boy would have done, and asked him please to stop, which he did. - -That afternoon the Princess grew confidential. She was sitting near the -invalid, who was propped up on a mossy pillow, supported from underneath -by her armor and her shield. - -"Just feel my muscle!" said the Princess impulsively. - -"I have!" said the sick Knight gravely. - -"Why, when?" demanded the Princess. "Oh, you mean when I lifted your -head. But look how it stands out." - -He did so. - -"You see," said Olivera Rinalda Victorine, "I am so unfeminine. I ought -to have been a boy." - -"Never!" cried the Knight vehemently. - -The Princess looked at him in surprise. - -"I'm very sure," she said gently. "I've known it ever since I was so -high," and she measured off the stature of six years by holding her -white hand above the ground. - -"I don't agree with you," said the Knight. "You're not in the least like -a boy, really. You do not look like one, nor use your arms like one." - -"When have you noticed that?" asked the Princess, in surprise. - -"Oh, lots of times," he answered evasively. "But tell me why you think -so." - -Sitting beside him, with the beech leaves making a flickering shade on -her face and throat, the Princess told him all the tragedy of her life, -her discovery of her initial great mistake, her unavailing efforts to -set it right, and the persecutions she had suffered because she was not -ladylike. It was the first confidence that she had made in all her life, -and her cheeks flushed deep red. Overhead sang thrush and sparrow, and a -little breeze came and played with her floating hair. Suddenly the -Knight reached out and took the white hand in his and kissed it. - -"Why did you do that?" asked the Princess softly. "To comfort me for not -being a boy?" - -"No," growled the sick man. - -"Then why?" she persisted, drawing it away. - -"Oh, I can't tell you," he groaned, "until I know whether I shall get -well of this beastly wound." - -But the Princess, taking both hands to arrange the wet handkerchief, -suddenly found them prisoned and covered with kisses. - -"It is because I love you," he moaned. "Don't you understand?" - -Princess Victorine eyed him with curiosity, and shook her head. - -"No," she answered, kneeling down and looking at him, "I'm afraid I -don't. Nobody ever did before." - -The Knight laughed out from the mossy green pillow. - -"That's just what makes you so adorable." - -"Won't you try to make me understand?" said the Princess. "I am very -slow, but when I once learn, I never forget." - -"Victorine," said the Knight, fixing his dark eyes on her, "I love you, -and I need you. I love your hair and your eyes and the touch of your -hands, and I want you to be my queen. You are a princess, I know, but -then I am a prince." - -Olivera Rinalda Victorine was silent a long time, kneeling on the moss. - -"Are you angry?" asked the Knight, at length. - -"No," said the Princess, in a whisper. "I think I like it." Then he -smiled up at her, but did not even touch her hand. - -"Tell me truly," said the Princess, "don't you mind my climbing trees -and doing all those things?" - -"Not a bit." - -"Nor the device on my shield?" - -He laughed and shook his head. - -"Nor my wanting to go on a quest, and do all those unfeminine things?" - -"Victorine," said the Knight, "it is the brave soul of you that I love. -We will go on and fight together." - -Then there was a sudden shining that was neither from the sun nor the -Princess's hair, but from the light that sprang into her face, and when -the wounded man lifted his arms and drew her toward him, she bent and -kissed him on the eyes, and no one ever knew, she least of all, where -she had learned that. - -Three days more and three nights they stayed there, and the sick man's -strength came slowly back. In the quiet they talked of many things in -the past and many yet to come. Only once in all that time did Princess -Victorine looked troubled. - -"Dear," she said one day, "there are moments when I am afraid that you -do not quite believe in me. I am not sure that you are convinced that I -have really killed the Microbe." - -"Beloved," said the Knight, putting down a piece of his armor, where he -had been idly fitting the point of the Princess's spear into a great -hole, "I believe in you utterly, only, there may be more than one, you -know, and so our quest is not over." - -On the fourth day they put their armor on, caught their steeds, and rode -away. On the Princess's shield the maiden stood out bravely against the -blue; the stranger Knight carried the device of an ugly worm transfixed -by a glittering sword, and the motto was "I search." The maiden knight -and the man looked at each other from under their visors. - -"To the death!" he cried, and he spurred his steed. - -"To the death!" echoed the Princess, dashing after him, and so they rode -gallantly away. Whether they have found and fought the Microbe none can -say, but this is known, that they are happy in the quest. - - - - - THE SEVEN - STUDIOUS SISTERS - - - - - THE SEVEN - - STUDIOUS SISTERS - - [Illustration] - - -His Majesty the King was in a terrible state of mind. Leaning back, -speechless, upon his throne, with his crown over one ear, his fists -clenched, he strove in vain to speak, but only an inarticulate gurgling -made its way from the royal throat. Behind him stood his Jester, merry -in cap and bells; on the right, the court philosophers, with puckered -brows and sagely folded arms; and all about knights-at-arms and -ladies-in-waiting silent and dismayed. - -Before the King, on the lowest step of the throne, almost under the -gold-brocaded canopy, knelt, with clasped hands and beseeching eyes, -Sylvie, Natalie, Amelie, Virginie, Sidonie, Dorothée, and Clementine, -the seven beautiful daughters of old Count Benoît of Verdennes, all -badly frightened, but intrepid. - -"Speak!" thundered the King at last. "No, do not speak! Every word will -be used against you!" - -"Your Majesty," began Sylvie, who was the eldest and had black hair, "we -came to beg,"-- - -"With great earnestness," continued Natalie, who had brown hair,-- - -"That you will give us the opportunity," said golden-haired Amelie, -shivering,-- - -"To study," said Virginie, who had brown eyes,-- - -"And grow wise," said Sidonie, whose eyes were blue,-- - -"And so we ask," said Dorothée, who had gray eyes,-- - -"That we may enter the university," said little Clementine, who had -dimples. - -It was sad for the youngest to say the hardest part of all, yet perhaps -it was only fair, as it was the strong will of Clementine that had led -them there, and the courage of Clementine that had kept them from -faltering by the way. - -They were simply repeating what they had just said; the parts had been -arranged before coming, in hope that his Majesty could not resist. Never -in their worst forebodings, when they had talked it over as they braided -one another's hair in the tiring-room of the castle, had they dreamed of -anything so terrible as this. - -"Wh-what put this idea into your heads?" thundered his Majesty. - -Then the seven answered as one maiden: "The Princess Pourquoi." - -The King groaned aloud, and the knights-at-arms and the -ladies-in-waiting groaned with him. Was it not enough for him to have -had a daughter whose useless thinking had embittered his reign? She, -with her quick intellect and ready questions, had made his throne totter -under him; and now, when she was safely married and away--ay, and had -made as good a match as the dullest maid in Christendom, must the spirit -of inquiry come back to him in seven shapes? Since she was gone, all had -been peace; he had been able to sleep most of the other half of the day -also. His Majesty fidgeted under his purple robe. The Church had taught -him that it was right for the sins of the fathers to be visited upon the -children, but nothing about the sins of the children being visited upon -the fathers, and he could not understand. - -Sylvie, Natalie, Amalie, Virginie, Sidonie, Dorothée, and little -Clementine looked at him with begging eyes. Now brown eyes and blue eyes -and gray eyes and black hair and brown hair and golden hair and dimples -all appealed strongly to the King, and he was surprised at himself for a -moment for not being able to act as ugly as he thought he felt. - -"What do you want to study for?" he demanded, his hands slowly -unclenching. - -"I don't know," faltered little Clementine, blushing into her dimples. -Somewhere there was a faint ripple of laughter, and yet the Jester's -face was perfectly sober when he lifted his head. - -"To be wise and know things," said Sidonie. The King stamped. - -"To be a power," said Natalie. - -"Pshaw!" said the King. - -"To understand all things," said Virginie. The King groaned. - -"So that people will like us," said Amelie. Then came again that echo of -mocking laughter, and the Jester muttered from behind the throne:-- - -"Now are there some here that are greater fools than I; for the whole -world knows that a woman is better beloved for what she understands not -than for what she understands." - -The King looked desperately about him, for he was at his wits' end, but -none came to his aid. The philosophers, with their eyes cast down, were -stroking their beards; the ladies-in-waiting were looking away, as -delicacy demanded, after so shocking a request; the knights-at-arms were -frankly gazing at blue eyes or brown, as taste suggested. Then the King -spoke hoarsely:-- - -"This is treason. The lowest dungeon in my castle is not too hard a -punishment for such offense. At any cost this spirit must be -quenched--at any cost." - -Tears flowed softly down the cheeks of the seven maidens, and fell on -their clasped hands, and the drops from Virginie's brown eyes sparkled -like jewels on Amelie's golden hair. Then, in the sorrowful pause, the -King's Jester stepped softly forward, and the little bells upon his -patches rang as he came. - -"Sire," said he, "I could tell a remedy more potent than this and less -savage." - -"Speak, Fool!" said the King. - -"Not afore folks," answered the Jester, with a smile. - -"They understand not your folly," said the King. - -"Ay, but they might, for none can tell when words of wisdom may begin to -penetrate dull brains. Clear me the room of these philosophers and the -others, and let the maidens begone, for I cannot abide a woman's tears." - -"Go!" said his Majesty. - -Then the weeping maidens and the ladies-in-waiting passed out in a -shimmer of gold color, and crimson, and blue, and rich green; and after -them, like a shadow, crept the philosophers in garments of black; and -then, with a clash of steel and flashing of wrought armor, went the -knights-at-arms, and the presence chamber was empty, save for the King -on the throne and the Jester, who stood before him in the posture of the -philosophers, with folded arms and head bent low. - -"Sire," said the Fool, "when women grow wise"-- - -"The kingdom is lost," said his Majesty. "Little enough comfort is there -now." - -"They will outstrip their brothers," said the Jester. - -"They will meddle with matters of state," said the King. - -"They will see through us all," continued the Fool. "For my part, I -would keep them the sweet, blind creatures that they are. 'Tis enough -for me that I see through myself. Now there is one way, and one only, to -check the growing intellect of women." - -"And what may that be?" asked the King, the sadness lifting from his -face. - -"Forsooth, they must have a university of their own," answered the -Jester. - -"What!" thundered his Majesty. - - [Illustration: "WHAT!" THUNDERED HIS MAJESTY] - -"Ay!" said the Fool, nodding; "there is no other way. The Princess -Pourquoi has lighted in this land a fire that can be put out in only one -fashion. Let a foundation be made; let walls arise; let lecturers come. -Naught save a university curriculum will avail now to dull the wits and -divert the minds and check the thought of women." - -"In truth you have a pretty wit," said the King, and he smiled. "But who -will take charge of this undertaking and plan me the work that it may -avail?" - -"I," said the Jester. "Who else? Cap and gown would become me well, and -though the King may lose his fool, he will gain My Lord Rector, who will -speak bravely in the Latin tongue." - -"And whom can we trust to aid in the work?" asked his Majesty. - -"Lend me but the philosophers," said the Jester, with a wink, "and their -natural parts shall prevail where intent might come badly off in this -great task of dulling women's wits." - -Then the two spoke long between themselves, and when they had finished, -the Jester went and called the pages, and the great doors were thrown -open, so that all entered as they had gone, and there was shimmer of -silk and shining of jewels and gleaming of armor. The seven maidens came -trembling in every limb, not knowing but their heads should fall, and -they knelt as before at the foot of the throne, only now they had -nothing to say. Then the King lifted up his voice and, smiling, said -that it should be even as they had desired, and that learning and wisdom -should be theirs. In one thing only should change be made: they should -not mingle with the herd of men, but should have, sequestered and apart, -a place of learning for womankind. When they heard this, Sylvie leaned -her face upon the head of Natalie and wept for joy; and Natalie hers -upon the head of Amelie, and Amelie upon Virginie, and Virginie upon -Sidonie, and Sidonie upon Dorothée, and Dorothée upon little Clementine, -and because Clementine had nowhere to lean her head, she wept into her -own dimples. - -Then the King's Fool went away and did not come again, and of this there -was great talk for three days, and then all was forgotten, for another -jester filled his place. One day appeared at court a grave gentleman -clad all in flowing black, bearded, and with eyes cast down in a sort of -inward look. All called him My Lord Rector, and none knew him for the -King's Jester because he had changed his cap. He spoke but little, and -that in Latin, as "_Verbum sat sapienti; depressus extollor; veni, vidi, -vici_;" and if he made gibe or jest, there were none who could -understand. - -There was upon the outskirts of the city a great building that had once -been the Palace of Justice, but was no longer used because a loftier one -had been erected in the square where the minster rose. This stood not -far from the river-bank, and was all of gray stone that had crumbled -somewhat, so that the tracery of leaf and flower in the Gothic windows -and the faces and claws of the gargoyles that peered from roof and -corner were in many places worn away. It was built on three sides of a -great court, where now grass and vine and flower grew unchecked, on the -spot once worn by the feet of gathering citizens and the tramp of -steeds. Bluebird and swallow and wren had entered through the broken -windows, and had built about the window niches and in the crannies of -the carven vine. This, said the King, should be the place of learning -consecrated to the maidens, for it was not meet that they should gather -in the market square or on the hill beyond the minster, as young men did -in those days when thousands came together to listen to philosophical -disputes, and no roof was sufficient to cover them. Workmen came and -mended broken arch and column, and cleared away the tangled vines of the -court, but left growing grass and flower, and did not touch the nesting -birds, for the seven lovely sisters begged that they might stay. Hither -flocked innumerable damsels, who came riding from all parts of the -kingdom, with squires before them and waiting-maids behind. They came on -black jennet and white palfrey and pony of dapple gray; maiden madness -had run throughout the kingdom, and all who could sit on saddle or hold -rein rushed hither for their share of the new learning. Many were -pursued by father or brother, by maiden aunt or widowed mother, begging -them to abide at home in safety as modest maidens should. - - [Illustration: CAME RIDING FROM ALL PARTS OF THE KINGDOM] - -It was noised abroad that the Lord Rector would deliver the first -lecture when the new work began, and all were eager to hear; so it came -to pass one day that a huge company passed in procession under the -carven Gothic gate and into the great hall whose stained windows looked -one way on the river and the other way on the court. First, in gown of -velvet and of silk, came My Lord Rector, muttering in his beard; after -him followed the philosophers, with stately step and slow; and then -young squires a-many, who were eager to see what would befall; and lords -and ladies in gay clothing, rarely embroidered in choice colors. There -were maiden students also, many score, and at their head Sylvie, in -scarlet silken gown, and Natalie in green; Amelie in brown velvet, -curiously slashed, and Virginie in yellow; Sidonie in blue samite, and -Dorothée in silver, and little Clementine in white, as befitted her -tender years. Now behold! within the great hall the King was already -waiting in a chair of state under a velvet canopy, and My Lord Rector -and the philosophers of the new faculty bowed low to him as they -entered. Then the Rector mounted upon a platform, and bowing to the King -with "_Rex augustissimus_" he winked in his old fashion and fell -a-coughing, and the King winked back and then fell a-sneezing, to hide -the smile that his beard only half concealed. - -"_Viri illustrissimi_," continued the Rector, bowing again before his -audience and speaking in a solemn voice: "_mutatis mutandis, horresco -referens, da locum melioribus, dux femina facti, humanum est errare, nil -nisi cruce, graviora manent, post nubila Phoebus, sunt lachrimae rerum, -vae victis_." - -The last words came with a quiver of the voice, and many wept, for they -did not understand his folly. Then My Lord Rector turned to the fair -body of women students and spoke, seeing only the face of little -Clementine:-- - -"_Feminae praeclarissimae, credo quia impossibile est, inest Clementia -forti, crede quod habes et habeo, sic itur ad astra, toga virilis, vita -sine literis mors est, varium et mutabile semper femina, vade in -pace_," and with this there was hardly a dry eye in the house. So the -new university was opened. - -Needless to say, the success of the undertaking was great. Throughout -the land, bower and hall and dell were left empty, for the maidens had -all gone to the capital to get learning. They no longer wrought fair -figures in the embroidery frames in the great halls of their ancestral -castles, or polished the armor of father and brother, or brewed cordials -for the sick over the glowing coals. They no longer wandered in gowns of -green on their palfreys by hill or dale for the joy of going. By -hundreds they bowed their fair heads before the philosophers as they -lectured, taking notes upon the tablets of their minds, for they did not -know how to write. My Lord Rector, when he spoke, could find no room -large enough to contain his audiences, so he lectured only on sunshiny -days, and stood on a platform in the centre of the great court; and -words of grave nonsense fell from his lips as the light fell on golden -hair or brown. So intently did the maidens listen that they did not -smell the fragrance of the flowers crushed beneath their feet, wild rose -and lily and violet, nor did they hear the beat of the wings of startled -birds, nor see red crest, or golden wing, or blue, flash across the sky. - -Being a cunning man and keen, My Lord Rector had left to the flocking -students the choice of the lectures that they should pursue. - -"Let them but manage it themselves," he said, smiling wickedly, at a -private audience with the King, "and we shall see great things." - -So the maidens met in assembly and consulted gravely together, and -conferred with Rector and with faculty, and presently many branches of -learning were established and all was going with great vigor. Each -student chose for herself what course she should pursue, and it was -pretty to see how maiden whims worked out into hard endeavor. -Black-haired Sylvie specialized in dramatics, for she made, with her -sweeping locks, an excellent tragedy queen; Natalie in athletics, and -she took the standing high-jump better than any knight in Christendom; -golden-haired Amelie devoted all her time to fiddling and giglology, and -soon became proficient; Virginie, of the brown eyes, took ping-pong and -fudge; blue-eyed Sidonie, acrostics and charades; Dorothée took -chattering and cheering, and soon her sweet voice could be heard above -the noise of building, or the roar of battle; while little Clementine -worked at all branches of frivology, and became a great favorite, for in -looks and in manner and in taste she represented that which is most -pleasing in woman. - -To tell of all they did and learned and thought would be too long a -tale, and, moreover, the records of much of it have perished, but men -say that their life was both strenuous and merry, and that womankind -blossomed out into new beauty of face and form and mind. The infinite -range of opportunity has been but faintly shadowed forth in the hints -already given; and to those who philosophized and those who poetized, -those who took societies and those who took cuts, life was one long -burst of irrelevant, joyous activity. Most zealous of all the students -was little Clementine. Ceaselessly alert, she listened with upturned -face to lectures in the great flower-grown court; with infantile -audacity she ventured out into vast unknown realms of thought, and -puckered her white forehead in trying to work out the unutterable -syllable. Now she walked the cloisters where the shadow of carven leaf -and tendril fell on her hair, studying a parchment; and again, in -moments of relaxation, she rode her dog-eared pony fast and furiously. -To some this animal may seem strange, but there were many queer -creatures in those days, as Sir John Maundeville tells. - -It came to pass, no one knows how, that nothing done by little -Clementine escaped the notice of My Lord Rector, for his eyes followed -her always. When he lectured, he lectured to Clementine; whether he said -words of Latin or of the vulgar tongue, he spoke them to her eyes; and -he was ashamed of the learned nonsense he was speaking when he gazed on -Clementine. Sleeping, he saw her walking so-and-so under the shadow of -Gothic arch with leaf shadows on her face, and he dreamed of taking the -parchment from her white fingers and--But here he always woke, though he -tried to dream farther. Clearly, something had happened to him that -neither his experience as Sir Fool nor as Lord Rector had prepared him -to understand. - -Save for this haunting thought, he was very gay behind a solemn face. -Dearly he loved his task, and none but the King and himself heard the -faint tinkle of bells from under his scholar's cap. Always they greeted -each other with Latin words, and they had many conferences wherein they -chuckled together over the success of their plan, for they knew that -they had drawn all these women forth to follow after the very shadow of -learning, and that the end would leave them more ignorant than before. -Always, however, in these moments of mirth, like a stab at the heart -came to the Lord Rector the thought of deception practiced upon -Clementine. Her trusting eyes, lifted to him in uttermost faith, -reproached him by night and by day. If, by force, he put his conscience -from him, he was sure to see her face as she listened, hiding in the -recesses of her heart the silly words he said. Once, as she went alone -toward the lodgings, and he followed at a great distance, a foot-pad set -upon her in a dark corner, where a stone stairway gave shelter to -thieves, and My Lord Rector, rushing forward, struck lustily about him -right and left and felled the knave, taking from him the lady's netted -purse and giving it back to her. She said no word save one of thanks, -but after, when her eyes were raised, he saw that a new light had been -added to the old, and that little Clementine reverenced him not only as -a learned man, but as a brave one, too. - -So weeks drifted by, and months, and then came a great event, for the -maidens had determined to carry out a custom that belonged to that olden -time and formed the final test of the scholar. All agreed that -Clementine, brave, childish, perverse little Clementine, should initiate -the new audacity. Therefore, one early morning, when the first rays of -the sun were just peeping over the high stone city wall, she might have -been observed stealing in academic garb of black over her white dress to -the great oak, iron-studded door of the old Palace of Justice. Here, -with a stone, she hammered a long parchment, and she established herself -hard by, so that all who saw her knew that she was there to defend -against all comers the theses she had nailed up. Now there were eight, -and they ran as follows:-- - -1. That the ineffable and the intangible are not the same. - -2. That all that is not, is, and all that seems to be, is not. - -3. That--but it would be foolish to transcribe all the theses that -little Clementine defended, for no one would understand. Suffice it to -say that they were subtle beyond the mind of man, and clothed in words -drawn from the deep abyss of the inane, where unborn thought goes ever -crying for birth. One by one her six sisters came against her and -argued, but to no avail, for little Clementine, no less skillful than -David of yore, gathered together verb and adjective and slung them so -unerringly that antagonist after antagonist went down, and she, often -snubbed as being but the youngest, stood forth in the eyes of the -admiring crowd a victor. - -The picture that she made, standing against that gray stone wall flecked -with green moss, with a grinning gargoyle leaning down toward her, was -very sweet. In little Clementine the brown hair and the golden hair, the -brown eyes and the gray eyes, of the family met in a peculiarly -bewitching combination that had a chameleon quality of color constantly -changing. Moreover, as she argued in well-chosen words, she was -unconsciously establishing the unspoken thesis:-- - -That four dimples may exist at the same time in a maiden's face without -seeming too many. - -This My Lord Rector saw, and something gave way within him. When the -argument was over and the audience was departing, he called Clementine -to him inside the gate as one who would ask something, and then stood -speechless. The maiden, who was flushed and weary, lifted her scholar's -cap, and he saw, in the locks of hair that were neither brown nor gold, -pearls woven; and above the collar of the gown showed the embroidered -white samite of her dress. - -"Little Clementine," said My Lord Rector, "your student life is almost -done. Does that fact cause rejoicing?" - -"Nay," said Clementine, casting down her eyes. - -"Shall you grieve for anything left behind?" - -"Ay," said the maiden. - -"And what?" asked My Lord Rector. - -"The learned lectures, the dissertations, the wise words," said -Clementine, looking up and dimpling. - -"And any special ones?" asked he, wondering if she heard about him the -jingle of bells. - -"Ay," said Clementine, smoothing her gown with slim white fingers and -setting her lips together. Not another word would she say, though the -great man begged humbly. - -"Clementine," asked My Lord Rector, changing the subject, "shall you -ever wed?" - -"If the right man comes," said the maiden. - -"And what must he be?" - -"He must be very wise." - -"Am I wise, little one?" asked the Rector. - -"Wisest of all," answered the maiden, whispering. - -Then he took her white hand in his and said softly, "_Amo. Amas?_" but -Clementine did not understand a word of Latin. Looking up, however, she -saw something she did understand, and then My Lord Rector bent and -kissed her hand, wisely using the old, old way of wooing that was found -before words, Latin or other, were invented. - -Then Clementine drew back trembling and looked, and behold, he who had -been but a wonderful voice was changed, and she saw that he was a man, -and young, and comely, with merry eyes touched with sadness, and a mouth -whose curves were both cynical and sweet. - -"Why, why should you choose me?" asked the maiden, in a voice that shook -for reverence. - -"Because you are so adorably foolish!" cried the lover, forgetting, and -that was a mistaken speech, which mere words could not explain away. - -It was agreed between them that none should know what had befallen until -the day when old Count Benoît and his Lady Myriel came up to the city to -take home their seven daughters, for their work was counted done. So the -two lived a glad life, though they spoke but seldom; often a glance of -the eyes made food for both day and night. All the time My Lord Rector's -conscience pricked him more and more, until he could no longer bear it, -and one day, coming upon Clementine where she passed the path by the -rippling river, near three willow trees that were freshly leaved out, -for it was spring, he told her the tale of how he and the King had -deceived womankind, and, with torture of spirit, confessed himself the -King's Fool. Then Clementine looked up at him with eyes where the gray -and the brown seemed flecked with green, perchance from the shadow of -the willows, and said firmly:-- - -"I have always seen that they who call themselves fools are the least -so," nor could he ever after by any words of confession shake her -steadfast faith in his wisdom. - -At last came the day when Count Benoît arrived, and with him cousins and -other kin from far and near, for all would know something of the strange -new ways in the city. At lecture hour all crowded together in the great -hall, and again the King was there upon the dais, solemn of look, but -merry of heart, for his eyes twinkled under his heavy eyebrows as he -looked at the fair, fresh faces before him, innocent of thought as any -other maidens' faces, and he chuckled to think how he and his dear Fool -had outwitted them all. Then he looked with affection at his trusty -philosophers who stood near in silk robes with slashes of velvet and -hoods of rainbow colors, and he thanked heaven that had given him strong -supporters in the crisis that had threatened his kingdom. Gazing upon -the assembled audience of friends and kinsfolk, he rejoiced to think -that for them, as for him, the country had been saved. - -But My Lord Rector was speaking in the Latin tongue, "_ad hoc gradum -admitto ..._," and Sylvie, Natalie, Amelie, Virginie, Sidonie, Dorothée, -and little Clementine, with all the other maidens who had frolicked with -them merrily so long a time, arose, as pretty a sight to see as ever -king in Christendom had before him, and their new honors fell upon -untroubled white foreheads. Then there was sound of rejoicing, and light -shone through the stained windows on the glad faces and gay garments of -the people assembled there; and suddenly, lo! My Lord Rector stepped -from his high place and went to take the hand of little Clementine. With -eyes cast down she followed him, and now she was rosy and now pale, and -so the two kneeled at the feet of the king under the canopy. - -"We two do crave your Majesty's blessing," said My Lord Rector, "on our -betrothal." - -Then a ripple of wonder and of laughter ran through the great hall, and -his Majesty, smiling, blessed them with extended hands, and as they -rose, he bent forward with a twinkle, whispering:-- - -"You have done well, My Lord Rector, in carrying out your purpose. It is -pity that you may not marry them all." - -For the first time he found no answering jest in his favorite's eyes, -and would have inquired why, but the philosopher who stood nearest, and -had caught the whisper, smiled, and taking Sylvie's hand, led her to the -foot of the throne, saying:-- - -"But I, your Majesty, may wed this lady with the King's consent, for she -has given hers." Then a second philosopher led forth Natalie, and a -third Amelie, and a fourth Virginie, and a fifth Sidonie, and a sixth -Dorothée, and behold! the seven sisters were again kneeling before the -throne awaiting the King's blessing, but with their lovers at their -sides. - -Then his Majesty leaned back his head and roared with laughter till the -vaulted ceiling reëchoed, and tears of mirth ran down his cheeks and -shone upon his beard, and all laughed with him, though they knew not -why, all save My Lord Rector, whose face wore the saddest look a man may -wear. - -"Now, was this planned among you?" asked his Majesty. - -Then they shook their heads, and each philosopher said:-- - -"Forsooth, I thought I was the only one," and with that the King roared -again. - -In the bustle that followed, when old Count Benoît and his Lady Myriel -hung upon the necks of their seven daughters in turn, the King tapped -the Lord Rector upon the arm. - -"You have builded even better than the promise said," whispered his -Majesty. "From this blow shall the aggressive intellect of woman not -arise." - -But the Rector looked gloomily upon him and knelt again, and begged that -his Majesty would release him from further service that he might go to -the wars. - -"Two parts of the Fool have I played for your Majesty," said the man -bitterly, "and from both I would be released, for you and I have done a -great wrong." - -Little Clementine had drawn nearer, and many-colored light of purple and -crimson and gold fell on her fair face and parted lips as she looked in -wonder at her lover. Then the King saw and understood, and he was -ashamed. - -"Nay, My Lord Rector," he said, bending low, "what we have done of wrong -we will right. You shall even go on with the task set before you, and -that that you do lack of a wise man shall this woman's faith make good." - - - - - THE GENTLE ROBBER - - - - - THE - - GENTLE ROBBER - - [Illustration] - - -Once there was a robber bold--not that he looked bold, for he had the -gentlest of manners and the most persuasive tongue. It was with a -certain manly shyness that he approached his victims, and his voice was -very low and soft as he convinced them how greatly to their interest it -would be to hand over their purses, so that many went on through the -green forest paths with empty pockets, it is true, but with eyes full of -tears of gratitude for the benefactor who had held them up. - -"Pray don't mention it!" said the Robber Chief, as he deprecatingly -thrust into his wallet the purses he had taken and heard the outpoured -thanks. "It is nothing, nothing! You would have done as much for me at -any time if you had"--he never finished his sentence, but the wistful -admiration of the man with empty pockets always added the right -clause--"if you had had the brains." - -Now the Gentle Robber, it need hardly be said, was highly successful in -his chosen calling, or, as he put it, "the holy saints had given him -rich possessions." He had started out moderately in a remote corner of -the forest, as became a young and unassuming retail cut-purse, but soon -his domain extended from his own retired dell to the adjacent glade, and -the merry outlaw who had prospered there gave up the business and became -a scrivener's clerk. It was not long before the Robber Chief owned the -whole forest: the title-deeds, to be sure, belonged to the Abbey, which -lay in a fat green meadow at the edge of the wood, but the monks could -not work the forest as the robber could, and whatever harvest of gold -and of silver, of jewels, of rich cloths from the packs of merchants of -the East was to be gathered there, this one man reaped in his own -apologetic way, which always seemed to beg pardon of those who were -despoiled, for doing them so much good at one time. Soon the country -round the forest was his, and yokel, franklin, and squire, Sir Bertram -from the Castle, and the Prior from the Abbey, began to render him -accounts, and it came to pass that the Bishop at the capital city, -Mertoun, and the King upon his throne, and the strong nobles about him -trembled at the robber's name, for the waves of his power flowed out -until they met the waves of the sea. - -Dearly the Gentle Robber loved his work in all its aspects, and he was -master of its least details. A brave fight with a sturdy yeoman going -home from market with a half-year's gains was joy to him, and merry in -his ears was the sound of the thwack, thwack, thwack of the oaken staves -as they fell on head and shoulders; an encounter with a rich merchant's -train brought him naught but exhilaration, and the deft, swift hand that -emptied the pack and purse thrilled as it went about its chosen task. -There was slow, sensuous pleasure in stripping off the garments of -knight and of squire and leaving their limbs uncovered to the cold. -Daintiest amusement of all was the spoiling of widow and of orphan: -something of the ascetic lingered in the bosom of the Robber Chief, and -rare and delicate was the task of emptying the scantily furnished -larder, of carrying away the worn clothes, and the single jewel saved -from the wreck of happier days. He found delight in feeling about his -knees the clasp of the thin arms of the naked orphan as it wept for -food, for genius knows no distinction of small and great, and yeoman and -squire, knight and merchant, widow and orphan alike, thrilled him with a -sense of his power, and through their cries sang in his ear the word -"success." - -In the course of time it came to pass that he became the chief support -of the kingdom which he had caused to totter as he swept its riches into -his own bulging pockets. When he came to court, as he sometimes did, -wearing grave apparel and showing a modest face, the King leaned -lovingly upon him; was he not financing the war with Binnamere and -causing a half-dozen universities, which had but lately come into -fashion, to rise in different parts of the land? The Bishop conferred -weightily with him in quiet corners; was he not building the great -cathedral which was to be the glory of the city throughout coming ages? - -"Nay, nay, nay!" said the Bishop, waving a white, jeweled hand as the -Chief began to divulge some of his larger plans. "Tell me not of thy -wicked schemes! Thy methods I must condemn utterly, but if thou bringest -me the money, well, I can at least see to it that it be not used for bad -purposes. And speaking of money, we need for the walls of the apse a -hundred bags of gold. Dost thou think thou couldst manage it?" - -"Ay," said the Gentle Robber, and that night he despoiled nine men, -killing three that resisted longest, for he was a great lover of Holy -Church, and a devout believer, nor could she ask of him any service that -he would not perform. - -Now the lust for gold is a strange thing. There be that gather it -together into stockings and go hungry and dirty to the day's end for -gold, and that is the miser's lust. There be that win it and spend it -again freely for delicate food and fiery drink, and this is the -sensualist's lust. There be that get it by cruel means and scatter it -abroad on church and hospital, and this is the philanthropist's lust, -which possessed the Robber Chief. Gold and jewels were piled so high in -his forest cave that he could not see out of its window, and he hardly -knew whether winter snow or the shadow of flickering leaves lay on the -ground, nor could hungry church nor greedy halls of learning lessen his -piles of treasure enough to let the sunlight in. - -Far on the edge of the kingdom to eastward lived blunt Sir Guy of -Lamont, and his son and heir was a young squire, Louis by name, who had -grown up much alone, wandering in the greenwood that circled the castle. -Strong of arm and lusty he grew, yet cared not for the hunt, for he was -friend to fox and hare, and the wild deer knew and loved him. Living -close to spreading oak and delicate beech, among green leaves and -nesting things, he began to wear the look of those who see more than -meets the eye, and knight and franklin chaffed him as he sat apart while -they grew merry over mug of ale or glass of wine in his father's hall. -As he dreamed his dreams and thought his thoughts, rumors of the deeds -of the Robber Chief floated to his ears, and he was sorely puzzled. It -was a wandering merchant who brought the tale, spreading out his stuffs -of velvet and of silk over table and settle and chair, and showing three -great fresh sword-cuts on his arm as he spoke:-- - -"Andrew, my brother, lost his head in the encounter, and it was severed -by a single blow, but I escaped, though there be few that may." - - [Illustration: HE BEGAN TO WEAR THE LOOK OF THOSE WHO SEE MORE THAN - MEETS THE EYE] - -With that he recounted all the tales that he had heard in his wanderings -of the wrong-doing of this man, and they were many. Sir Guy listened -with "Zounds!" and "'Sdeath!" but the youth said never a word of pity or -of blame; yet, when the story-teller had finished, he marveled at the -lad's eyes. They were gray eyes, with lashes dark and long, and the look -in them was as the look in the eyes of a gentle beast when he is hurt to -the death; then came to them the sudden fire of the avenger of misdeeds. - -"My hour has come to fight," said young Louis of Lamont to the great -stag that licked his hand that evening in the forest as the sun went -down in golden haze. "Men do not know this cruel wrong; I must go to -tell them, and mayhap lead them forth with banner and with sword." - -Early the next morning, when all were making merry at the hunt, he set -the face of his snow-white steed to westward and rode down long, green, -leafy ways and across a great level plain toward the setting of the sun. -In doublet and hose of scarlet, laced with gold thread, he was comely to -see, with a white plume in his velvet cap, and thick hair of yellow, -clipped evenly at his neck, and on his face the beauty that shines out -from a light within. All day he journeyed on, yearning to meet alone the -Robber Chief, whom he pictured as a man brawny of arm and of evil -countenance, wherein black brows hid the sinister eyes, and a black -beard covered a cruel mouth; and the lad longed with the lusty strength -of untried youth to measure swords with this terrible foe. That night a -woman gave him shelter at a wayside hut, and told a tale of the Chief -that chilled the young man's blood; the next night, as he lodged at a -hall, deeds yet more cruel were recounted to him; and ever as he came -nearer the heart of the kingdom, he found the air more rife with tidings -of the Robber Chief's ill doings. - -"They do not know," he said, lightly touching spur to his steed. "The -King and the Bishop do not know of these wicked things. Pray God that I -may come in time to lead men forth!" - -At the edge of a great forest he met, one day, a tired-looking man on a -tired horse. The rider was neatly clad in sober gray, and was both -freshly shaven and neatly combed. Across his saddle lay a great bag of -something that was wondrous heavy. - -"Halt!" said the man, with a pleasant glance from his mild blue eyes. -Then blood rose red to the young squire's cheek, and anger too great for -any words lighted in his eyes, as his hand went to his dagger, and he -urged his horse forward. It was a brave fight that he made, while the -two steeds drew near and parted and drew near again, but a slender white -hand with an iron grip reached deftly and snatched the dagger from his -hand, nor could he reach the short sword which he had so proudly belted -to his side; and the strength of his adversary was as the strength of -ten. - -"Nay, be not foolish," said a soft voice, as the lad struck out with -stinging fist; "'tis but thy purse I ask, and it would grieve me to do -thee wrong. The purses of the kingdom belong to me." - -"Now, by what right?" cried Louis of Lamont, between set teeth, his -cheeks flaming deeper red. - -"By the right of having wit enough to get them," answered the robber. -Then he pinioned the lad's arm to his side and thrust a deft hand into -his pocket, drawing out a purse of wrought gold. - -"It will be to thy best advantage if thou canst but see it that way," he -said courteously. - -In the mind of the other the vision of dark, beetling brows and red, -hairy cheeks was fading. - -"Thou--thou art the Robber Chief," he stammered. His adversary bowed. - -"It is thou who didst murder Baron Divonne, and who didst starve the -Squire's daughter of Yverton with her seven children, and"--So great was -his horror of the tales that flocked to his tongue that he failed to -speak them, but a light as from the wings of the Angel of Judgment shone -from his eyes and brow. - -"The question is not, 'Shall I take thy purse?'" the Chief said gently. -"I have it. The question is, 'How shall I dispose of it to the best -advantage?'" - -"It isn't that! I do not want the purse," said the young man scornfully; -"but how canst thou traffic in crime?" - -"I have little time for talking," said the Gentle Robber, with a hurt -look on his face; he was extremely sensitive to adverse criticism. "Now -I must be off. This great bag of gold is for the orphan hospital at the -Abbey. If I may mention it without boasting, it derives most of its -supplies from me," and he looked wistfully for approval. - -"Its supplies of orphans?" demanded Louis of Lamont, with his stern -young lip curved in scorn; but the face of the other was as the face of -a man who has failed to teach a great lesson of good. - -As the lad rode on through the forest, his head was bent as if a hand -had struck it and had laid it low, but coming into the open, he saw far -off, across the valley, the spires of the capital city, Mertoun, and its -many red roofs gleaming by the blue river, and his heart throbbed within -him for thankfulness and joy. - -"Hasten!" he cried to the beast that bore him. "Yonder in that strong -city be strong men to help me right ill deeds, and a minute gained may -save some woman's life, or spare the bitter crying of a child." - -His eyes were filled with a vision of the knights that would go out with -him to war for the right, with the waving of plumes and the flaming of -banners, in their hearts the anger of God for cruel wrong; and a -yearning for coming combat tugged at the muscles of shoulder and of arm. - -The palace of the Bishop was moated, and there was a drawbridge there, -and within, as on a green island, rose walls of fine gray stone, with -window arch and doorway delicately carved. There was one at hand who -took his steed, and one who led the way for him, and anon he found -himself in a sunlit chamber where the Bishop stood looking out upon the -great cathedral which was rising stone by stone, with its blue-clad -workmen standing against a bluer sky. - -"What is it, my son?" asked the Bishop, when he saw a young squire -standing before him, worn, dust-stained, with anger burning in his eyes. - -"Sire," said the guest, bending low, "I have hasted thither to tell thee -of great wrongs." - -"They shall be redressed," said the Bishop, laying his hand upon the -lad's head. - -"There is a man," said Louis of Lamont, kneeling, his lips white with -wrath, "who doeth cruel wrong and bringeth folk to death, and it must -needs be that none in high places know, for he goeth unpunished." - -"He shall be found and placed in my lowest dungeon," said the Bishop -fiercely. "Now tell me what he hath done." - -"On my way hither I lodged with a poor woman who told me that he had -slain before her eyes her husband and her sons, and all for a cup of -silver coin that stood upon the mantel." - -"A mere cup of silver coin!" groaned the Bishop. "He shall hang." - -Then he told of the murder of Baron Divonne, and of the Squire's -daughter of Yverton, who was starved with her seven children; and he -told all the tales that the wandering merchant had brought with his -cloths of cashmere and of silk. As he spoke longer, the face of his host -grew anxious, and when he finished, saying, "Men call him the Gentle -Robber," black care sat upon the brow of the host. - -"Delay not," pleaded Louis. "Give me armed men, for thou hast said that -he shall die for his sins, and I have the blood of fighters in my -veins." - -"Nay, child," said the Bishop. "Not so." - -"Thou hast promised!" he cried in amaze. - -"Ay," he made answer, "but I knew not then that the offenses were so -many and so great, or that the enterprise was--ahem!--planned upon so -large a scale. That makes all different." - -"That makes the need to punish him a thousandfold greater," stammered -the lad. - -"Tut, tut!" said the Bishop, with the solemn smile he wore. "Thou dost -not understand: logic is ever lacking in the young." - -"Should not stripes be laid upon him for each cry he hath drawn forth? -Should he not lay down his life, if that were possible, for each life he -hath taken?" - -"I had thought, when I heard the first tale, that he should die for the -single crime," the Bishop made answer, "but the case is altered by the -later facts. 'A life for a life,' saith the Scripture, but naught of a -life for a dozen or threescore, or an hundred, as the case may be." - -Then a flame of anger shone out in the lad's face, and he waited. - -"My son," said the Bishop tenderly, "thou art young and ignorant, yet -will I try to teach thee something of right ways of thought. In judging, -all depends upon the point of view, and matters that look often black at -first statement grow white or gray when thoroughly understood. Let us -look upon this question in another aspect. Dost see yonder great -cathedral rising?" - -Though the youth made no answer, the Bishop saw that he was looking at -the gray stones and at the blue-clad workmen. - -"'Tis God's house," said the Bishop, "nor may it arise save through the -gifts of this man. Wrong hath he done, but all is forgiven for that his -gold is bent to holy purposes." - -"But wrong he doeth still," said Louis of Lamont, in the stern voice of -youth. - -The Bishop coughed behind his hand even while he spoke. - -"There is much in the ways of Providence that we may not comprehend. God -moveth in a mysterious way." - -"Had the Robber Chief ceased from his crime and shown true -penitence"--began the lad, but the Bishop interrupted. - -"God hath need of the man and of all the gold that he will bring, that -institutions of learning and holy places may arise in the land." - -"God may be worshiped by wood and stream," said the youth, in the still, -small voice of one who knew; "nor hath He need of gold that is the price -of suffering and pain and tears;" and so he turned and went down the -steps, worn and weary, with dust on his crimson garments, and shame on -his spirit, and the light of his face grown dim. - -It had come back to its shining, however, the next day, when he went -before the King. - -"It may well be that there is one bad man who hath power," he said to -himself, "and he the Bishop; but God would not grant that all be so," -and hope beamed again from his eyes. - -"'Tis the son of my old friend, Guy of Lamont, sayest thou?" cried the -King, as he raised the lad's chin with one royal finger. "By my troth, -'tis his father's face again, but different." - -"Sire," said Louis, as he did reverence, "I have come to tell of cruel -wrong, and to win from thee a promise of redress." - -"Thou shalt have it!" cried the King, with his hand upon his sword. -"Friend or child of my friend went never yet uncomforted from the foot -of my throne. Speak thy wrong." - -Then the youth told him all that he had told the Bishop, and added -thereto other tales, and hope shone sternly in his eyes. - -"Send forth with me a band of thy men-at-arms," prayed the suppliant. -"Even now, perchance, are orphans made that might have grown tall in -happiness save for this man's lust for gold." - -Then the King looked about, and his face grew dark with anger, for some -half smiled and hid their smiles as best they could with jeweled hand or -velvet sleeve; some showed fear at seeing this thing, which was not -breathed at court, boldly brought to light. - - [Illustration: FOR SOME HALF SMILED AND HID THEIR SMILES AS BEST THEY - COULD] - -"Boy," said the King sternly, "hast no respect for them that be -appointed to sit in high places, nor awe before an anointed King?" - -"Yea, sire," answered Louis, marveling. - -"Dost come before my throne with slanderous tales of one on whom I lean -heavily and lovingly?" - -"Sire," he said bravely, "thou dost not know his cruel deeds. He hath -robbed and killed to the sickening of the heart." - -"Mayhap," said the King, "but he hath carried all before him with great -success, and so is the case altered. 'Tis a man of whom we have great -need, and the young should not speak ill of older folk." - -Then Louis of Lamont said never a word, but rose to his feet staggering, -for the knowledge he had gained of men came as hard blows about the -ears, and bending low, he turned away. - -"Stay!" cried the King. "Thy offense is great: thou hast spoken ill of a -public benefactor, yet if thou wilt hold thy tongue, nor repeat thy -silly tales, I will make thee one of my courtiers, and thou shalt go -brave in velvet and in jewels." - -But the youth shook his head and went forth alone from the -presence-chamber; all looked after him, with smiles and jeers and -whispered words of scorn. - -"'Sdeath!" cried the King. "'Tis a madman fit but for a dungeon, yet, -for the sake of my old friend, Guy of Lamont, can I not cast him there." - -The lad groped his way unevenly down the marble steps of the palace as -one gropes in a path that is full of pitfalls and has suddenly grown -dark, and he wandered, not knowing where, through the dark streets, -until he found himself in the square before the great cathedral. Here -many were passing with hands full of flowers, red roses and tall white -lilies and blue blossoms that grow pale among the wheat, for it was the -feast day of a saint, and they went to deck the altar which stood within -unfinished walls, that men might worship there under the blue sky. - -"I will tell them," said the lad; so he stood upon the cathedral steps -and repeated all the tale, and blossoms red and blossoms white were -dropped at his feet, as men and women clustered about to hear. - -"Ay!" they cried out, "we go hungry for this man, but who shall deliver -us from him? Horses and armor could we find, perchance. Wilt lead us to -him?" - -Then of a sudden he smiled, and ceased speaking because of the choking -in his throat; but after, he took up the tale and told it in the -market-place and before the Palace of Justice and wherever he could -gather folk together. - -As days passed, all this came to the ears of the King and of the Bishop -and of the nobles of the court, and grave head met with grave head, and -both were shaken solemnly in conference over this new peril which -threatened the kingdom. One morn there went throughout the city a crier, -who called aloud and read from a parchment in his hand to let men know -that Louis of Lamont, son of Sir Guy, was cast out from Holy Church for -slander of one of her greatest sons. Henceforward no man should give him -shelter, no woman food or drink, lest they too come under the ban; and -should he speak future evil words, his life would be forfeit. - -Yet one who loved him--and there were many--hid him; and the next day -and the next he wandered in the streets, begging men to rise in -vengeance against the Robber Chief. On the third day he was taken by -armed men, and the decree went forth that Louis of Lamont should, after -three days, be burned at the stake in the square of the Palace of -Justice. The youth smiled when he heard his doom; almost he was glad to -escape from a world which he had not logic enough to understand. - -So the day came when he should die, and it was a Friday of midsummer. In -the centre of the square stood an iron post to which criminals were wont -to be tied, and to this they bound him. Close about him were heaped -fagots of wood and dried branches, and within he stood in a motley -garment, and the look upon his face was as the coming of the day. All -about was a great press of people, merchant and butcher and -cloth-spinner, and peasant folk from the country round; and on a dais, -built high for better seeing, were knights and ladies and nobles of the -court, with the King himself, and the Gentle Robber at his side, trimly -clad in sober gray and gently smiling. - -It was a soft day of golden sun, and the sky was blue above the place, -and the least wind sighed softly as if for pity as it breathed about the -iron stake and played with the yellow locks of the young Squire's hair -and moved the red folds of the shameful garment that they had placed -upon him. Lifting his face, he leaned his cheek against the wind, for it -seemed to him a breeze that had played among the beech leaves in the -ancient forest by his father's hall, and in taking leave of it he said -farewell to his hound and to the woodland paths and to his father's -face. - -Now came a ghostly father, with a torch that flamed backward against the -blue day, and in the name of God and Holy Church he bent and kindled the -fagots. Then was there quick tumult and rush and stir through the -square, for all rushed forward to see and to hear, and little maids were -sorely trampled in the press by the great feet of smith and of -husbandman, and women's aprons were badly torn. None cared, for all knew -that saving grace was to be won for their own souls if their eyes but -caught a glimpse of an heretic that was being burned to death, and when -the fire leaped high into the air, they gave God thanks. There was a -flame in the young martyr's face that was not as the flame that leaped -about him; but smoke and fire were speedy with their work, and his head -bent over his breast, his body over the chain that bound him, and as his -soul went free, folk breathed deeply in relief, saying that an evil-doer -was dead. Upon the dais the King's broad face showed satisfaction; the -Bishop lifted his eyes to heaven, thanking God, then let them rest on -the gray stone walls of the cathedral, glad that now naught should -prevent the walls of God's house from rising. In all the great crowd, -none other was so devout and so thankful as the Gentle Robber, and his -mild blue eyes were moist with tears as he whispered to the King:-- - -"'Tis marvelous, the ways by which Providence brings evil-doers to -justice; ever the right prevails." - -[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF AN HERETIC BEING BURNED TO DEATH] - -Then all went to the cathedral, knight, squire, and lady in velvet and -in silk, the Bishop in holy robes of purple and of white, and common -folk in blue jean and plain linen, that special service might be held in -praise for this great deliverance, and the _Te Deum_ sung. - - - - - The Riverside Press - CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS - U . S . A - - - - - Transcriber Notes: - -Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. - -Passages in bold were indicated by =equal signs=. - -Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. - -Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the -speakers. Those words were retained as-is. - -The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up -paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. - -Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected -unless otherwise noted. - -On page 97, a single quotation mark was replaced with a double quotation -mark. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Princess Pourquoi, by Margaret Sherwood - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS POURQUOI *** - -***** This file should be named 52402-8.txt or 52402-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/4/0/52402/ - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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