{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21994/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21994","id":"gutenberg_21994","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21994","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: British Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Children's Literature","Children's stories","Fairy tales"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1893 J. W. Arrowsmith edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n{Book cover: p0.jpg}\n\n\n\n\n\nPRINCE RICARDO OF PANTOUFLIA\n\n\nBEING THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE\nPRIGIO'S SON, BY ANDREW LANG\nAUTHOR OF PRINCE PRIGIO\n\nILLUSTRATED BY\nGORDON BROWNE\n\nPUBLISHED AT BRISTOL BY J. W. ARROWSMITH,\nQUAY STREET, AND AT LONDON BY SIMPKIN,\nMARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & COMPANY LIMITED\n\n\n\n\nDEDICATION.\nTo Guy Campbell.\n\n\n_My dear Guy_,\n\n_You wanted to know more about Prince Prigio_, _who won the Lady\nRosalind_, _and killed the Firedrake and the Remora by aid of his Fairy\ngifts_.  _Here you have some of his later adventures_, _and you will\nlearn from this story the advantages of minding your book_.\n\n_Yours always_,\n_A. Lang_.\n\n{Andrew Lang's signature: p0v.jpg}\n\n\n\n\nIntroductory.\nExplaining Matters.\n\n\n{Decorative letter T: p0ix.jpg}\n\nThere may be children whose education has been so neglected that they\nhave not read _Prince Prigio_.  As this new story is about Prince\nPrigio's son, Ricardo, you are to learn that Prigio was the child and\nheir of Grognio, King of Pantouflia.  The fairies gave the little Prince\ncleverness, beauty, courage; but one wicked fairy added, \"You shall be\n_too_ clever.\"  His mother, the queen, hid away in a cupboard all the\nfairy presents,--the Sword of Sharpness, the Seven-League Boots, the\nWishing Cap, and many other useful and delightful gifts, in which her\nMajesty did not believe!  But after Prince Prigio had become universally\ndisliked and deserted, because he was so very clever and conceited, he\nhappened to find all the fairy presents in the old turret chamber where\nthey had been thrown.  By means of these he delivered his country from a\ndreadful Red-Hot Beast, called the Firedrake, and, in addition to many\nother triumphs, he married the good and beautiful Lady Rosalind.  His\nlove for her taught him not to be conceited, though he did not cease to\nbe extremely clever and fond of reading.\n\nWhen this new story begins the Prince has succeeded to the crown, on the\ndeath of King Grognio, and is unhappy about his own son, Prince Ricardo,\nwho is not clever, and who hates books!  The story tells of Ricardo's\nadventures: how he tried to bring back Prince Charlie to England, how he\nfailed; how he dealt with the odious old Yellow Dwarf; how he was aided\nby the fair magician, the Princess Jaqueline; how they both fell into a\ndreadful trouble; how King Prigio saved them; and how Jaqueline's dear\nand royal papa was discovered; with the end of all these adventures.  The\nmoral of the story will easily be discovered by the youngest reader, or,\nif not, it does not much matter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\nThe Troubles of King Prigio.\n\n\n{Prince Ricardo and lady tied up: p13.jpg}\n\n\"I'm sure I don't know what to do with that boy!\" said King Prigio of\nPantouflia.\n\n\"If _you_ don't know, my dear,\" said Queen Rosalind, his illustrious\nconsort, \"I can't see what is to be done.  You are so clever.\"\n\nThe king and queen were sitting in the royal library, of which the\nshelves were full of the most delightful fairy books in all languages,\nall equally familiar to King Prigio.  The queen could not read most of\nthem herself, but the king used to read them aloud to her.  A good many\nyears had passed--seventeen, in fact--since Queen Rosalind was married,\nbut you would not think it to look at her.  Her grey eyes were as kind\nand soft and beautiful, her dark hair as dark, and her pretty colour as\nlike a white rose blushing, as on the day when she was a bride.  And she\nwas as fond of the king as when he was only Prince Prigio, and he was as\nfond of her as on the night when he first met her at the ball.\n\n\"No, I don't know what to do with Dick,\" said the king.\n\nHe meant his son, Prince Ricardo, but he called him Dick in private.\n\n\"I believe it's the fault of his education,\" his Majesty went on.  \"We\nhave not brought him up rightly.  These fairy books are at the bottom of\nhis provoking behaviour,\" and he glanced round the shelves.  \"Now, when\n_I_ was a boy, my dear mother tried to prevent me from reading fairy\nbooks, because she did not believe in fairies.\"\n\n\"But she was wrong, you know,\" said the queen.  \"Why, if it had not been\nfor all these fairy presents, the Cap of Darkness and all the rest of\nthem, you never could have killed the Fire-beast and the Ice-beast,\nand--you never could have married me,\" the queen added, in a happy\nwhisper, blushing beautifully, for that was a foolish habit of hers.\n\n\"It is quite true,\" said the king, \"and therefore I thought it best to\nbring Dick up on fairy books, that he might know what is right, and have\nno nonsense about him.  But perhaps the thing has been overdone; at all\nevents, it is not a success.  I wonder if fathers and sons will ever\nunderstand each other, and get on well together?  There was my poor\nfather, King Grognio, he wanted me to take to adventures, like other\nprinces, fighting Firedrakes, and so forth; and I did not care for it,\ntill _you_ set me on,\" and he looked very kindly at her Majesty.  \"And\nnow, here's Dick,\" the monarch continued, \"I can't hold him back.  He is\nalways after a giant, or a dragon, or a magician, as the case may be; he\nwill certainly be ploughed for his examination at College.  Never opens a\nbook.  What does he care, off after every adventure he can hear about?  An\nidle, restless youth!  Ah, my poor country, when I am gone, what may not\nbe your misfortunes under Ricardo!\"\n\nHere his Majesty sighed, and seemed plunged in thought.\n\n\"But you are not going yet, my dear,\" said the queen.  \"Why you are not\nforty!  And young people will be young people.  You were quite proud when\npoor Dick came home with his first brace of gigantic fierce birds, killed\noff his own sword, and with such a pretty princess he had rescued--dear\nJaqueline?  I'm sure she is like a daughter to me.  I cannot do without\nher.\"\n\n\"I wish she were a daughter-in-law; I wish Dick would take a fancy to\nmarry her,\" said the king.  \"A nicer girl I never saw.\"\n\n\"And so accomplished,\" added Queen Rosalind.  \"That girl can turn herself\ninto anything--a mouse, a fly, a lion, a wheelbarrow, a church!  I never\nknew such talent for magic.  Of course she had the _best_ of teachers,\nthe Fairy Paribanou herself; but very few girls, in our time, devote so\nmany hours to _practice_ as dear Jaqueline.  Even now, when she is out of\nthe schoolroom, she still practises her scales.  I saw her turning little\nDollie into a fish and back again in the bath-room last night.  The child\nwas delighted.\"\n\nIn these times, you must know, princesses learned magic, just as they\nlearn the piano nowadays; but they had their music lessons too, dancing,\ncalisthenics, and the use of the globes.\n\n\"Yes, she's a dear, good girl,\" said the king; \"yet she looks melancholy.\nI believe, myself, that if Ricardo asked her to marry him, she would not\nsay 'No.' But that's just one of the things I object to most in Dick.\nRound the world he goes, rescuing ladies from every kind of horror--from\ndragons, giants, cannibals, magicians; and then, when a girl naturally\nexpects to be married to him, as is usual, off he rides!  He has no more\nheart than a flounder.  Why, at his age I--\"\n\n\"At his age, my dear, you were so hard-hearted that you were quite a\nproverb.  Why, I have been told that you used to ask girls dreadful\npuzzling questions, like 'Who was Caesar Borgia?'  'What do you know of\nEdwin and Morcar?' and so on.\"\n\n\"I had not seen _you_ then,\" said the king.\n\n\"And Ricardo has not seen _her_, whoever she may be.  Besides, he can't\npossibly marry all of them.  And I think a girl should consider herself\nlucky if she is saved from a dragon or a giant, without expecting to be\nmarried next day.\"\n\n\"Perhaps; but it is usual,\" said the king, \"and their families expect it,\nand keep sending ambassadors to know what Dick's intentions are.  I would\nnot mind it all so very much if he killed the monsters off his own sword,\nas he did that first brace, in fair fight.  But ever since he found his\nway into that closet where the fairy presents lie, everything has been\nmade too easy for him.  It is a royal road to glory, or giant-slaying\nmade easy.  In his Cap of Darkness a poor brute of a dragon can't see\nhim.  In his Shoes of Swiftness the giants can't catch him.  His Sword of\nSharpness would cut any oak asunder at a blow!\"\n\n\"But you were very glad of them when you made the Ice-beast and the Fire-\nbeast fight and kill each other,\" said the queen.\n\n\"Yes, my dear; but it wanted some wit, if I may say so, to do _that_, and\nDick just goes at it hammer and tongs: anybody could do it.  It's\n_intellect_ I miss in Ricardo.  How am I to know whether he could make a\ngood fight for it without all these fairy things?  I wonder what the\nyoung rogue is about to-day?  He'll be late for dinner, as usual, I\ndaresay.  I can't stand want of punctuality at meals,\" remarked his\nMajesty, which is a sign that he was growing old after all; for where is\nthe fun of being expected always to come home in time for dinner when,\nperhaps, you are fishing, and the trout are rising splendidly?\n\n\"Young people will be young people,\" said the queen.  \"If you are anxious\nabout him, why don't you look for him in the magic crystal?\"\n\nNow the magic crystal was a fairy present, a great ball of glass in\nwhich, if you looked, you saw the person you wanted to see, and what he\nwas doing, however far away he might be, if he was on the earth at all.\n{21}\n\n\"I'll just take a look at it,\" said the king; \"it only wants\nthree-quarters of an hour to dinner-time.\"\n\nHis Majesty rose, and walked to the crystal globe, which was in a stand,\nlike other globes.  He stared into it, he turned it round and round, and\nQueen Rosalind saw him grow quite pale as he gazed.\n\n\"I don't see him anywhere,\" said the king, \"and I have looked everywhere.\nI do hope nothing has happened to the boy.  He is so careless.  If he\ndropped his Cap of Darkness in a fight with a giant, why who knows what\nmight occur?\"\n\n\"Oh, 'Gio, how you frighten me!\" said the queen.\n\nKing Prigio was still turning the crystal globe.\n\n\"Stop!\" he cried; \"I see a beautiful princess, fastened by iron chains to\na rock beside the sea, in a lonely place.  They must have fixed her up as\na sacrifice to a sea-monster, like what's-her-name.\"\n\nThis proves how anxious he was, or, being so clever and learned, he would\nhave remembered that her name was Andromeda.\n\n\"I bet Dick is not far off, where there is an adventure on hand.  But\nwhere on earth can he be? . . .  My word!\" suddenly exclaimed the\nmonarch, in obvious excitement.\n\n\"What is it, dear?\" cried the queen, with all the anxiety of a mother.\n\n\"Why, the sea where the girl is, has turned all red as blood!\" exclaimed\nthe king.  \"Now it is all being churned up by the tail of a tremendous\nmonster.  He is a whopper!  He's coming on shore; the girl is fainting.\nHe's out on shore!  He is extremely poorly, blood rushing from his open\njaws.  He's dying!  And, hooray! here's Dick coming out of his enormous\nmouth, all in armour set with sharp spikes, and a sword in his hand.  He's\ncovered with blood, but he's well and hearty.  He must have been\nswallowed by the brute, and cut him up inside.  Now he's cutting the\nbeast's head off.  Now he's gone to the princess; a very neat bow he has\nmade her.  Dick's manners are positively improving!  Now he's cutting her\niron chains off with the Sword of Sharpness.  And now he's made her\nanother bow, and he's actually taking leave of her.  Poor thing!  How\ndisappointed she is looking.  And she's so pretty, too.  I say, Rosalind,\nshall I shout to him through the magic horn, and tell him to bring her\nhome here, on the magic carpet?\"\n\n\"I think not, dear; the palace is quite full,\" said the queen.  But the\nreal reason was that she wanted Ricardo to marry her favourite Princess\nJaqueline, and she did not wish the new princess to come in the way.\n\n\"As you like,\" said the king, who knew what was in her mind very well.\n\"Besides, I see her own people coming for her.  I'm sorry for her, but it\ncan't be helped, and Dick is half-way home by now on the Shoes of\nSwiftness.  I daresay he will not keep dinner waiting after all.  But\nwhat a fright the boy has given me!\"\n\nAt this moment a whirring in the air and a joyous shout were heard.  It\nwas Prince Ricardo flying home on his Seven-league Boots.\n\n\"Hi, Ross!\" he shouted, \"just weigh this beast's head.  I've had a\nsplendid day with a sea-monster.  Get the head stuffed, will you?  We'll\nhave it set up in the billiard-room.\"\n\n\"Yes, Master Dick--I mean your Royal Highness,\" said Ross, a Highland\nkeeper, who had not previously been employed by a Reigning Family.  \"It's\na fine head, whatever,\" he added, meditatively.\n\n{Ross weighing the beast's head: p28.jpg}\n\nPrince Ricardo now came beneath the library window, and gave his parents\na brief account of his adventure.\n\n\"I picked the monster up early in the morning,\" he said, \"through the\nmagic telescope, father.\"\n\n\"What country was he in?\" said the king.\n\n\"The country people whom I met called it Ethiopia.  They were niggers.\"\n\n\"And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, Ricardo?\"\n\n\"Oh! I don't know.  Asia, perhaps,\" answered the prince.\n\nThe king groaned.\n\n\"That boy will _never_ understand our foreign relations.  Ethiopia in\nAsia!\" he said to himself, but he did not choose to make any remark at\nthe moment.\n\nThe prince ran upstairs to dress.  On the stairs he met the Princess\nJaqueline.\n\n\"Oh, Dick! are you hurt?\" she said, turning very pale.\n\n\"No, not I; but the monster is.  I had a capital day, Jack; rescued a\nprincess, too.\"\n\n\"Was she--was she very pretty, Dick?\"\n\n\"Oh!  I don't know.  Pretty enough, I daresay.  Much like other girls.\nWhy, you look quite white!  What's the matter?  Now you look all right\nagain;\" for, indeed, the Princess Jaqueline was blushing.\n\n\"I must dress.  I'm ever so late,\" he said, hurrying upstairs; and the\nprincess, with a little sigh, went down to the royal drawing-room.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\nPrincess Jaqueline Drinks the Moon.\n\n\n{The King and the Prince: p30.jpg}\n\nWhen dinner was over and the ladies had left the room, the king tried to\nspeak _seriously_ to Prince Ricardo.  This was a thing which he disliked\ndoing very much.\n\n\"There's very little use in preaching,\" his Majesty used to say, \"to a\nman, or rather a boy, of another generation.  My taste was for books; I\nonly took to adventures because I was obliged to do it.  Dick's taste is\nfor adventures; I only wish some accident would make him take to books.\nBut everyone must get his experience for himself; and when he has got it,\nhe is lucky if it is not too late.  I wish I could see him in love with\nsome nice girl, who would keep him at home.\"\n\nThe king did not expect much from talking seriously to Dick.  However, he\nbegan by asking questions about the day's sport, which Ricardo answered\nwith modesty.  Then his Majesty observed that, from all he had ever read\nor heard, he believed Ethiopia, where the fight was, to be in Africa, not\nin Asia.\n\n\"I really wish, Ricardo, that you would attend to your geography a little\nmore.  It is most necessary to a soldier that he should know where his\nenemy is, and if he has to fight the Dutch, for instance, not to start\nwith his army for Central Asia.\"\n\n\"I could always spot them through the magic glass, father,\" said Dick;\n\"it saves such a lot of trouble.  I hate geography.\"\n\n\"But the glass might be lost or broken, or the Fairies might take it\naway, and then where are you?\"\n\n\"Oh, _you_ would know where to go, or Mr. Belsham.\"\n\nNow Mr. Belsham was his tutor, from Oxford.\n\n\"But I shall not always be here, and when I die--\"\n\n\"Don't talk of dying, sire,\" said Dick.  \"Why, you are not so very old;\nyou may live for years yet.  Besides, I can't stand the notion.  You must\nlive for ever!\"\n\n\"That sentiment is unusual in a Crown Prince,\" thought the king; but he\nwas pleased for all that.\n\n\"Well, to oblige you, I'll try to struggle against old age,\" he said;\n\"but there are always accidents.  Now, Dick, like a good fellow, and to\nplease me, work hard all to-morrow till the afternoon.  I'll come in and\nhelp you.  And there's always a splendid evening rise of trout in the\nlake just now, so you can have your play after your work.  You'll enjoy\nit more, and I daresay you are tired after a long day with the big game.\nIt used to tire me, I remember.\"\n\n\"I _am_ rather tired,\" said Dick; and indeed he looked a little pale, for\na day in the inside of a gigantic sea-monster is fatiguing, from the heat\nand want of fresh air which are usually found in such places.  \"I think\nI'll turn in; goodnight, my dear old governor,\" he said, in an\naffectionate manner, though he was not usually given to many words.\n\nThen he went and kissed his mother and the Princess Jaqueline, whom he\nengaged to row him on the lake next evening, while he fished.\n\n\"And don't you go muffing them with the landing-net, Jack, as you\ngenerally do,\" said his Royal Highness, as he lit his bedroom candle.\n\n\"I wish he would not call me Jack,\" said the princess to the queen.\n\n\"It's better than Lina, my dear,\" said her Majesty, who in late life had\nbecome fond of her little joke; \"that always sounds as if someone else\nwas fatter,--and I hope there is not someone else.\"\n\nThe princess was silent, and fixed her eyes on her book.\n\nPresently the king came in, and played a game with Lina at picquet.  When\nthey were all going to bed, he said:\n\n\"Just come into the study, Lina.  I want you to write a few letters for\nme.\"\n\nThe princess followed him and took her seat at the writing table.  The\nletters were very short.  One was to Herr Schnipp, tailor to the king and\nroyal family; another was to the royal swordmaker, another to the\nbootmaker, another to the optician, another to the tradesman who supplied\nthe august family with carpets and rugs, another to his Majesty's hatter.\nThey were all summoned to be at the palace early next morning.  Then his\nMajesty yawned, apologised, and went to bed.  The princess also went to\nher room, or bower as it was then called, but not to sleep.\n\nShe was unhappy that Dick did not satisfy his father, and that he was so\ncareless, and also about other things.\n\n\"And why does the king want all these tailors and hatters so suddenly,\ntelescope-makers and swordmakers and shoemakers, too?\" she asked herself,\nas she stood at the window watching the moon.\n\n\"I _could_ find out.  I could turn myself into a dog or a cat, and go\ninto the room where he is giving his orders.  But that is awkward, for\nwhen the servants see Rip\" (that was the dog) \"in two places at once,\nthey begin to think the palace is haunted, and it makes people talk.\nBesides, I know it is wrong to listen to what one is not meant to hear.\nIt is often difficult to be a magician and a good girl.  The temptations\nare so strong, stronger than most people allow for.\"  So she remained,\nwith the moon shining on her pretty yellow hair and her white dress,\nwondering what the king intended to do, and whether it was something that\nDick would not like.\n\n\"How stupid of me,\" she said at length, \"after all the lessons I have\nhad.  Why, I can _drink the moon_!\"\n\nNow, this is a way of knowing what anyone else is thinking of and intends\nto do, for the moon sees and knows everything.  Whether it is _quite\nfair_ is another matter; but, at all events, it is not _listening_.  And\nanyone may see that, if you are a magician, like the Princess Jaqueline,\na great many difficult questions as to what is right and wrong at once\noccur which do not trouble other people.  King Prigio's secret, why he\nsent for the tailor and the other people, was his own secret.  The\nprincess decided that she would not find it out by turning herself into\nRip or the cat (whose name was Semiramis), and, so far, she was quite\nright.  But she was very young, and it never occurred to her that it was\njust as wrong to find out what the king meant by _drinking the moon_ as\nby listening in disguise.  As she grew older she learned to know better;\nbut this is just the danger of teaching young girls magic, and for that\nvery reason it has been given up in most countries.\n\nHowever, the princess did not think about right and wrong, unluckily.  She\nwent to the bookcase and took down her _Cornelius Agrippa_, in one great\ntall black volume, with silver clasps which nobody else could open; for,\nas the princess said, there are books which it would never do to leave\nlying about where the servants or anybody could read them.  Nobody could\nundo the clasps, however strong or clever he might be; but the princess\njust breathed on them and made a sign, and the book flew open at the\nright place--Book IV., chapter vi., about the middle of page 576.\n\nThe magic spell was in Latin, of course; but the princess knew Latin very\nwell, and soon she had the magic song by heart.  Then she closed the book\nand put it back on the shelf.  Then she threw open the window and drew\nback the curtains, and put out all the lights except two scented candles\nthat burned with a white fire under a round mirror with a silver frame,\nopposite the window.  And into that mirror the moon shone white and full,\nfilling all the space of it, so that the room was steeped in a strange\nsilver light.  Now the whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and\ntrembling; and as it trembled it sounded and rang with a low silver\nmusic, as if it were filled with the waves of the sea.\n\nThen the princess took a great silver basin, covered with strange black\nsigns and figures raised in the silver.  She poured water into the basin,\nand as she poured it she sang the magic spell from the Latin book.  It\nwas something like this, in English:\n\n   \"Oh Lady Moon, on the waters riding,\n      On shining waters, in silver sheen,\n   Show me the secret the heart is hiding,\n      Show me the truth of the thought, oh Queen!\n\n   \"Oh waters white, where the moon is riding,\n      That knows what shall be and what has been,\n   Tell me the secret the heart is hiding,\n      Wash me the truth of it, clear and clean!\"\n\nAs she sang the water in the silver basin foamed and bubbled, and then\nfell still again; and the princess knelt in the middle of the room, and\nthe moon and the white light from the mirror of the moon fell in the\nwater.\n\nThen the princess raised the basin, and stooped her mouth to it and drank\nthe water, spilling a few drops, and so she _drank the moon_ and the\nknowledge of the moon.  Then the moon was darkened without a cloud, and\nthere was darkness in the sky for a time, and all the dogs in the world\nbegan to howl.  When the moon shone again, the princess rose and put out\nthe two white lights, and drew the curtains; and presently she went to\nbed.\n\n{The Princess drinks the Moon: p41.jpg}\n\n\"Now I know all about it,\" she said.  \"It is clever; everything the king\ndoes is clever, and he is so kind that I daresay he does not mean any\nharm.  But it seems a cruel trick to play on poor Ricardo.  However,\nJaqueline is on the watch, and I'll show them a girl can do more than\npeople think,\"--as, indeed, she could.\n\nAfter meditating in this way, the princess fell sleep, and did not waken\ntill her maid came to call her.\n\n\"Oh! your Royal Highness, what's this on the floor?\" said the faithful\nRosina, as she was arranging the princess's things for her to get up.\n\n\"Why, what is it?\" asked the princess.\n\n\"Ever so many--four, five, six, seven--little shining drops of silver\nlying on the carpet, as if they had melted and fallen there!\"\n\n\"They have not hurt the carpet?\" said the princess.  \"Oh dear! the queen\nwon't be pleased at all.  It was a little chemical experiment I was\ntrying last night.\"\n\nBut she knew very well that she must have dropped seven drops of the\nenchanted water.\n\n\"No, your Royal Highness, the carpet is not harmed,\" said Rosina; \"only\nyour Royal Highness should do these things in the laboratory.  Her\nMajesty has often spoke about it.\"\n\n\"You are quite right,\" said the princess; \"but as there is no harm done,\nwe'll say nothing about it this time.  And, Rosina, you may keep the\nsilver drops for yourself.\"\n\n\"Your Royal Highness is always very kind,\" said Rosina, which was true;\nbut how much better and wiser it is not to _begin_ to deceive!  We never\nknow how far we may be carried, and so Jaqueline found out.\n\nFor when she went down to breakfast, there was the king in a great state\nof excitement, for him.\n\n\"It's _most_ extraordinary,\" said his Majesty.\n\n\"What is?\" asked the queen.\n\n\"Why, didn't you notice it?  No, you had gone to bed before it happened.\nBut I was taking a walk in the moonlight, on the balcony, and I observed\nit carefully.\"\n\n\"Observed what, my dear?\" asked the queen, who was pouring out the tea.\n\n\"Didn't you see it, Dick?  Late as usual, you young dog!\" the king\nremarked as Ricardo entered the room.\n\n\"See what, sir?\" said Dick.\n\n\"Oh, you were asleep hours before, now I think of it!  But it was _the_\nmost extraordinary thing, an unpredicted eclipse of the moon!  You must\nhave noticed it, Jaqueline; you sat up later.  How the dogs howled!\"\n\n\"No; I mean yes,\" murmured poor Jaqueline, who of course had caused the\nwhole affair by her magic arts, but who had forgotten, in the excitement\nof the moment, that an eclipse of the moon, especially if entirely\nunexpected, is likely to attract very general attention.  Jaqueline could\nnot bear to tell a fib, especially to a king who had been so kind to her;\nbesides, fibbing would not alter the facts.\n\n\"Yes, I did see it,\" she admitted, blushing.  \"Had it not been\npredicted?\"\n\n\"Not a word about it whispered anywhere,\" said his Majesty.  \"I looked up\nthe almanack at once.  It is the most extraordinary thing I ever saw, and\nI've seen a good many.\"\n\n\"The astronomers must be duffers,\" said Prince Ricardo.  \"I never thought\nthere was much in physical science of any sort; most dreary stuff.  Why,\nthey say the earth goes round the sun, whereas any fool can see it is\njust the other way on.\"\n\nKing Prigio was struck aghast by these sentiments in the mouth of his son\nand heir, the hope of Pantouflia.  But what was the king to say in reply?\nThe astronomers of Pantouflia, who conceived that they knew a great deal,\nhad certainly been taken by surprise this time.  Indeed, they have not\nyet satisfactorily explained this eclipse of the moon, though they have\nwritten volumes about it.\n\n\"Why, it may be the sun next!\" exclaimed his Majesty.  \"Anything may\nhappen.  The very laws of gravitation themselves may go askew!\"\n\nAt this moment the butler, William, who had been in the queen's family\nwhen she was a girl, entered, and announced:\n\n\"Some of the royal tradesmen, by appointment, to see your Majesty.\"\n\nSo the king, who had scarcely eaten any breakfast, much to the annoyance\nof the queen, who was not agitated by eclipses, went out and joined the\ntailors and the rest of them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\nThe Adventure of the Shopkeepers.\n\n\n{Man with sword: p48.jpg}\n\nDick went on with his breakfast.  He ate cold pastry, and poached eggs,\nand ham, and rolls, and raspberry jam, and hot cakes; and he drank two\ncups of coffee.  Meanwhile the king had joined the tradesmen who attended\nby his orders.  They were all met in the royal study, where the king made\nthem a most splendid bow, and requested them to be seated.  But they\ndeclined to sit in his sacred presence, and the king observed that, in\nthat case he must stand up.\n\n\"I have invited you here, gentlemen,\" he said, \"on a matter of merely\nprivate importance, but I must request that you will be entirely silent\nas to the nature of your duties.  It is difficult, I know, not to talk\nabout one's work, but in this instance I am sure you will oblige me.\"\n\n\"Your Majesty has only to command,\" said Herr Schnipp.  \"There have been\nmonarchs, in neighbouring kingdoms, who would have cut off all our heads\nafter we had done a bit of secret business; but the merest word of your\nMajesty is law to your loving subjects.\"\n\nThe other merchants murmured assent, for King Prigio was really liked by\nhis people.  He was always good-tempered and polite.  He never went to\nwar with anybody.  He spent most of the royal income on public objects,\nand of course there were scarcely any taxes to speak of.  Moreover, he\nhad abolished what is called compulsory education, or making everybody go\nto school whether he likes it or not; a most mischievous and tyrannical\nmeasure!  \"A fellow who can't teach himself to read,\" said the king, \"is\nnot worth teaching.\"\n\nFor all these reasons, and because they were so fond of the queen, his\nsubjects were ready to do anything in reason for King Prigio.\n\nOnly one tradesman, bowing very deep and blushing very much, said:\n\n\"Your Majesty, will you hear me for one moment?\"\n\n\"For an hour, with pleasure, Herr Schmidt,\" said the monarch.\n\n\"It is an untradesman-like and an unusual thing to decline an order; and\nif your Majesty asked for my heart's blood, I am ready to shed it, not to\nspeak of anything in the line of my business--namely, boot and shoe\nmaking.  But keep a secret from my wife, I fairly own to your Majesty\nthat I can _not_.\"\n\nHerr Schmidt went down on his knees and wept.\n\n{Herr Schmidt went down on his knees: p52.jpg}\n\n\"Rise, Herr Schmidt,\" said the king, taking him by the hand.  \"A more\nhonourable and chivalrous confession of an amiable weakness, if it is to\nbe called a weakness, I never heard.  Sir, you have been true to your\nhonour and your prince, in face of what few men can bear, the chance of\nridicule.  There is no one here, I hope, but respects and will keep the\nsecret of Herr Schmidt's confession?\"\n\nThe assembled shopkeepers could scarcely refrain from tears.\n\n\"Long live King Prigio the Good!\" they exclaimed, and vowed that\neverything should be kept dark.\n\n\"Indeed, sire,\" said the swordmaker, \"all the rest of us are bachelors.\"\n\n\"That is none the worse for my purpose gentlemen,\" said his Majesty; \"but\nI trust that you will not long deprive me of sons and subjects worthy to\nsucceed to such fathers.  And now, if Herr Schmidt will kindly find his\nway to the buttery, where refreshments are ready, I shall have the\npleasure of conducting you to the scene of your labours.\"\n\nThus speaking, the king, with another magnificent bow, led the way\nupstairs to a little turret-room, in a deserted part of the palace.\nBidding the tradesmen enter, he showed them a large collection of\nmiscellaneous things: an old cap or two, a pair of boots of a sort long\nout of fashion, an old broadsword, a shabby old Persian rug, an ivory spy-\nglass, and other articles.  These were, in fact, the fairy presents,\nwhich had been given to the king at his christening, and by aid of which\n(and his natural acuteness) he had, in his youth, succeeded in many\nremarkable adventures.\n\nThe caps were the Wishing Cap and the Cap of Darkness.  The rug was the\nfamous carpet which carried its owner through the air wherever he wished\nto go.  The sword was the Sword of Sharpness.  The ivory glass showed you\nanyone you wanted to see, however far off.  The boots were the\nSeven-league Boots, which Hop-o'-my-Thumb stole from the Ogre about 1697.\nThere were other valuable objects, but these were the most useful and\ncelebrated.  Of course the king did not tell the tradesmen what they\nwere.\n\n\"Now, gentlemen,\" said his Majesty, \"you see these old things.  For\nreasons which I must ask you to excuse me for keeping to myself, I wish\nyou to provide me with objects exactly and precisely similar to these,\nwith all the look of age.\"\n\nThe tradesmen examined the objects, each choosing that in his own line of\nbusiness.\n\n\"As to the sword, sire,\" said the cutler, \"it is an Andrea Ferrara, a\nfine old blade.  By a lucky accident, I happen to have one at home in a\nsmall collection of ancient weapons, exactly like it.  This evening it\nshall be at your Majesty's disposal.\"\n\n\"Perhaps, Herr Schnitzler, you will kindly write an order for it, as I\nwish no one of you to leave the palace, if you can conveniently stay,\ntill your business is finished.\"\n\n\"With pleasure, your Majesty,\" says the cutler.\n\n\"As to the old rug,\" said the upholsterer, \"I have a Persian one quite\nidentical with it at home, at your Majesty's service.\"\n\n\"Then you can do like Herr Schnitzler,\" who was the cutler.\n\n\"And I,\" said the hatter, \"have two old caps just like these, part of a\nbankrupt theatrical stock.\"\n\n\"We are most fortunate,\" said the king.\n\n\"The boots, now I come to think of it, are unimportant, at least for the\npresent.  Perhaps we can borrow a pair from the theatre.\"\n\n\"As for the glass,\" said the optician, \"if your Majesty will allow me to\ntake it home with me--\"\n\n\"I am afraid I cannot part with it,\" said the king; \"but that, too, is\nunimportant, or not very pressing.\"\n\nThen he called for a servant, to order luncheon for the shopkeepers, and\npaper for them to write their orders on.  But no one was within hearing,\nand in that very old part of the palace there were no bells.\n\n\"Just pardon me for an instant, while I run downstairs,\" said his\nMajesty; \"and, it seems a strange thing to ask, but may I advise you not\nto sit down on that carpet?  I have a reason for it.\"\n\nIn fact, he was afraid that someone might sit down on it, and wish he was\nsomewhere else, and be carried away, as was the nature of the carpet.\n\nKing Prigio was not absent a minute, for he met William on the stairs;\nbut when he came back, there was not one single person in the\nturret-room!\n\n\"Where on earth are they?\" cried the king, rushing through all the rooms\nin that part of the castle.  He shouted for them, and looked everywhere;\nbut there was not a trace of tailor, hatter, optician, swordmaker,\nupholsterer.\n\nThe king hastened to a window over the gate, and saw the sentinels on\nduty.\n\n\"Hi!\" he called.\n\nAnd the sentinels turned round, looked up, and saluted.\n\n\"Have you seen anyone go out?\" he cried.\n\n\"No one, sire,\" answered the soldiers.\n\nThe king, who began to guess what had happened, hurried back to the\nturret-room.\n\nThere were all the tradesmen with parcels under their arms.\n\n\"What means this, gentlemen?\" said his Majesty, severely.  \"For what\nreason did you leave the room without my permission?\"\n\nThey all knelt down, humbly imploring his compassion.\n\n\"Get up, you donkeys!\" said the king, forgetting his politeness.  \"Get\nup, and tell me where you have been hiding yourselves.\"\n\nThe hatter came forward, and said:\n\n\"Sire, you will not believe me; indeed, I can scarcely believe it\nmyself!\"\n\n\"Nor none of us can't,\" said the swordmaker.  \"We have been home, and\nbrought the articles.  All orders executed with punctuality and\ndispatch,\" he added, quoting his own advertisement without thinking of\nit.\n\nOn this the swordmaker took out and exhibited the Andrea Ferrara blade,\nwhich was exactly like the Sword of Sharpness.\n\nThe upholsterer undid his parcel, and there was a Persian rug, which no\none could tell from the magical carpet.\n\nThe hatter was fumbling with the string of his parcel, when he suddenly\nremembered, what the king in his astonishment had not noticed, that he\nhad a cap on himself.  He pulled it off in a hurry, and the king at once\nsaw that it was his Wishing Cap, and understood all about the affair.  The\nhatter, in his absence, had tried on the Wishing Cap, and had wished that\nhe himself and his friends were all at home and back again with their\nwares at the palace.  And what he wished happened, of course, as was\nnatural.  In a moment the king saw how much talk this business would\nproduce in the country, and he decided on the best way to stop it.\n\nSeizing the Wishing Cap, he put it on, wished all the tradesmen,\nincluding the shoemaker, back in the town at their shops, and also wished\nthat none of them should remember anything about the whole affair.\n\nIn a moment he was alone in the turret-room.  As for the shopkeepers,\nthey had a kind of idea that they had dreamed something odd; but, as it\nwent no further, of course they did not talk about it, and nobody was any\nthe wiser.\n\n\"Owl that I am!\" said King Prigio to himself.  \"I might have better\nwished for a complete set of sham fairy things which would not work.  It\nwould have saved a great deal of trouble; but I am so much out of the\nhabit of using the cap, that I never thought of it.  However, what I have\ngot will do very well.\"\n\nThen, putting on the Cap of Darkness, that nobody might see him, he\ncarried all the _real_ fairy articles away, except the Seven-league\nBoots, to his own room, where he locked them up, leaving in their place\nthe sham Wishing Cap, the sham Cap of Darkness, the sham Sword of\nSharpness, and the carpet which was not a magic carpet at all.\n\nHis idea was, of course, that Ricardo would start on an expedition\nconfiding in his fairy things, and he would find that they did not act.\nThen he would be left to his own cleverness and courage to get him out of\nthe scrape.  That would teach him, thought the king, to depend on\nhimself, and to set a proper value on cleverness and learning, and\nminding his book.\n\nOf course he might have locked the things up, and forbidden Ricardo to\ntouch them, but that might have seemed harsh.  And, as you may easily\nimagine, with all the powers at his command, the king fancied he could\neasily rescue Ricardo from any very serious danger at the hands of giants\nor magicians or monsters.  He only wanted to give him a fright or two,\nand make him respect the judgment of older and wiser people than himself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\nTwo Lectures.\n\n\n{The Prince with the telescope: p64.jpg}\n\nFor several days Prince Ricardo minded his books, and, according to his\ntutors, made considerable progress in polite learning.  Perhaps he ought\nnot to be praised too highly for this, because, in fact, he saw no means\nof distinguishing himself by adventures just at that time.  Every morning\nhe would climb the turret and sweep the horizon, and even _much_ beyond\nthe horizon, with the ivory spy-glass.  But look as he would, he saw no\nmonsters preying on human-kind anywhere, nor princesses in distress.  To\nbe sure he saw plenty of poor people in distress, and, being a\ngood-hearted, though careless, lad, Dick would occasionally fly off with\nthe Purse of Fortunatus in his pocket, and give them as much money as\nthey needed--it cost him nothing.  But this was not the kind of adventure\nwhich he enjoyed.  Dragons for his money!\n\nOne day the Princess Jaqueline took a curious plan of showing Ricardo how\nlittle interest, after all, there is in performing the most wonderful\nexploits without any real difficulty or danger.  They were drifting\nbefore a light breeze on a hill lake; Ricardo was fishing, and Jaqueline\nwas sculling a stroke now and then, just to keep the boat right with the\nwind.  Ricardo had very bad sport, when suddenly the trout began to rise\nall over the lake.  Dick got excited, and stumbled about the boat from\nstern to bow, tripping over Jaqueline's feet, and nearly upsetting the\nvessel in his hurry to throw his flies over every trout he saw feeding.\n\n{Drifting in a light breeze: p66.jpg}\n\nBut, as too often occurs, they were taking one particular fly which was\non the water, and would look at nothing else.\n\n\"Oh, bother them!\" cried Ricardo.  \"I can't find a fly in my book in the\nleast like that little black one they are feeding on!\"\n\nHe tried half-a-dozen different fly-hooks, but all to no purpose; he lost\nhis temper, got his tackle entangled in Jaqueline's hair and then in the\nlanding-net; and, though such a big boy, he was nearly crying with\nvexation.\n\nThe Princess Jaqueline, with great pains and patience, disentangled the\ncasting line, first from her hair, which Ricardo was anxious to cut (the\ngreat stupid oaf,--her pretty hair!) then from the landing-net; but Dick\nhad grown sulky.\n\n\"It's no use,\" he said; \"I have not a fly that will suit.  Let's go\nhome,\" and he threw a tin can at a rising trout.\n\n\"Now, Dick,\" said Jaqueline, \"you know I can help you.  I did not learn\nmagic for nothing.  Just you look the other way for a minute or two, and\nyou will find the right fly at the end of your line.\"\n\nDick turned his head away (it is not proper to look on at magical arts),\nand then in a moment, saw the right hook on his cast; but Jaqueline was\nnot in the boat.  She had turned herself into an artificial fly (a small\nblack gnat), and Dick might set to his sport again.\n\n\"What a trump that girl is,\" he said aloud.  \"Clever, too!\" and he began\ncasting.  He got a trout every cast, great big ones, over a pound, and\nsoon he had a basketful.  But he began to feel rather bored.\n\n\"There's not much fun taking them,\" he said, \"when they are so silly.\"\n\nAt that very moment he noticed that the fly was off his cast, and\nJaqueline was sitting at the oars.\n\n\"You see, Ricardo,\" she said, \"I was right after all.  There is not much\npleasure in sport that is easy and certain.  Now, apply this moral to\ndragon-killing with magic instruments.  It may be useful when one is\nobliged to defend oneself, but surely a prince ought not to give his\nwhole time to nothing else!\"\n\nDick had no answer ready, so he only grumbled:\n\n\"You're always preaching at me, Jack; everybody always is.  I seem to\nhave been born just to be preached at.\"\n\nSome people are; and it does grow rather tedious in the long run.  But\nperhaps what Jaqueline said may have made some impression on Ricardo, for\nhe stuck to his books for weeks, and was got into decimal fractions and\nEuclid.\n\nAll this, of course, pleased the king very much, and he began to\nentertain hopes of Ricardo's becoming a wise and learned prince, and a\ncredit to his illustrious family.\n\nThings were not always to go smoothly, far from it; and it was poor\nJaqueline who fell into trouble next.  She had been very ready to lecture\nDick, as we saw, and took a good deal of credit to herself for his\nsteadiness.  But one day King Prigio happened to meet Jaqueline's maid,\nRosina, on the stairs; and as Rosina was a pretty girl, and the king was\nalways kind to his dependents, he stopped to have a chat with her.\n\n\"Why, Rosina, what a pretty little silver cross you are wearing,\" he\nsaid, and he lifted a curious ornament which hung from a chain on\nRosina's neck.  It consisted of seven drops of silver, set like this:\n\n{The drops: p72.jpg}\n\n \"May I look at it?\" his Majesty asked, and Rosina, all in a flutter,\ntook it off and gave if to him.  \"H'm!\" said the king.  \"Very curious and\npretty!  May I ask you where you got this, Rosina?\"\n\n{\"H'm!\" said the king.  \"Very curious and pretty!\": p73.jpg}\n\nNow Rosina generally had her answer ready, and I am very sorry to say\nthat she did not always speak the truth when she could think of anything\nbetter.  On this occasion she was anxious to think of something better,\nfor fear of getting Jaqueline into a scrape about the chemical experiment\nin her bedroom.  But Rosina was fluttered, as we said, by the royal\nkindness, and she could think of nothing but to curtsy, and say:\n\n\"Please, your Majesty, the princess gave me the drops.\"\n\n\"Very interesting,\" said the king.  \"There is a little white moon shining\nin each of them!  I wonder if they shine in the dark?\"\n\nHe opened the door of a cupboard which had no windows, where the\nhousemaid kept her mops and brooms, and shut himself in.  Yes, there was\nno mistake; the darkness was quite lighted up with the sheen of the seven\nlittle moons in the silver.  The king looked rather grave.\n\n\"If you can trust me with this cross till to-morrow, Rosina, I should\nlike to have it examined and analysed.  This is no common silver.\"\n\nOf course Rosina could only curtsy, but she was very much alarmed about\nthe consequences to her mistress.\n\nAfter luncheon, the king asked Jaqueline to come into his study, as he\noften did, to help him with his letters.  When they had sat down his\nMajesty said:\n\n\"My dear Jaqueline, I never interfere with your pursuits, but I almost\ndoubt whether _Cornelius Agrippa_ is a good book for a very young lady to\nread.  The Fairy Paribanou, I am sure, taught you nothing beyond the\nordinary magical accomplishments suited to your rank; but there are a\ngreat many things in the _Cornelius_ which I think you should not study\ntill you are older and wiser.\"\n\n\"What does your Majesty mean?\" said poor Jaqueline, feeling very\nuncomfortable; for the king had never lectured her before.\n\n\"Why,\" said his Majesty, taking the silver cross out of his pocket, \"did\nyou not give this to Rosina?\"\n\n\"Yes, sire, I did give her the drops.  She had them made up herself.\"\n\n\"Then give it back to her when you see her next.  I am glad you are\nfrank, Jaqueline.  And you know, of course, that the drops are not\nordinary silver?  They are moon silver, and that can only be got in one\nway, so far as I know, at least--when one spills the water when he, or\nshe, is drinking the moon.  Now, there is only one book which tells how\nthat can be done, and there is only one reason for doing it; namely, to\nfind out what is some other person's secret.  I shall not ask you _whose_\nsecret you wanted to find out, but I must request you never to do such a\nthing again without consulting me.  You can have no reason for it, such\nas a great king might have whose enemies are plotting against his\ncountry.\"\n\n\"Oh, sire, I will tell you everything!\" cried Jaqueline.\n\n\"No, don't; I don't want to know.  I am sure you will make no use of your\ninformation which you think I should not approve of.  But there is\nanother thing--that eclipse of the moon!  Oh, Jaqueline, was it\nhonourable, or fair to the astronomers and men of science, to say nothing\nabout it?  Their European reputations are seriously injured.\"\n\nPoor Jaqueline could only cry.\n\n\"Never mind,\" said his Majesty, comforting her.  \"There is no great harm\ndone yet, and perhaps they would not believe you if you did explain; but\njust think, if some people ceased to believe in Science, what would they\nhave left to believe in?  But you are young, of course, and cannot be\nexpected to think of everything.\"\n\n\"I never thought about it at all,\" wept Jaqueline.\n\n\"'Evil is wrought by want of thought,'\" said the king, quoting the poet.\n\"Now run away, dry your tears, and I think you had better bring me that\nbook, and I'll put it back in one of the locked-up shelves.  Later, when\nyou are older, we shall see about it.\"\n\nThe princess flew to her room, and returned with her book.  And the king\nkissed her, and told her to go and see if her Majesty meant to take a\ndrive.\n\n\"I'll never deceive him again, never . . . unless it is _quite_\nnecessary,\" said the princess to herself.  \"Indeed, it is not so easy to\ndeceive the king.  What a lot he has read!\"\n\nIn fact, King Prigio had been very studious when a young man, before he\ncame to the throne.\n\n\"Poor child!\" thought the king.  \"No doubt she was trying her fortune,\nwondering if Ricardo cares for her a little.  Of course I could not let\nher tell me _that_, poor child!\"\n\nIn this guess, as we know, his Majesty was mistaken, which seldom\nhappened to him.\n\n\"I wonder who she is?\" the king went on speaking to himself.  \"That great\nbooby, Ricardo, saved her from wild birds, which were just going to eat\nher.  She was fastened to a mountain top, but _where_? that's the\nquestion.  Ricardo never has any notion of geography.  It was across the\nsea, he noticed _that_; but which sea,--Atlantic, Pacific, the Black Sea,\nthe Caspian, the Sea of Marmora, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the\nGerman Ocean, the Mediterranean?  Her ornaments were very peculiar; there\nwas a broad gold sun on her breast.  I must look at them again some day.\nShe said she was being sacrificed to wild birds (which her people\nworshipped), because there was some famine, or war, or trouble in the\ncountry.  She said she was a Daughter of the Sun; but that, of course, is\nabsurd, unless--By Jove!  I believe I have it,\" said the king, and he\nwent into the royal library and was looking for some old Spanish book,\nwhen his secretary came and said that the Russian Ambassador was waiting\nfor an interview with his Majesty.\n\n\"Dismal old Muscovite!\" sighed the king.  \"A monarch has not a moment to\nhimself for his private studies.  Ah, Prigio! why wert thou not born to a\nprivate station?  But Duty before everything,\" and wreathing his royal\ncountenance in smiles, his Majesty prepared to give Count Snoreonski an\naudience.\n\nIt was all about the attitude of Pantouflia in the event of a Polish\ninvasion of Russia.  The king reassured Count Snoreonski, affirming that\nPantouflia, while deeply regretting the disturbed relations between two\nStates in whose welfare she was deeply interested, would ever preserve an\nattitude of benevolent neutrality, unless her own interests were\nthreatened.\n\n\"I may give your message to my august mistress, the Czarina?\" said the\nambassador.\n\n\"By all means, adding an expression of my tender interest in her\nMajesty's health and welfare,\" said the king, presenting the count at the\nsame time with a magnificent diamond snuffbox containing his portrait.\n\nThe old count was affected to tears, and withdrew, while King Prigio\nsaid:\n\n\"I have not lost a day; I have made an amiable but very stupid man\nhappy.\"\n\nSuch are, or rather such were, the toils of monarchs!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\nPrince Ricardo Crosses the Path of History.\n\n\n{Hand reaching for a crown with wings: p83.jpg}\n\n\"I say, Jack,\" said Prince Ricardo one morning, \"here's a queer letter\nfor me!\"\n\nKing Prigio had gone to a distant part of his dominions, on business of\nimportance, and the young people were sitting in the royal study.  The\nletter, which Ricardo handed to Jaqueline, was written on a great broad\nsheet of paper, folded up without any envelope, as was the custom then,\nand was sealed with a huge seal in red wax.\n\n\"I don't know the arms,\" Ricardo said.\n\n\"Oh, Ricardo, how you _do_ neglect your Heraldry!  Old Green Stocking is\nin despair over your ignorance.\"\n\nNow Green Stocking was the chief herald of Pantouflia, just like Blue\nMantle in England.\n\n\"Why, these are the Royal Arms of England, you great ignorant Dick!\"\n\n\"But Rome isn't in England, is it?--and the post-mark is 'Roma': that's\nRome in some lingo, I expect.  It is in Latin, anyhow, I know.  _Mortuus\nest Romae_--'He died at Rome.'  It's in the Latin Grammar.  Let's see\nwhat the fellow says, anyhow,\" added Ricardo, breaking the seal.\n\n\"He begins, 'Prins and dear Cousin!'  I say, Jaqueline, he spells it\n'Prins;' now it is P-R-I-N-C-E.  He _must_ be an ignorant fellow!\"\n\n\"People in glass houses should not throw stones, Dick,\" said Jaqueline.\n\n\"He signs himself 'Charles, P. W.,'\" said Ricardo, looking at the end.\n\"Who on earth can he be?  Why does he not put 'P. W. Charles,' if these\nare his initials?  Look here, it's rather a long letter; you might read\nit to us, Jack!\"\n\nThe princess took the epistle and began:\n\n\"How nice it smells, all scented!  The paper is gilt-edged, too.\"\n\n\"Luxurious beggar, whoever he is,\" said Ricardo.\n\n\"Well, he says: 'Prins and dear Cousin,--You and me' (oh, what grammar!)\n'are much the same age, I being fifteen next birthday, and we should be\nbetter _ackwainted_.  All the wurld has herd of the fame of Prins\nRicardo, whose name is _feerd_, and his _sord_ dreded, wherever there are\nMonsters and Tirants.  Prins, you may be less well informed about my\nsituation.  I have not killed any Dragguns, there being nun of them here;\nbut I have been _under fiar_, at Gaeta.'  Where's Gaeta, Dick?\"\n\n\"Never heard of it,\" said Ricardo.\n\n\"Well, it is in Italy, and it was besieged lately.  He goes on: 'and I am\ntold that I did not misbehave myself, nor disgrace _the blud of Bruce_.'\"\n\n\"I've heard of Robert Bruce,\" said Dick; \"he was the man who did not kill\nthe spider, but he cracked the head of Sir Harry Bohun with one whack of\nhis axe.  I remember _him_ well enough.\"\n\n\"Well, your correspondent seems to be a descendant of his.\"\n\n\"That's getting more interesting,\" said Dick.  \"I wish my father would go\nto war with somebody.  With the Sword of Sharpness I'd make the enemy\nwhistle!  Drive on, Jack.\"\n\n\"'As a prins in distress, I apeal to your valler, so renouned in Europe.\nI am kept out of my own; my royal father, King Gems,'--well, this is the\nworst spelling I ever saw in my life!  He means King _James_,--'my royal\nfather, King Gems, being druv into exile by a crewl Usurper, the Elector\nof Hannover.  King Gems is _old_, and likes a quiat life; but I am\ndetermined to make an effort, if I go alone, and Europe shall here of\nPrince Charles.  Having heard--as who has not?--of your royal Highness's\ncourage and sordsmanship, I throw myself at your feet, and implore you to\nasist a prins in distres.  Let our sords be drawn together in the caus of\nfreedom and an outraged country, my own.\n\n\"'I remain,\n\"'Prins and dear Cuzen,\n\"'CHARLES, P. W.'\n\n\"P. W. means Prince of Wales,\" added Jaqueline.  \"He is turned out of\nEngland you know, and lives at Rome with his father.\"\n\n\"I like that chap,\" said Prince Ricardo.  \"He does not spell very well,\nas you say, but I sometimes make mistakes myself; and I like his spirit.\nI've been looking out for an adventure; but the big game is getting shy,\nand my sword rusts in his scabbard.  I'll tell you what, Jack--I've an\nidea!  I'll put him on the throne of his fathers; it's as easy as\nshelling peas: and as for that other fellow, the Elector, I'll send him\nback to Hanover, wherever that may be, and he can go on electing, and\npolling his vote in peace and quietness, at home.  Just wait till I spot\nthe places.\"\n\nThe prince ran up to the turret, fetched the magic spy-glass, and looked\nup London, Rome, and Hanover, as you would in a map.\n\n\"Well, Dick, but how do you mean to do it?\"\n\n\"Do it?--nothing simpler!  I just take my Seven-league Boots, run over to\nRome, pick up Prince Charles, put him on the magic carpet, fly to London,\nclap the Cap of Darkness on him so that nobody can see him, set him down\non the throne of his fathers; pick up the Elector, carry him over to his\nbeloved Hanover, and the trick is done--what they call a bloodless\nrevolution in the history books.\"\n\n\"But if the English don't like Prince Charles when they get him?\"\n\n\"Like him? they're sure to like him, a young fellow like that!  Besides,\nI'll take the sword with me in case of accidents.\"\n\n\"But, Dick, it is your father's rule that you are never to meddle in the\naffairs of other countries, and never to start on an expedition when he\nis not at home.\"\n\n\"Oh, he won't mind this time!  There's no kind of danger; and I'm sure he\nwill approve of the _principle_ of the thing.  Kings must stick up for\neach other.  Why, some electing characters might come here and kick _us_\nout!\"\n\n\"Your father is not the sort of king who is kicked out,\" said Jaqueline.\n\nBut there was no use in talking to Dick.  He made his simple\npreparations, and announced that he would be back in time for luncheon.\n\nWhat was poor Jaqueline to do?  She was extremely anxious.  She knew, as\nwe saw, what King Prigio had intended about changing the fairy things for\nothers that would not work.  She was certain Dick would get himself into\na scrape; how was she to help him?  She made up her mind quickly, while\nDick was putting his things together.  She told the queen (it was the\nnearest to the truth she could think of) that she \"was going for a turn\nwith Dick.\"  Then she changed herself into a mosquito--a kind of gnat\nthat bites--and hid herself under a fold of Dick's coat.  Of course he\nknew nothing about her being there.  Then he started off in his Seven-\nleague Boots, and before you could say \"Jack Robinson\" he was in Rome, in\nthe grounds of a splendid palace called the Villa Borghese.\n\nThere he saw an elderly gentleman, in a great curled wig, sound asleep on\na seat beneath a tree.  The old gentleman had a long, pale, melancholy\nface, and across his breast was a broad blue ribbon with a star.  Ah! how\nchanged was King James from the handsome Prince who had loved fair\nBeatrix Esmond, thirty years ago!  Near him were two boys, not quite so\nold as Prince Ricardo.  The younger was a pretty dark boy, with a funny\nlittle roundabout white wig.  He was splendidly dressed in a light-blue\nsilk coat; a delicate little lace scarf was tied round his neck; he had\nlace ruffles falling about his little ringed hands; he had a pretty\nsword, with a gold handle set with diamonds--in fact, he was the picture\nof a little dandy.  The other lad had a broad Scotch bonnet on, and no\nwig; beautiful silky yellow locks fell about his shoulders.  He had laid\nhis sword on the grass.  He was dressed in tartan, which Ricardo had\nnever seen before; and he wore a kilt, which was also new to Ricardo, who\nwondered at his bare legs--for he was wearing shoes with no stockings.  In\nhis hand he held a curious club, with a long, slim handle, and a head\nmade heavy with lead, and defended with horn.  With this he was aiming at\na little white ball; and suddenly he swung up the club and sent the ball\nout of sight in the air, over several trees.\n\nPrince Ricardo stepped up to this boy, took off his cap, and said:\n\n\"I think I have the honour of addressing the Prince of Wales?\"\n\nPrince Charles started at the sight of a gentleman in long riding-boots,\ngirt with a broadsword, which was not then generally worn, and carrying a\nPersian rug under his arm.\n\n\"That is what I am called, sir,\" he said, \"by those who give me the title\nwhich is mine by right.  May I inquire the reason which offers me the\npleasure of this unexpected interview?\"\n\n\"Oh, I'm Ricardo of Pantouflia!\" says Dick.  \"I had a letter from you\nthis morning, and I believe you wanted to see me.\"\n\n\"From Pantouflia, sir,\" said Prince Charles; \"why, that is hundreds of\nleagues away!\"\n\n\"It is a good distance,\" said Dick; \"but a mere step when you wear Seven-\nleague Boots like mine.\"\n\n\"My dear prince,\" said Charles, throwing himself into his arms with\nrapture, and kissing him in the Italian fashion, which Dick did not half\nlike, \"you are, indeed, worthy of your reputation; and these are the\ncelebrated Seven-league Boots?  Harry,\" he cried to his brother, \"come\nhere at once and let me present you to his Royal Highness, our\nillustrious ally, Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia.  The Duke of York--Prince\nRicardo of Pantouflia.  Gentlemen, know each other!\"\n\nThe prince bowed in the most stately manner.\n\n\"I say,\" said Dick, who was seldom at all up to the standard of royal\nconversation, \"what's that game you were playing?  It's new to me.  You\nsent the ball a tremendous long shot.\"\n\n\"The game is called golf, and is the favourite pastime of my loyal\nScottish subjects,\" said Prince Charles.  \"For that reason, that I may be\nable to share the amusements of my people, whom I soon hope to lead to a\nglorious victory, followed by a peaceful and prosperous reign, I am\nacquiring a difficult art.  I'm practising walking without stockings,\ntoo, to harden my feet,\" he said, in a more familiar tone of voice.  \"I\nfancy there are plenty of long marches before me, and I would not be a\nspear's length behind the hardiest Highlander.\"\n\n\"By Jove!  I respect you,\" said Dick, with the greatest sincerity; \"but I\ndon't think, with me on your side, you will need to make many marches.  It\nwill all be plain sailing.\"\n\n\"Pray explain your plan,\" said Prince Charles.  \"The task of conquering\nback the throne of my fathers is not so simple as you seem to suppose.\"\n\n\"I've done a good many difficult things,\" said Dick, modestly.\n\n\"The conqueror of the magician, Gorgonzola, and the Giant Who never Knew\nwhen he had Enough, need not tell me that,\" said Prince Charles, with a\ncourteous allusion to two of Ricardo's most prodigious adventures.\n\n\"Oh!  I've very little to be proud of, really,\" said Dick, blushing;\n\"anyone could do as much with my fairy things, of which, no doubt, you\nhave heard.  With a Sword of Sharpness and a Cap of Darkness, and so\nforth, you have a great pull over almost anything.\"\n\n\"And you really possess those talismans?\" said the prince.\n\n\"Certainly I do.  You see how short a time I took in coming to your call\nfrom Pantouflia.\"\n\n\"And has Holy Church,\" asked the Duke of York, with anxiety, \"given her\nsanction and her blessing to those instruments of an art, usually, in her\nwisdom, forbidden?\"\n\n\"Oh, never mind Holy Church, Harry!\" said Prince Charles.  \"This is\n_business_.  Besides, the English are Protestants.\"\n\n\"I pray for their conversion daily,\" said the Duke of York.\n\n\"The end justifies the means, you know,\" answered Prince Charles.  \"All's\nfair in love and war.\"\n\n\"I should think so,\" said Ricardo, \"especially against those brutes of\nElectors; they give trouble at home sometimes.\"\n\n\"You, too, are plagued with an Elector?\" asked Prince Charles.\n\n\"_An_ Elector? thousands of them!\" answered Dick, who never could\nunderstand anything about politics.\n\nPrince Charles looked puzzled, but requested Dick to explain his great\nplan.\n\nThey sat down on the grass, and Ricardo showed them how he meant to\nmanage it, just as he had told Jaqueline.  As he said, nothing could be\nsimpler.\n\n\"Let's start at once,\" he said, and, inducing Prince Charles to sit down\non the magic carpet, he cried:\n\n\"England!  St. James's Palace!\"\n\nBut nothing happened!\n\nThe carpet was not the right magic carpet, but the one which King Prigio\nhad put in its place.\n\n\"Get on!  England, I said!\" cried Dick.\n\nBut there they remained, under the chestnut tree, sitting on the carpet\nabove the flowery grass.\n\n{But there they remained: p99.jpg}\n\nPrince Charles leaped to his feet; his face like fire, his eyes glowing.\n\n\"Enough of this fooling, sir!\" he said.  \"It is easy, but cowardly, to\nmock at an unfortunate prince.  Take your carpet and be off with you, out\nof the gardens, or your shoulders shall taste my club.\"\n\n\"There has been some mistake,\" Ricardo said; \"the wrong carpet has been\nbrought by accident, or the carpet has lost its power.\"\n\n\"In this sacred city, blessed by the presence of his Holiness the Pope,\nand the relics of so many martyrs and saints, magic may well cease to be\npotent,\" said the Duke of York.\n\n\"Nonsense!  You are an impostor, sir!  Leave my presence!\" cried Prince\nCharles, lifting his golf-club.\n\nDick caught it out of his hand, and broke across his knee as fine a\ndriver as ever came from Robertson's shop at St. Andrew's.\n\n\"The quarrels of princes are not settled with clubs, sir!  Draw and\ndefend yourself!\" he said, kicking off his boots and standing in his\nsocks on the grass.\n\nThink of the horror of poor Jaqueline, who witnessed this terrible scene\nof passion from a fold in Prince Ricardo's dress!  What could the girl do\nto save the life of two princes, the hopes of one nation, and of a\nrespectable minority in another?\n\nIn a moment Prince Charles's rapier was shining in the sunlight, and he\nfell on guard in the most elegant attitude, his left hand gracefully\nraised and curved.\n\nDick drew his sword, but, as suddenly, threw it down again.\n\n\"Hang it!\" he exclaimed, \"I can't hit you with _this_!  This is the Sword\nof Sharpness; it would cut through your steel and your neck at a touch.\"\n\nHe paused, and thought.\n\n\"Let me beseech your Royal Highness,\" he said to the Duke of York, who\nwas in a terrible taking, \"to lend your blade to a hand not less royal\nthan your own.\"\n\n\"Give him it, Hal!\" said Prince Charles, who was standing with the point\nof his sword on the ground, and the blade bent.  \"He seems to believe in\nhis own nonsense.\"\n\nThe duke yielded his sword; Dick took it, made a nourish, and rushed at\nPrince Charles.\n\nNow Ricardo had always neglected his fencing lessons.  \"Where's the good\nof it,\" he used to ask, \"all that stamping, and posture-making, and ha-\nhaing?  The Sword of Sharpness is enough for _me_.\"\n\nBut now he could not, in honour, use the Sword of Sharpness; so on he\ncame, waving the rapier like a claymore, and made a slice at Prince\nCharles's head.\n\nThe prince, very much surprised, parried in prime, riposted, and touched\nDick on the hand.\n\nAt this moment the Princess Jaqueline did what she should have thought of\nsooner.  She flew out of Dick's coat, and stung old King James on his\nroyal nose.  The king wakened, nearly crushed the princess (so dangerous\nis the practice of magic to the artist), and then leaped up, and saw\nDick's blade flying through the air, glittering in the sun.  The prince\nhad disarmed him.\n\n\"Hullo! what's all this?  _A moi_, _mes gardes_!\" cried the old king, in\nFrench and English; and then he ran up, just in time to hear Prince\nCharles say:\n\n\"Sir, take your life!  I cannot strike an unarmed man.  A prince you may\nbe, but you have not learned the exercises of gentlemen.\"\n\n\"What is all this, Carluccio?\" asked the old king.  \"Swords out! brawling\nin my very presence! blood drawn!\" for Dick's hand was bleeding a good\ndeal.\n\nPrince Charles, as briefly as possible, explained the unusual nature of\nthe circumstances.\n\n\"A king must hear both sides,\" said King James.  \"What reply have you,\nsir, to make to his Royal Highness's statements?\"\n\n\"The carpet would not work, sir,\" said Dick.  \"It never happened before.\nHad I used my own sword,\" and he explained its properties, \"the Prince of\nWales would not be alive to tell his story.  I can say no more, beyond\noffering my apology for a disappointment which I could not have foreseen.\nA gentleman can only say that he is sorry.  But wait!\" he added; \"I can\nat least prove that my confidence in some of my resources is not\nmisplaced.  Bid me bring you something--anything--from the ends of the\nearth, and it shall be in your hands.  I can't say fairer.\"\n\nKing James reflected, while Prince Ricardo was pulling on the\nSeven-league Boots, which he had kicked off to fight more freely, and\nwhile the Duke of York bandaged Dick's hand with a kerchief.\n\n\"Bring me,\" said his Majesty, \"Lord Lovat's snuff-mull.\"\n\n\"Where does he live?\" said Dick.\n\n\"At Gortuleg, in Scotland,\" answered King James.\n\nDick was out of sight before the words were fairly spoken, and in ten\nminutes was back, bearing a large ram's-horn snuff-box, with a big\ncairngorm set in the top, and the Frazer arms.\n\n\"Most astonishing!\" said King James.\n\n\"A miracle!\" said the Duke of York.\n\n\"You have entirely cleared your character,\" said the king.  \"Your honour\nis without a stain, though it is a pity about the carpet.  Your nobility\nin not using your magical sword, under the greatest provocation,\nreconciles me to this fresh blighting of my hopes.  All my allies fail\nme,\" said the poor king with a sigh; \"you alone have failed with honour.\nCarluccio, embrace the prince!\"\n\nThey fell into each other's arms.\n\n\"Prince,\" said Dick, \"you have taught me a lesson for which I shall not\nbe ungrateful.  With any blade a gentleman should be able to hold his own\nin fair fight.  I shall no longer neglect my fencing lessons.\"\n\n\"With any blade,\" said Prince Charles, \"I shall be happy to find Prince\nRicardo by my side in a stricken field.  We shall not part till I have\ninduced you to accept a sword which I can never hope to draw against\nanother adversary so noble.  In war, my weapon is the claymore.\"\n\nHere the prince offered to Ricardo the ruby-studded hilt of his rapier,\nwhich had a beautiful white shark-skin sheath.\n\n\"You must accept it, sir,\" said King James; \"the hilt holds the rubies of\nJohn Sobieski.\"\n\n\"Thank you, prince,\" said Ricardo, \"for the weapon, which I shall learn\nto wield; and I entreat you to honour me by receiving this fairy\ngift--which _you_ do not need--a ring which makes all men faithful to the\nwearer.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales bowed, and placed the talisman on his finger.\n\nRicardo then, after a few words of courtesy on both parts, picked up his\nuseless carpet, took his farewell of the royal party, and, with Jaqueline\nstill hidden under his collar, returned at full speed, but with a heavy\nheart, to Pantouflia, where the palace gong was just sounding for\nluncheon.\n\nRicardo never interfered in foreign affairs again, but his ring proved\nvery useful to Prince Charles, as you may have read in history.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\nRicardo's Repentance.\n\n\n{Bottle of weapon salve: p109.jpg}\n\nThe queen, as it happened fortunately, was lunching with one of the\nladies of her Court.  Ricardo did not come down to luncheon, and\nJaqueline ate hers alone; and very mournful she felt.  The prince had\ncertainly not come well out of the adventure.  He had failed (as all\nattempts to restore the Stuarts always did); he had been wounded, though\nhe had never received a scratch in any of his earlier exploits; and if\nhis honour was safe, and his good intentions fully understood, that was\nchiefly due to Jaqueline, and to the generosity of King James and Prince\nCharles.\n\n\"I wonder what he's doing?\" she said to herself, and at last she went up\nand knocked at Ricardo's door.\n\n\"Go away,\" he said; \"I don't want to see anybody.  Who is it?\"\n\n\"It's only me--Jaqueline.\"\n\n{\"It's only me\": p111.jpg}\n\n\"Go away!  I want nobody.\"\n\n\"Do let me in, dear Dick; I have good news for you,\" said the princess.\n\n\"What is it?\" said Ricardo, unlocking the door.  \"Why do you bother a\nfellow so?\"\n\nHe had been crying--his hand obviously hurt him badly; he looked, and\nindeed he was, very sulky.\n\n\"How did you get on in England, Dick?\" asked the princess, taking no\nnotice of his bandaged hand.\n\n\"Oh, don't ask me!\" said Ricardo.  \"I've not been to England at all.\"\n\n\"Why, what happened?\"\n\n\"Everything that is horrid happened,\" said Dick; and then, unable to keep\nit any longer to himself, he said: \"I've failed to keep my promise; I've\nbeen insulted, I've been beaten by a fellow younger than myself; and, oh!\nhow my hand does hurt, and I've got such a headache!  And what am I to\nsay to my mother when she asks why my arm is in a sling? and what will my\nfather say?  I'm quite broken down and desperate.  I think I'll run away\nto sea;\" and indeed he looked very wild and miserable.\n\n\"Tell me how it all happened, Dick,\" said the princess; \"I'm sure it's\nnot so bad as you make out.  Perhaps I can help you.\"\n\n\"How can a girl help a man?\" cried Dick, angrily; and poor Jaqueline,\nremembering how she _had_ helped him, at the risk of her own life, when\nKing James nearly crushed her in the shape of a mosquito, turned her head\naway, and cried silently.\n\n\"I'm a beast,\" said Dick.  \"I beg your pardon, Jack dear.  You are always\na trump, I will say; but I don't see what you can do.\"\n\nThen he told her all the story (which, of course, she knew perfectly well\nalready), except the part played by the mosquito, of which he could not\nbe aware.\n\n\"I was sure it was not so bad as you made it out, Dick,\" she said.  \"You\nsee, the old king, who is not very wise, but is a perfectly honourable\ngentleman, gave you the highest praise.\"  She thought of lecturing him a\nlittle about disobeying his father, but it did not seem a good\nopportunity.  Besides, Jaqueline had been lectured herself lately, and\nhad not enjoyed it.\n\n\"What am I to say to my mother?\" Dick repeated.\n\n\"We must think of something to say,\" said Jaqueline.\n\n\"I can't tell my mother anything but the truth,\" Ricardo went on.  \"Here's\nmy hand, how it does sting! and she must find out.\"\n\n\"I think I can cure it,\" said Jaqueline.  \"Didn't you say Prince Charles\ngave you his own sword?\"\n\n\"Yes, there it is; but what has that to do with it?\"\n\n\"Everything in the world to do with it, my dear Dick.  How lucky it is\nthat he gave it to you!\"\n\nAnd she ran to her own room, and brought a beautiful golden casket, which\ncontained her medicines.\n\nTaking out a small phial, marked (in letters of emerald):\n\n\"WEAPON SALVE,\"\n\nthe princess drew the bright sword, extracted a little of the ointment\nfrom the phial, and spread it on a soft silk handkerchief.\n\n\"What are you going to do with the sword?\" asked Ricardo.\n\n\"Polish it a little,\" said Jaqueline, smiling, and she began gently to\nrub, with the salve, the point of the rapier.\n\nAs she did so, Ricardo's arm ceased to hurt, and the look of pain passed\nfrom his mouth.\n\n\"Why, I feel quite better!\" he said.  \"I can use my hand as well as\never.\"\n\nThen he took off the stained handkerchief, and, lo, there was not even a\nmark where the wound had been!  For this was the famous Weapon Salve\nwhich you may read about in Sir Kenelm Digby, and which the Lady of\nBranxholme used, in _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_.  But the secret of\nmaking it has long been lost, except in Pantouflia.\n\n\"You are the best girl in the world, Jaqueline,\" said Ricardo.  \"You may\ngive me a kiss if you like; and I won't call you 'Jack,' or laugh at you\nfor reading books, any more.  There's something in books after all.\"\n\nThe princess did not take advantage of Dick's permission, but advised him\nto lie down and try to sleep.\n\n\"I say, though,\" he said, \"what about my father?\"\n\n\"The king need never be told anything about it,\" said Jaqueline, \"need\nhe?\"\n\n\"Oh, that won't do!  I tell my father everything; but then, I never had\nanything like this to tell him before.  Don't you think, Jaqueline, you\nmight break it to him?  He's very fond of you.  Just tell him what I told\nyou; it's every word of it true, and he ought to know.  He might see\nsomething about it in the _Mercure de France_.\"\n\nThis was the newspaper of the period.\n\n\"I don't think it will get into the papers,\" said Jaqueline, smiling.\n\"Nobody could tell, except the king and the princes, and they have\nreasons for keeping it to themselves.\"\n\n\"I don't trust that younger one,\" said Dick, moodily; \"I don't care for\nthat young man.  Anyway, my father _must_ be told; and, if you won't, I\nmust.\"\n\n\"Well, I'll tell him,\" said Jaqueline.  \"And now lie down till evening.\"\n\nAfter dinner, in the conservatory, Jaqueline told King Prigio all about\nit.\n\nHis Majesty was very much moved.\n\n\"What extraordinary bad luck that family has!\" he thought.  \"If I had not\nchanged the rug, the merest accident, Prince Charles would have dined at\nSt. James's to-night, and King George in Hanover.  It was the very\nnearest thing!\"\n\n\"This meddling with practical affairs will never do,\" he said aloud.\n\n\"Dick has had a lesson, sire,\" said the princess.  \"He says he'll never\nmix himself up with politics again, whatever happens.  And he says he\nmeans to study all about them, for he feels frightfully ignorant, and,\nabove all, he means to practise his fencing.\"\n\nThese remarks were not part of the conversation between Ricardo and\nJaqueline, but she considered that Dick _meant_ all this, and, really, he\ndid.\n\n\"That is well, as far as it goes,\" said the king.  \"But, Jaqueline, about\nthat mosquito?\" for she had told him this part of the adventure.  \"That\nwas a very convenient mosquito, though I don't know how Dick was able to\nobserve it from any distance.  I see _your_ hand in that, my dear, and I\nam glad you can make such kind and wise use of the lessons of the good\nFairy Paribanou.  Jaqueline,\" he added solemnly, laying his hand on her\nhead, \"You have saved the honour of Pantouflia, which is dearer to me\nthan life.  Without your help, I tremble to think what might have\noccurred.\"\n\nThe princess blushed very much, and felt very happy.\n\n\"Now run away to the queen, my dear,\" said his Majesty, \"I want to think\nthings over.\"\n\nHe did think them over, and the more he thought the more he felt the\ninconvenience attending the possession of fairy things.\n\n\"An eclipse one day, as nearly as possible a revolution soon after!\" he\nsaid to himself.  \"But for Jaqueline, Ricardo's conduct would have been\nblazed abroad, England would have been irritated.  It is true she cannot\nget at Pantouflia very easily; we have no sea-coast, and we are\nsurrounded by friendly countries.  But it would have been a ticklish and\ndiscreditable position.  I must really speak to Dick,\" which he did next\nmorning after breakfast.\n\n\"You have broken my rules, Ricardo,\" he said.  \"True, there is no great\nharm done, and you have confessed frankly; but how am I to trust you any\nlonger?\"\n\n\"I'll give you my sacred word of honour, father, that I'll never meddle\nwith politics again, or start on an expedition, without telling you.  I\nhave had enough of it.  And I'll turn over a new leaf.  I've learned to\nbe ashamed of my ignorance; and I've sent for Francalanza, and I'll fence\nevery day, and read like anything.\"\n\n\"Very good,\" said the king.  \"I believe you mean what you say.  Now go to\nyour fencing lesson.\"\n\n\"But, I say, father,\" cried Ricardo, \"was it not strange about the magic\ncarpet?\"\n\n\"I told you not to trust to these things,\" said the king.  \"Some\nenchanter may have deprived it of its power, it may be worn out, someone\nmay have substituted a common Persian rug; anything may happen.  You\n_must_ learn to depend on yourself.  Now, be off with you, I'm busy.  And\nremember, you don't stir without my permission.\"\n\nThe prince ran off, and presently the sounds of stamping feet and \"_un_,\n_deux_; _doublez_, _degagez_, _vite_; _contre de carte_,\" and so forth,\nmight be heard over a great part of the royal establishment.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\nPrince Ricardo and an Old Enemy.\n\n\n{The Yellow Dwarf: p123.jpg}\n\n\"There is one brute I wish I could get upsides with,\" said Ricardo, at\nbreakfast one morning, his mouth full of sardine.\n\n\"Really, Ricardo, your language is most unprincely,\" said his august\nfather; \"I am always noticing it.  You mean, I suppose, that there is one\nenemy of the human race whom you wish to abolish.  What is the name of\nthe doomed foe?\"\n\n\"Well, he is the greatest villain in history,\" said Ricardo.  \"You must\nhave read about him, sir, the Yellow Dwarf.\"\n\n\"Yes, I have certainly studied what is told us about him,\" said the king.\n\"He is no favourite of mine.\"\n\n\"He is the only one, if you notice, sir, of all the scoundrels about whom\nour ancestors inform us, who escaped the doom which he richly merited at\nthe sword of a good knight.\"\n\nYou may here remark that, since Dick took to his studies, he could speak,\nwhen he chose, like a printed book, which was by no means the case\nbefore.\n\n\"If you remember, sir, he polished off--I mean, he slew--the King of the\nGolden Mines and the beautiful, though frivolous, Princess Frutilla.  All\nthat the friendly Mermaid could do for them was to turn them into a pair\nof beautiful trees which intertwine their branches.  Not much use in\n_that_, sir!  And nothing was done to the scoundrel.  He may be going on\nstill; and, with your leave, I'll go and try a sword-thrust with him.\nFrancalanza says I'm improving uncommon.\"\n\n\"You'll take the usual Sword of Sharpness,\" said his Majesty.\n\n\"What, sir, to a dwarf?  Not I, indeed: a common small sword is good\nenough to settle _him_.\"\n\n\"They say he is very cunning of fence,\" said the king; \"and besides, I\nhave heard something of a diamond sword that he stole from the King of\nthe Golden Mines.\"\n\n\"Very likely he has lost it or sold it, the shabby little miscreant;\nhowever, I'll risk it.  And now I must make my preparations.\"\n\nThe king did not ask what they were; as a rule, they were simple.  But,\nbeing in the shop of the optician that day, standing with his back to the\ndoor, he heard Dick come in and order a pair of rose-coloured spectacles,\nwith which he was at once provided.  The people of Pantouflia were\naccustomed to wear them, saying that they improved the complexions of\nladies whom they met, and added cheerfulness to things in general.\n\n\"Just plain rose-coloured glass, Herr Spex,\" said Dick, \"I'm not short-\nsighted.\"\n\n\"The boy is beginning to show some sense,\" said the king to himself,\nknowing the nature and the difficulties of the expedition.\n\nRicardo did not disguise his intention of taking with him a Dandie\nDinmont terrier, named Pepper, and the king, who understood the motive of\nthis precaution, silently approved.\n\n\"The lad has come to some purpose and forethought,\" the king said, and he\ngladly advanced a considerable sum for the purchase of crocodiles' eggs,\nwhich can rarely be got quite fresh.  When Jaqueline had made the\ncrocodiles' eggs, with millet-seed and sugar-candy, into a cake for the\nDwarf's lions, Ricardo announced that his preparations were complete.\n\nNot to be the mere slave of custom, he made this expedition on horseback,\nand the only magical thing he took with him was the Cap of Darkness (the\none which would not work, but he did not know that), and this he put in\nhis pocket for future use.  With plenty of egg sandwiches and marmalade\nsandwiches, and cold minced-collop sandwiches, he _pricked forth_ into\nthe wilderness, making for the country inhabited by the Yellow Dwarf.  The\nprincess was glad he was riding, for she privately accompanied him in the\ndisguise of a wasp; and a wasp, of course, could not have kept up with\nhim in his Seven-league Boots.\n\n\"Hang that wops!\" said Prince Ricardo several times, buffeting it with\nhis pocket-handkerchief when it buzzed in his ear and round his horse's\nhead.\n\n{\"Hang that wops!\" said Prince Ricardo: p129.jpg}\n\nMeanwhile, King Prigio had taken his precautions, which were perfectly\nsimple.  When he thought Ricardo was getting near the place, the king put\non his Wishing Cap, sat down before the magic crystal ball, and kept his\neye on the proceedings, being ready to wish the right thing to help\nRicardo at the right moment.  He left the window wide open, smoked his\ncigar, and seemed the pattern of a good and wise father watching the\nconduct of a promising son.\n\nThe prince rode and rode, sometimes taking up Pepper on his saddle;\npassing through forests, sleeping at lonely inns, fording rivers, till\none day he saw that the air was becoming Yellow.  He knew that this\nshowed the neighbourhood of Jaunia, or Daunia, the country of the Yellow\nDwarf.  He therefore drew bridle, placed his rose-coloured spectacles on\nhis nose and put spurs to his horse, for the yellow light of Jaunia makes\npeople melancholy and cowardly.  As he pricked on, his horse stumbled and\nnearly came on its nose.  The prince noticed that a steel chain had been\ndrawn across the road.\n\n\"What caitiff has dared!\" he exclaimed, when his hat was knocked off by a\nwell-aimed orange from a neighbouring orange-tree, and a vulgar voice\nsqueaked:\n\n\"Hi, Blinkers!\"\n\nThere was the Yellow Dwarf, an odious little figure, sitting sucking an\norange in the tree, swinging his wooden shoes, and grinning all over his\nwrinkled face.\n\n\"Well, young Blinkers!\" said the Dwarf, \"what are you doing on my\ngrounds?  You're a prince, by your look.  Yah! down with kings!  I'm a\nman of the people!\"\n\n\"You're a dwarf of the worst description, that's what _you_ are,\" said\nRicardo; \"and let me catch you, and I'll flog the life out of you with my\nriding-whip!\"\n\nThe very face of the Dwarf, even seen through rose-coloured spectacles,\nmade him nearly ill.\n\n\"Yes, when you can catch me,\" said the Dwarf; \"but that's not to-day, nor\nyet to-morrow.  What are you doing here?  Are you an ambassador, maybe\ncome to propose a match for me?  I'm not proud, I'll hear you.  They say\nthere's a rather well-looking wench in your parts, the Princess\nJaqueline--\"\n\n\"Mention that lady's name, you villain,\" cried Dick, \"and I'll cut down\nyour orange-tree!\" and he wished he had brought the Sword of Sharpness,\nfor you cannot prod down a tree with the point of a rapier.\n\n\"Fancy her yourself?\" said the Dwarf, showing his yellow teeth with a\ndetestable grin; while Ricardo turned quite white with anger, and not\nknowing how to deal with this insufferable little monster.\n\n\"I'm a widower, I am,\" said the Dwarf, \"though I'm out of mourning,\" for\nhe wore a dirty clay-coloured Yellow jacket.  \"My illustrious consort,\nthe Princess Frutilla, did not behave very nice, and I had to avenge my\nhonour; in fact, I'm open to any offers, however humble.  Going at an\nalarming sacrifice!  Come to my box\" (and he pointed to a filthy clay\ncottage, all surrounded by thistles, nettles, and black boggy water),\n\"and I'll talk over your proposals.\"\n\n\"Hold your impudent tongue!\" said Dick.  \"The Princess Frutilla was an\ninjured saint; and as for the lady whom I shall not name in your\npolluting presence, I am her knight, and I defy you to deadly combat!\"\n\nWe may imagine how glad the princess was when (disguised as a wasp) she\nheard Dick say he was her knight; not that, in fact, he had thought of it\nbefore.\n\n\"Oh! you're for a fight, are you?\" sneered the Dwarf.  \"I might tell you\nto hit one of your own weight, but I'm not afraid of six of you.  Yah!\nmammy's brat!  Look here, young Blinkers, I don't want to hurt you.  Just\nturn old Dobbin's head, and trot back to your mammy, Queen Rosalind, at\nPantouflia.  Does she know you're out?\"\n\n\"I'll be into _you_, pretty quick,\" said Ricardo.  \"But why do I bandy\nwords with a miserable peasant?\"\n\n\"And don't get much the best of them either,\" said the Dwarf,\nprovokingly.  \"But I'll fight, if you will have it.\"\n\nThe prince leaped from his horse, leaving Pepper on the saddle-bow.\n\nNo sooner had he touched the ground than the Dwarf shouted:\n\n\"Hi! to him, Billy! to him, Daniel! at him, good lions, at him!\" and,\nwith an awful roar, two lions rushed from a neighbouring potato-patch and\nmade for Ricardo.  These were not ordinary lions, history avers, each\nhaving two heads, each being eight feet high, with four rows of teeth;\ntheir skins as hard as nails, and bright red, like morocco. {135}\n\nThe prince did not lose his presence of mind; hastily he threw the cake\nof crocodiles' eggs, millet-seed, and sugar-candy to the lions.  This is\na dainty which lions can never resist, and running greedily at it, with\nfour tremendous snaps, they got hold of each other by their jaws, and\ntheir eight rows of teeth were locked fast in a grim and deadly _struggle\nfor existence_!\n\nThe Dwarf took in the affair at a glance.\n\n\"Cursed be he who taught you this!\" he cried, and then whistled in a\nshrill and vulgar manner on his very dirty fingers.  At his call rushed\nup an enormous Spanish cat, ready saddled and bridled, and darting fire\nfrom its eyes.  To leap on its back, while Ricardo sprang on his own\nsteed, was to the active Dwarf the work of a moment.  Then clapping spurs\nto its sides (his spurs grew naturally on his bare heels, horrible to\nrelate, like a cock's spurs) and taking his cat by the head, the Dwarf\nforced it to leap on to Ricardo's saddle.  The diamond sword which slew\nthe king of the Golden Mines--that invincible sword which hews iron like\na reed--was up and flashing in the air!\n\nAt this very moment King Prigio, seeing, in the magic globe, all that\npassed, and despairing of Ricardo's life, was just about to wish the\ndwarf at Jericho, when through the open window, with a tremendous whirr,\ncame a huge vulture, and knocked the king's wishing cap off!  Wishing was\nnow of no use.\n\nThis odious fowl was the Fairy of the Desert, the Dwarf's trusted ally in\nevery sort of mischief.  The vulture flew instantly out of the window;\nand ah! with what awful anxiety the king again turned his eyes on the\ncrystal ball only a parent's heart can know.  Should he see Ricardo\nbleeding at the feet of the abominable dwarf?  The king scarcely dared to\nlook; never before had he known the nature of fear.  However, look he\ndid, and saw the dwarf un-catted, and Pepper, the gallant Dandie Dinmont,\nwith his teeth in the throat of the monstrous Spanish cat.\n\nNo sooner had he seen the cat leap on his master's saddle-bow than\nPepper, true to the instinct of his race, sprang at its neck, just behind\nthe head--the usual place,--and, with an awful and despairing mew, the\ncat (Peter was its name) gave up its life.\n\nThe dwarf was on his feet in a moment, waving the diamond sword, which\nlighted up the whole scene, and yelling taunts.  Pepper was flying at his\nheels, and, with great agility, was keeping out of the way of the\ninvincible blade.\n\n\"Ah!\" screamed the Dwarf as Pepper got him by the ankle.  \"Call off your\ndog, you coward, and come down off your horse, and fight fair!\"\n\nAt this moment, _bleeding yellow blood_, dusty, mad with pain, the dwarf\nwas a sight to strike terror into the boldest.\n\nDick sprang from his saddle, but so terrific was the appearance of his\nadversary, and so dazzling was the sheen of the diamond sword, that he\nput his hand in his pocket, drew out, as he supposed, the sham Cap of\nDarkness, and placed it on his head.\n\n\"Yah! who's your hatter?\" screamed the infuriated dwarf.  \"_I_ see you!\"\nand he disengaged, feinted in carte, and made a lunge in seconde at Dick\nwhich no mortal blade could have parried.  The prince (thanks to his\nexcellent training) just succeeded in stepping aside, but the dwarf\nrecovered with astonishing quickness.\n\n\"Coward, _lache_, poltroon, runaway!\" he hissed through his clenched\nteeth, and was about to make a thrust in tierce which must infallibly\nhave been fatal, when the Princess Jaqueline, in her shape as a wasp,\nstung him fiercely on the wrist.\n\nWith an oath so awful that we dare not set it down, the dwarf dropped the\ndiamond sword, sucked his injured limb, and began hopping about with\npain.\n\nIn a moment Prince Ricardo's foot was on the blade of the diamond sword,\nwhich he passed thrice through the body of the Yellow Dwarf.  Squirming\nfearfully, the little monster expired, his last look a defiance, his\nlatest word an insult:\n\n\"Yah!  Gig-lamps!\"\n\nPrince Ricardo wiped the diamond blade clean from its yellow stains.\n\n{The fight with the Yellow Dwarf: p141.jpg}\n\n\"Princess Frutilla is avenged!\" he cried.  Then pensively looking at his\nfallen foe, \"Peace to his ashes,\" he said; \"he died in harness!\"\n\nTurning at the word, he observed that the two lions were stiff and dead,\nlocked in each other's gory jaws!\n\nAt that moment King Prigio, looking in the crystal ball, gave a great\nsigh of relief.\n\n\"All's well that ends well,\" he said, lighting a fresh cigar, for he had\nallowed the other to go out in his excitement, \"but it was a fight!  I am\nnot satisfied,\" his Majesty went on reflecting, \"with this plan of\nchanging the magical articles.  The first time was of no great\nimportance, and I could not know that the boy would start on an\nexpedition without giving me warning.  But, in to-day's affair he owes\nhis safety entirely to himself and Pepper,\" for he had not seen the wasp.\n\"The Fairy of the Desert quite baffled me: it was terrible.  I shall\nrestore the right fairy things to-night.  As to the Fairy of the Desert,\"\nhe said, forgetting that his Wishing Cap was on, \"I wish she were dead!\"\n\nA hollow groan and the sound of a heavy body falling interrupted the\nking.  He looked all about the room, but saw nothing.  He was alone!\n\n\"She must have been in the room, invisible,\" said the king; and, of\ncourse, she has died in that condition.  \"But I must find her body!\"\n\nThe king groped about everywhere, like a blind man, and at last\ndiscovered the dead body of the wicked fairy lying on the sofa.  He could\nnot see it, of course, but he felt it with his hands.\n\n\"This is very awkward,\" he remarked.  \"I cannot ring for the servants and\nmake them take her away.  There is only one plan.\"\n\nSo he wished she were in her family pyramid, in the Egyptian desert, and\nin a second the sofa was unoccupied.\n\n\"A very dangerous and revengeful enemy is now removed from Ricardo's path\nin life,\" said his Majesty, and went to dress for dinner.\n\nMeanwhile Ricardo was riding gaily home.  The yellow light of Jaunia had\nvanished, and pure blue sky broke overhead as soon as the dauntless Dwarf\nhad drawn his latest breath.  The poor, trembling people of the country\ncame out of their huts and accompanied Dick, cheering, and throwing roses\nwhich had been yellow roses, but blushed red as soon as the Dwarf\nexpired.  They attended him to the frontiers of Pantouflia, singing his\npraises, which Ricardo had the new and inestimable pleasure of knowing to\nbe deserved.\n\n\"It was sharp work,\" he said to himself, \"but much more exciting and\nglorious than the usual business.\"\n\nOn his return Dick did not fail to mention the wasp, and again the king\nfelt how great was his debt to Jaqueline.  But they did not think it well\nto trouble the good queen with the dangers Dick had encountered.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\nThe Giant who does not know when he has had Enough. {146}\n\n\n{The enormous letter: p146.jpg}\n\nOne morning the post brought a truly enormous letter for Dick.  It was as\nbroad as a table-cloth, and the address was written in letters as long as\na hoop-stick.  \"I seem to know that hand,\" said Ricardo; \"but I thought\nthe fingers which held the pen had long been cold in death.\"\n\nHe opened, with his sword, the enormous letter, which was couched in the\nfollowing terms:\n\n   \"The Giant as does not know when he has had _enuf_, presents his\n   compliments to Prince Ricardo; and I, having recovered from the\n   effects of our little recent _rally_, will be happy to meet you in the\n   old place for a return-match.  I not being handy with the pen, the\n   Giant hopes you will excuse mistakes and bad writing.\"\n\nDick simply gazed with amazement.\n\n\"If ever I thought an enemy was killed and done for, it was that Giant,\"\nsaid he.  \"Why, I made mere mince-collops of him!\"\n\nHowever, he could not refuse a challenge, not to speak of his duty to rid\nthe world of so greedy and odious a tyrant.  Dick, therefore, took the\nusual things (which the king had secretly restored), but first he tried\nthem--putting on the Cap of Darkness before the glass, in which he could\nnot see himself.  On second thoughts, he considered it unfair to take the\ncap.  All the other articles were in working order.  Jaqueline on this\noccasion followed him in the disguise of a crow, flying overhead.\n\nOn reaching the cavern--a huge tunnel in the rock--where the Giant lived,\nRicardo blew a blast on the horn which hung outside, and in obedience to\na written notice, knocked also with a mace provided by the Giant for that\npurpose.  Presently he heard heavy footsteps sounding along the cavern,\nand the Giant came out.  He was above the common height for giants, and\nhis whole face and body were seamed over with little red lines, crossing\neach other like tartan.  These were marks of encounters, in which he had\nbeen cut to bits and come together again; for this was his peculiarity,\nwhich made him so dangerous.  If you cut off his head, he went on just as\nbefore, only without it; and so about everything else.  By dint of magic,\nhe could put his head on again, just as if it had been his hat, if you\ngave him time enough.  On the last occasion of their meeting, Ricardo had\nleft him in a painfully scattered condition, and thought he was done for.\nBut now, except that a bird had flown away with the little finger of his\nleft hand and one of his ears, the Giant was as comfortable as anyone\ncould be in his situation.\n\n\"Mornin' sir,\" he said to Dick, touching his forehead with his hand.\n\"Glad to see you looking so well.  No bad feeling, I hope, on either\nside?\"\n\n\"None on mine, certainly,\" said Ricardo, holding out his hand, which the\nGiant took and shook; \"but Duty is Duty, and giants must go.  The modern\nworld has no room for them.\"\n\n\"That's hearty,\" said the Giant; \"I like a fellow of your kind.  Now,\nshall we toss for corners?\"\n\n\"All right!\" said Dick, calling \"Heads\" and winning.  He took the corner\nwith the sun on his back and in the Giant's face.  To it they went, the\nGiant aiming a blow with his club that would have felled an elephant.\n\nDick dodged, and cut off the Giant's feet at the ankles.\n\n\"First blood for the prince!\" said the Giant, coming up smiling.  \"Half-\nminute time!\"\n\nHe occupied the half-minute in placing the feet neatly beside each other,\nas if they had been a pair of boots.\n\n_Round II._--The Giant sparring for wind, Ricardo cuts him in two at the\nwaist.\n\nThe Giant folded his legs up neatly, like a pair of trousers, and laid\nthem down on a rock.  He had now some difficulty in getting rapidly over\nthe ground, and stood mainly on the defensive, and on his waist.\n\n_Round III._--Dick bisects the Giant.  Both sides now attack him on\neither hand, and the feet kick him severely.\n\n\"No kicking!\" said Dick.\n\n\"Nonsense; all fair in war!\" said the Giant.\n\nBut do not let us pursue this sanguinary encounter in all its _horrible\ndetails_.\n\nLet us also remember--otherwise the scene would be too painful for an\nelegant mind to contemplate with entertainment--that the Giant was in\nexcellent training, and thought no more of a few wounds than you do of a\ncrack on the leg from a cricket-ball.  He well deserved the title given\nhim by the Fancy, of \"The Giant who does not Know when he has had\nEnough.\"\n\n* * * * *\n\nThe contest was over; Dick was resting on a rock.  The lists were strewn\nwith interesting but imperfect fragments of the Giant, when a set of\ndouble teeth of enormous size flew up out of the ground and caught\nRicardo by the throat!  In vain he strove to separate the teeth, when the\ncrow, stooping from the heavens, became the Princess Jaqueline, and\nchanged Dick into a wren--a tiny bird, so small that he easily flew out\nof the jaws of the Giant and winged his way to a tree, whence he watched\nthe scene.\n\nBut the poor Princess Jaqueline!\n\nTo perform the feat of changing Dick into a bird she had, of course,\naccording to all the laws of magic, to resume her own natural form!\n\nThere she stood, a beautiful, trembling maiden, her hands crossed on her\nbosom, entirely at the mercy of the Giant!\n\nNo sooner had Dick escaped than the monster began to _collect himself_;\nand before Jaqueline could muster strength to run away or summon to her\naid the lessons of the Fairy Paribanou, the Giant who never Knew when he\nhad Enough was himself again.  A boy might have climbed up a tree (for\ngiants are no tree-climbers, any more than the grizzly bear), but\nJaqueline could not climb.  She merely stood, pale and trembling.  She\nhad saved Dick, but at an enormous sacrifice, for the sword and the Seven-\nleague Boots were lying on the trampled grass.  He had not brought the\nCap of Darkness, and, in the shape of a wren, of course he could not\ncarry away the other articles.  Dick was rescued, that was all, and the\nPrincess Jaqueline had sacrificed herself to her love for him.\n\nThe Giant picked himself up and pulled himself together, as we said, and\nthen approached Jaqueline in a very civil way, for a person of his\nbreeding, head in hand.\n\n\"Let me introduce myself,\" he said, and mentioned his name and titles.\n\"May I ask what _you_ are doing here, and how you came?\"\n\n{\"Let me introduce myself,\" he said: p154.jpg}\n\nPoor Jaqueline threw herself at his feet, and murmured a short and not\nvery intelligible account of herself.\n\n\"I don't understand,\" said the Giant, replacing his head on his\nshoulders.  \"What to do with you, I'm sure I don't know.  '_Please don't\neat me_,' did you say?  Why, what do you take me for?  I'm not in that\nline at all; low, _I_ call it!\"\n\nJaqueline was somewhat comforted at these words, dropped out of the\nGiant's lips from a considerable height.\n\n\"But they call you 'The Giant who does not Know when he has had Enough,'\"\nsaid Jaqueline.\n\n\"And proud of the title: not enough of fighting.  Of _punishment_ I am a\nglutton, or so my friends are pleased to say.  A brace of oxen, a drove\nof sheep or two, are enough for me,\" the Giant went on complacently, but\nforgetting to mention that the sheep and the oxen were the property of\nother people.  \"Where am I to put you till your friends come and pay your\nransom?\" the Giant asked again, and stared at Jaqueline in a perplexed\nway.  \"I can't take you home with me, that is out of the question.  I\nhave a little woman of my own, and she's not very fond of other ladies;\nespecially, she would like to poison them that have good looks.\"\n\nNow Jaqueline saw that the Giant, big as he was, courageous too, was\nafraid of his wife!\n\n\"I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll hand you over to a neighbour of mine,\nwho is a bachelor.\"\n\n\"A bachelor giant; would that be quite proper?\" said Jaqueline, trying to\nhumour him.\n\n\"He's not a giant, bless you; he's a queer fellow, it is not easy to say\nwhat he is.  He's the Earthquaker, him as shakes the earth now and then,\nand brings the houses about people's ears.\"\n\nJaqueline fairly screamed at hearing this awful news.\n\n\"Hush! be quiet, do!\" said the Giant.  \"You'll bring out my little woman,\nand she is not easy to satisfy with explanations when she finds me\nconversing with a lady unbeknown to her.  The Earthquaker won't do you\nany harm; it's only for safe keeping I'll put you with him.  Why, he\ndon't waken, not once in fifty years.  He's quite the dormouse.  Turns on\nhis bed now and then, and things upstairs get upset, more or less; but,\nas a rule, a child could play with him.  Come on!\"\n\nThen, taking Jaqueline up on one hand, on which she sat as if on a chair,\nhe crossed a few ranges of mountains in as many strides.  In front was\none tall blue hill, with a flattened peak, and as they drew near the\nprincess felt a curious kind of wind coming round her and round her.  You\nhave heard of whirlpools in water; well, this was just like a whirlpool\nof air.  Even the Giant himself could hardly keep his legs against it;\nthen he tossed Jaqueline up, and the airy whirlpool seized her and\ncarried her, as if on a tide of water, always round and round in\nnarrowing circles, till she was sucked down into the hollow hill.  Even\nas she went, she seemed to remember the hill, as if she had dreamed about\nit, and the shape and colour of the country.  But presently she sank\nsoftly on to a couch, in a beautifully-lighted rocky hall.  All around\nher the floor was of white and red marble, but on one side it seemed to\nend in black nothing.\n\nJaqueline, after a few moments, recovered her senses fully, and changing\nherself into an eagle, tried to fly up and out.  But as soon as she was\nin the funnel, the whirlpool of air always sucking down and down, was too\nstrong for her wings.  She was a prisoner in this great gleaming hall,\nending in black nothingness.  So she resumed her usual form, and walking\nto the edge of the darkness, found that it was not empty air, but\nsomething black, soft, and strong--something living.  It had no form or\nshape, or none that she could make out; but it pulsed with a heart.\nJaqueline placed her foot on this curious thing, when a voice came, like\nthunder heard through a feather-bed:\n\n\"Not near time to get up yet!\" and then there was a snore, and the great\nhall rocked like a ship at sea.\n\nIt was the Earthquaker!\n\nThe habits of this monstrous animal are very little known, as, of course,\nhe never comes above ground, or at least very seldom, when he makes\ntracks like a dry river-bed across country.  We are certain that there\n_are_ Earthquakers, otherwise how can we account for earthquakes?  But\nhow to tackle an Earthquaker, how to get at him, and what to do with him\nwhen you have got at him, are questions which might puzzle even King\nPrigio.\n\nIt was not easy to have the better of an enchantress like Jaqueline and a\nprince like Ricardo.  In no ordinary circumstances could they have been\nbaffled and defeated; but now it must be admitted that they were in a\nvery trying and alarming situation, especially the princess.  The worst\nof it was, that as Jaqueline sat and thought and thought, she began to\nremember that she was back in her own country.  The hills were those she\nused to see from her father's palace windows when she was a child.  And\nshe remembered with horror that once a year her people used to send a\nbeautiful girl to the Earthquaker, by way of keeping him quiet, as you\nshall hear presently.  And now she heard light footsteps and a sound of\nweeping, and lo! a great troop of pretty girls passed, sweeping in and\nout of the halls in a kind of procession, and looking unhappy and lost.\n\nJaqueline ran to them.\n\n\"Where am I? who are you?\" she cried, in the language of her own country,\nwhich came back to her on a sudden.\n\n\"We are nurses of the Earthquaker,\" they said.  \"Our duty is to sing him\nasleep, and every year he must have a new song; and every year a new\nmaiden must be sent down from earth, with a new sleepy song she has\nlearned from the priests of Manoa, the City of the Sun.  Are you the new\nsinger?\"\n\n\"No, I'm _not_,\" said Jaqueline.  \"I don't know the priests of Manoa; I\ndon't know any new sleepy song.  I only want to find the way out.\"\n\n\"There is no way, or we should have found it,\" said one of the maidens;\n\"and, if you are the wrong girl, by the day after to-morrow they must\nsend the right one, otherwise the Earthquaker will waken, and shake the\nworld, and destroy Manoa, the City of the Sun.\"  Then they all wept\nsoftly in the stillness.  \"Can we get anything to eat here?\" asked poor\nJaqueline, at last.\n\nShe was beginning to be very hungry, and however alarmed she might be,\nshe felt that dinner would not be unwelcome.  The tallest of the maidens\nclapped her hands, and immediately a long table was spread by unseen\nsprites with meringues and cold chicken, and several sorts of delicious\nices.\n\nWe shall desert Jaqueline, who was rather less alarmed when she found\nthat she was not to be starved, at all events, and return to Prince\nRicardo, whom we left fluttering about as a little golden-crested wren.\nHe followed the Giant and Jaqueline into the whirlpool of air as far as\nhe dared, and when he saw her vanish down the cone of the hill, he flew\nstraight back to Pantouflia.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\nPrigio has an Idea.\n\n\n{Ricardo and Semiramis: p165.jpg}\n\nA weary and way-worn little bird was Prince Ricardo when he fluttered\ninto the royal study window, in the palace of Pantouflia.  The king was\nout at a council meeting; knowing that Ricardo had the right things, all\nin good order, he was not in the least anxious about him.  The king was\nout, but Semiramis was in--Semiramis, the great grey cat, sitting on a\nbig book on the top of the library steps.  Now Semiramis was very fond of\nbirds, and no sooner did Ricardo enter and flutter on to a table than\nSemiramis gathered herself together and made one fell spring at him.  She\njust caught his tail feather.  In all his adventures the prince had never\nbeen in greater danger.  He escaped, but no more, and went flying round\nthe ceiling, looking for a safe place.  Finally he perched on a\nchandelier that hung from the roof.  Here he was safe; and so weary was\nhe, that he put his head under his wing and fell fast asleep.  He was\nawakened by the return of the king, who threw himself on a sofa and\nexclaimed:\n\n\"Oh, that Prime Minister! his dulness is as heavy as lead; much heavier,\nin fact!\"\n\nThen his Majesty lit a cigar and took up a volume; he certainly was a sad\nbookworm.\n\nDick now began to fly about the room, brushing the king's face and trying\nto attract his notice.\n\n\"Poor little thing!\" said his Majesty.\n\nAnd Dick alighted, and nestled in his breast.\n\nOn seeing this, Semiramis began to growl, as cats do when they are angry,\nand slowly approached his Majesty.\n\n\"Get out, Semiramis!\" said the king; and lifting her by the neck, he put\nher out of the room and shut the door, at which she remained scratching\nand mewing.\n\nDick now crept out of the royal waistcoat, flew to the king's ear,\ntwittered, pointed out of the window with one claw, and, lying down on\nhis back, pretended to be dead.  Then he got up again, twittered afresh,\npointed to the Wishing Cap, and, finally, convinced the king that this\nwas no common fowl.\n\n\"An enchanted prince or princess,\" said Prigio, \"such as I have often\nread of.  Who can it be?  Not Jaqueline; she could change herself back in\na moment.  By the way, where _is_ Jaqueline?\"\n\nHe rang the bell, and asked the servant to look for the princess.\n\nSemiramis tried to come in, but was caught and shut up downstairs.\n\nAfter doing this, the man replied that her Royal Highness had not been in\nthe palace all day.\n\nThe king rushed to the crystal ball, looked all the world over; but no\nprincess!  He became very nervous, and at that moment Dick lighted on the\ncrystal ball, and put his claw on the very hill where Jaqueline had\ndisappeared.  Then he cocked his little eye at the king.\n\n\"Nay, she is somewhere in the unknown centre of South America,\" said his\nMajesty; \"somewhere behind Mount Roraima, where nobody has ever been.  I\nmust look into this.\"\n\nThen he put on the Wishing Cap, and wished that the bird would assume his\nnatural shape if he was under enchantment, as there seemed too good\nreason to believe.\n\nInstantly Dick stood before him.\n\n{Instantly Dick stood before him: p170.jpg}\n\n\"Ricardo!\" cried the king in horror; \"and in this disguise!  Where have\nyou been?  What have you done with Jaqueline?  Where are the Seven-league\nBoots?  Where is the Sword of Sharpness?  Speak!  Get up!\" for Dick was\nkneeling and weeping bitterly at the royal feet.\n\n\"All lost!\" said Dick.  \"Poor Jaqueline! she was the best girl, and the\nprettiest, and the kindest.  And the Earthquaker's got her, and the\nGiant's got the other things,\" Dick ended, crying bitterly.\n\n\"Calm yourself, Ricardo,\" said his Majesty, very pale, but calm and\ndetermined.  \"Here, take a glass of port, and explain how all this\nhappened.\"\n\nDick drank the wine, and then he told his miserable story.\n\n\"You may well sob!  Why didn't you use the Cap of Darkness?  Mere\nconceit!  But there is no use in crying over spilt milk.  The thing is,\nto rescue Jaqueline.  And what are we to say to your mother?\"\n\n\"That's the worst of it all,\" said Dick.  \"Mother will break her heart.\"\n\n\"I must see her at once,\" said the king, \"and break it to her.\"\n\nThis was a terrible task; but the queen had such just confidence in her\nPrigio that she soon dried her tears, remarking that Heaven would not\ndesert Jaqueline, and that the king would find a way out of the trouble.\n\nHis Majesty retired to his study, put his head in his hands, and thought\nand thought.\n\n\"The thing is, of course,\" he said, \"to destroy the Earthquaker before he\nwakens; but how?  What can kill such a monster?  Prodding him with the\nsword would only stir him up and make him more vicious.  And I know of no\nother beast we can set against him, as I did with the Fire-beast and the\nIce-beast, when I was young.  Oh, for an idea!\"\n\nThen his mind, somehow, went back to the Council and the ponderous\nstupidity of the Prime Minister.\n\n\"Heavier than lead,\" said the king.  \"By George!  I have a plan.  If I\ncould get to the place where they keep the Stupidity, I could carry away\nenough of it to flatten out the Earthquaker.\"\n\nThen he remembered how, in an old Italian poem, he had read about all the\nstrange lumber-room of odd things which is kept in the moon.  That is the\nadvantage of reading: _Knowledge is Power_; and you mostly get knowledge\nthat is really worth having out of good old books which people do not\nusually read.\n\n\"If the Stupidity is kept in stock, up in the moon, and comes from there,\nfalling naturally down on the earth in small quantities, I might obtain\nenough for my purpose,\" thought King Prigio.  \"But--how to get to the\nmoon?  There are difficulties about that.\"\n\nBut difficulties only sharpened the ingenuity of this admirable king.\n\n\"The other fellow had a Flying Horse,\" said he.\n\nBy \"the other fellow\" King Prigio meant an Italian knight, Astolfo, who,\nin old times, visited the moon, and there found and brought back the\ncommon sense of his friend, Orlando, as you may read in the poem of\nAriosto.\n\n\"Now,\" reasoned King Prigio, \"if there is a Flying Horse at all, he is in\nthe stables of the King of Delhi.  I must look into this.\"\n\nTaking the magic spy-glass, the king surveyed the world from China to\nPeru, and, sure enough, there was the famous Flying Horse in the king's\nstable at Delhi.  Hastily the king thrust his feet into the Shoes of\nSwiftness--so hastily, indeed, that, as the poet says, he \"madly crammed\na left-hand foot into a right-hand shoe.\"  But this, many people think,\nis a sign of good luck; so he put the shoes on the proper feet, and in a\nfew minutes was in the presence of the Great Mogul.\n\nThe monarch received him with some surprise, but with stately kindness,\nand listened to Prigio while he explained what he wanted.\n\n\"I am only too happy to assist so adventurous a prince,\" remarked the\nGreat Mogul.  \"This is like old times!  Every horse in my stable is at\nyour service, but, as you say, only the Flying Horse is of any use to you\nin this expedition.\"\n\nHe clapped his hands, the Grand Vizier appeared, and the king gave orders\nto have the Flying Horse saddled at once.  He then presented King Prigio\nwith a large diamond, and came down into the courtyard to see him mount.\n\n\"He's very fresh,\" said the groom who held the bridle; \"has not been out\nof the stable for three hundred years!\"\n\nPrigio sprang into the saddle among the salaams of the dusky multitude,\nand all the ladies of the seraglio waved their scented handkerchiefs out\nof the windows.\n\nThe king, as he had been instructed, turned a knob of gold in the saddle\nof the Flying Horse, then kissed his hand to the ladies, and, giving the\nsteed his head, cried, in excellent Persian:\n\n\"To the moon!\"\n\nUp flew the horse with an easy action, and the king's head nearly swam\nwith the swiftness of the flight.  Soon the earth below him was no bigger\nthan a top, spinning on its own axis (see Geography books for this), and,\nas night fell, earth was only a great red moon.\n\n{King Prigio on the Flying Horse: p178.jpg}\n\nThrough the dark rode King Prigio, into the silver dawn of the moon.  All\nnow became clear and silvery; the coasts of the moon came into sight,\nwith white seas breaking on them; and at last the king reached the silver\nwalls, and the gate of opal.  Before the gate stood two beautiful ladies.\nOne was fair, with yellow locks, the colour of the harvest moon.  She had\na crown of a golden snake and white water-lilies, and her dress now shone\nwhite, now red, now golden; and in her hand was the golden pitcher that\nsheds the dew, and a golden wand.  The other lady was as dark as\nnight--dark eyes, dark hair; her crown was of poppies.  She held the\nebony Wand of Sleep.  Her dress was of the deepest blue, sown with stars.\nThe king knew that they were the maidens of the bright and the dark side\nof the moon--of the side you see, and of the side that no one has ever\nseen, except King Prigio.  He stopped the Flying Horse by turning the\nother knob in the saddle, alighted, and bowed very low to each of the\nladies.\n\n\"Daring mortal! what make you here?\" they asked.\n\nAnd then the king told them about Jaqueline and the Earthquaker, and how\nhe needed a great weight of Stupidity to flatten him out with.\n\nThe ladies heard him in silence, and then they said:\n\n\"Follow us,\" and they flew lightly beside the Flying Horse till they had\ncrossed all the bright side of the moon, above the silver palaces and\nsilver seas, and reached the summit of the Mountains of the Moon which\nseparate the bright from the dark side.\n\n\"Here I may go no further,\" said the bright lady; \"and beyond, as you\nsee, all is darkness and heavy sleep.\"\n\nThen she touched Prigio with her golden wand with twisted serpents, and\nhe became luminous, light raying out from him; and the dark lady, too,\nshone like silver in the night: and on they flew, over black rocks and\nblack rivers, till they reached a huge mountain, like a mountain of coal,\nmany thousand feet high, for its head was lost in the blackness of\ndarkness.  The dark Moon-Lady struck the rock with her ebony wand, and\nsaid, \"Open!\" and the cliffs opened like a door, and they were within the\nmountain.\n\n\"Here,\" said the dark lady, \"is the storehouse of all the Stupidity;\nhence it descends in showers like Stardust on the earth whenever this\nmountain, which is a volcano, is in eruption.  Only a little of the\nStupidity reaches the earth, and that only in invisible dust; yet you\nknow how weighty it is, even in that form.\"\n\n\"Indeed, madam,\" said the king, \"no one knows it better than I do.\"\n\n\"Then make your choice of the best sort of Stupidity for your purpose,\"\nsaid the dark lady.\n\nAnd in the light which flowed from their bodies King Prigio looked round\nat the various kinds of Solid Stupidity.  There it all lay in masses--the\nStupidity of bad Sermons, of ignorant reviewers, of bad poems, of bad\nspeeches, of dreary novels, of foolish statesmen, of ignorant mobs, of\nfine ladies, of idle, naughty boys and girls; and the king examined them\nall, and all were very, very heavy.  But when he came to the Stupidity of\nthe Learned--of dull, blind writers on Shakspeare, and Homer, and the\nBible--then King Prigio saw that he had found the sort he wanted, and\nthat a very little of it would go a long way.  He never could have got it\non the saddle of the Flying Horse if the dark lady had not touched it\nwith her ebony wand, and made it light to carry till it was wanted for\nhis purpose.  When he needed it for use, he was to utter a certain spell,\nwhich she taught him, and then the lump would recover its natural weight.\nSo he easily put a great block on his saddle-bow, and he and the dark\nlady flew back till they reached the crest of the Mountains of the Moon.\nThere she touched him with her ebony wand, and the silver light which the\nbright lady had shed on him died from his face and his body, and he\nbecame like other men.\n\n\"You see your way?\" said the dark lady, pointing to the bright moon of\nearth, shining far off in the heavens.\n\nThen he knelt down and thanked her, and she murmured strange words of\nblessing which he did not understand; but her face was grave and kind,\nand he thought of Queen Rosalind, his wife.\n\nThen he jumped on the Flying Horse, galloped down and down, till he\nreached his palace gate; called for Ricardo, set him behind him on the\nsaddle, and away they rode, above land and wide seas, till they saw the\ncrest of the hollow hill, where Jaqueline was with the Earthquaker.\nBeyond it they marked the glittering spires and towers of Manoa, the City\nof the Sun; and \"Thither,\" said King Prigio, who had been explaining how\nmatters stood, to Ricardo, \"we must ride, for I believe they stand in\ngreat need of our assistance.\"\n\n\"Had we not better go to Jaqueline first, sir?\" said Ricardo.\n\n\"No,\" said the king; \"I think mine is the best plan.  Manoa, whose golden\nspires and pinnacles are shining below us, is the City of the Sun, which\nSir Walter Raleigh and the Spaniards could never find, so that men have\ndoubted of its existence.  We are needed there, to judge by that angry\ncrowd in the marketplace.  How they howl!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\nThe End.\n\n\n{Man with rock: p186.jpg}\n\nIt was on a strange sight that the king and Ricardo looked down from the\nFlying Horse.  Beneath them lay the City of Manoa, filling with its\ngolden battlements and temples a hollow of the mountains.  Here were\npalaces all carved over with faces of men and beasts, and with twisted\npatterns of serpents.\n\nThe city walls were built of huge square stones, and among the groves\ntowered pyramids, on which the people did service to their gods.  From\nevery temple top came the roar of beaten drums, great drums of\nserpentskin.\n\nBut, in the centre of the chief square of the town, was gathered a wild\ncrowd of men in shining copper armour and helmets of gold and glittering\ndresses of feathers.  Among them ran about priests with hideous masks,\ncrying them on to besiege and break down the royal palace.  From the\nbattlements of the palace the king's guardsmen were firing arrows and\nthrowing spears.  The mob shot arrows back, some of them tipped with\nlighted straw, to burn the palace down.\n\nBut, in the very centre of the square, was a clear space of ground, on\nwhich fell the shadow of a tall column of red stone, all carved with\nserpents and faces of gods.  Beside it stood a figure horrible to see: a\nman clothed in serpent skins, whose face was the grinning face of a\nskull; but the skull was shining black and red in patches, and a long\nwhite beard flowed from beneath it.  This man, mounted on a kind of altar\nof red stone, waved his hand and yelled, and seemed to point to the\nshadow of the column which fell across the square.\n\nThe people were so furious and so eager that they did not, at first,\nnotice King Prigio as he slowly descended.  But at last the eyes within\nthe skull looked up and saw him, and then the man gave a great cry, rent\nhis glittering dress of serpentskin, and held up his hands.\n\nThen all the multitude looked up, and seeing the Flying Horse, let their\nweapons fall; and the man of the skull tore it from his face, and knelt\nbefore King Prigio, with his head in the dust.\n\n\"Thou hast come, oh, Pachacamac, as is foretold in the prophecy of the\nCord of the Venerable Knots!  Thou hast come, but behold the shadow of\nthe stone!  Thou art too late, oh Lord of the Earth and the Sea!\"\n\nThen he pointed to the shadow, which, naturally, was growing shorter, as\nthe sun drew near mid-day.\n\nHe spoke in the language of the ancient Incas of Peru, which of course\nPrigio knew very well; and he also knew that Pachacamac was the god of\nthat people.\n\n\"I have come,\" Prigio said, with presence of mind, \"as it has been\nprophesied of old.\"\n\n\"Riding on a beast that flies,\" said the old priest, \"even as the oracle\ndeclared.  Glory to Pachacamac, even though we die to-day!\"\n\n\"In what can I help my people?\" said Prigio.\n\n\"Thou knowest; why should we instruct thee?  Thou knowest that on\nmidsummer-day, every year, before the shadow shrinks back to the base of\nthe _huaca_ {190} of Manoa, we must offer a maiden to lull the\nEarthquaker with a new song.  Lo, now the shadow shrinks to the foot of\nthe _huaca_, and the maid is not offered!  For the lot fell on the\ndaughter of thy servant the Inca, and he refuses to give her up.  One\ndaughter of his, he says, has been sacrificed to the sacred birds, the\n_Cunturs_: the birds were found slain on the hill-top, no man knows how;\nbut the maiden vanished.\"\n\n\"Why, it must have been Jaqueline.  I killed the birds,\" said Ricardo, in\nPantouflian.\n\n\"Silence, not a word!\" said the king, sternly.\n\n\"And what makes you bear arms against the Inca?\" he asked the old man.\n\n\"We would slay him and her,\" answered the priest; \"for, when the shadow\nshrinks to the foot of the stone, the sun will shine straight down into\nthe hollow hill of the Earthquaker, and he will waken and destroy Manoa\nand the Temples of the Sun.\"\n\n\"Then wherefore would you slay them, when you must all perish?\"\n\n\"The people, oh Pachacamac, would have revenge before they die.\"\n\n\"Oh, folly of men!\" said the king, solemnly; then he cried: \"Lead me to\nthe Inca; this day you shall not perish.  Is it not predicted in the Cord\nof the Venerable Knots that I shall slay this monster?\"\n\n\"Hasten, oh Pachacamac, for the shadow shortens!\" said the priest.\n\n\"Lead me to the Inca,\" answered Prigio.\n\nAt this the people arose with a great shout, for they, too, had been\nkneeling; and, sending a flag of truce before King Prigio, the priest led\nhim into the palace.  The ground was strewn with bodies of the slain, and\nthrough them Prigio rode slowly into the courtyard, where the Inca was\nsitting in the dust, weeping and throwing ashes on his long hair and his\ngolden raiment.  The king bade the priest remain without the palace\ngates; then dismounted, and, advancing to the Inca, raised him and\nembraced him.\n\n\"I come, a king to a king,\" he said.  \"My cousin, take courage; your\nsorrows are ended.  If I do not slay the Earthquaker, sacrifice me to\nyour gods.\"\n\n\"The Prophecy is fulfilled,\" said the Inca, and wept for joy.  \"Yet thou\nmust hasten, for it draws near to noon.\"\n\nThen Prigio went up to the golden battlements, and saying no word, waved\nhis hand.  In a moment the square was empty, for the people rushed to\ngive thanks in the temples.\n\n\"Wait my coming, my cousin,\" said Prigio to the Inca; \"I shall bring you\nback the daughter that was lost, when I have slain your enemy.\"\n\nThe Inca would have knelt at his feet; but the king raised him, and bade\nhim prepare such a feast as had never been seen in Manoa.\n\n\"The lost are found to-day,\" he said; \"be you ready to welcome them.\"\n\nThen, mounting the Flying Horse, with Dick beside him, he rose towards\nthe peak of the hill where the Earthquaker had his home.  Already the\nground was beginning to tremble; the Earthquaker was stirring in his\nsleep, for the maiden of the new song had not been sent to him, and the\nyear ended at noon, and then he would rise and ruin Manoa.\n\nThe sun was approaching mid-day, and Prigio put spurs to the Flying\nHorse.  Ten minutes more, and the sun would look straight down the crater\nof the hollow hill, and the Earthquaker would arouse himself when the\nlight and the heat fell on his body.\n\nAlready the light of the sun shone slanting half-way down the hollow cone\nas the whirlpool of air caught the Flying Horse, and drew him swiftly\ndown and down to the shadowy halls.  There knelt and wept the nurses of\nthe Earthquaker on the marble floor; but Jaqueline stood a little apart,\nvery pale, but not weeping.\n\nRicardo had leaped off before the horse touched the ground, and rushed to\nJaqueline, and embraced her in his arms; and, oh! how glad she was to see\nhim, so that she quite forgot her danger and laughed for joy.\n\n\"Oh! you have come, you have come; I knew you would come!\" she cried.\n\nThen King Prigio advanced, the mighty weight in his hand, to the verge of\nthe dreadful gulf of the Earthquaker.  The dim walls grew radiant; a long\nslant arm of yellow light touched the black body of the Earthquaker, and\na thrill went through him, and shook the world, so that, far away, the\nbells rang in Pantouflia.  A moment more, and he would waken in his\nstrength; and once awake, he would shatter the city walls and ruin Manoa.\nEven now a great mass of rock fell from the roof deep down in the secret\ncaves, and broke into flying fragments, and all the echoes roared and\nrang.\n\nKing Prigio stood with the mighty mass poised in his hands.\n\n\"Die!\" he cried; and he uttered the words of power, the magic spell that\nthe dark Moon Lady had taught him.\n\nThen all its invincible natural weight came into the mass which the king\nheld, and down it shot full on the body of the Earthquaker; and where\nthat had been was nothing but a vast abyss, silent, empty, and blank, and\nbottomless.\n\nFar, far below, thousands of miles below, in the very centre of the\nearth, lay the dead Earthquaker, crushed flat as a sheet of paper, and\nthe sun of midsummer-day shone straight down on the dreadful chasm, and\ncould not waken him any more for ever.\n\nThe king drew a long breath.\n\n\"Stupidity has saved the world,\" he said; and, with only strength to draw\nback one step from the abyss, he fell down, hiding his face in his hands.\n\nBut Jaqueline's arms were round his neck, and the maidens brought him\nwater from an ice-cold spring; and soon King Prigio was himself again,\nand ready for anything.  But afterwards he used to say that the moment\nwhen the Earthquaker stirred was the most dreadful in his life.\n\nNow, in Manoa, where all the firm foundations of the city had trembled\nonce, when the sun just touched the Earthquaker, the people, seeing that\nthe shadow of the sacred column had crept to its foot, and yet Manoa\nstood firm again, and the Temple of the Sun was not overthrown, raised\nsuch a cry that it echoed even through the halls within the hollow hill.\n\nWho shall describe the joy of the maidens, and how often Jaqueline and\nRicardo kissed each other?\n\n\"You have saved me!\" she cried to the king, throwing her arms round him\nagain.  \"You have saved Manoa!\"\n\n\"And _you_ have saved the Hope of Pantouflia, not once or twice,\" said\nhis Majesty, grandly.\n\nAnd he told Dick how much he had owed to Jaqueline, in the fight with the\nYellow Dwarf, and the fight with the Giant, for he did not think it\nnecessary to mention the affair at Rome.\n\nThen Dick kissed Jaqueline again, and all the maidens kissed each other,\nand they quite cried for gladness.\n\n\"But we keep his Majesty the Inca waiting,\" said Prigio.  \"Punctuality is\nthe courtesy of kings.  You ladies will excuse me, I am sure, if I remove\nfirst from the dungeon her whom we call the Princess Jaqueline.  The\nInca, her father, has a claim on us to this preference.\"\n\nThen placing Jaqueline on the saddle, and leaving Dick to comfort the\nother young ladies, who were still rather nervous, the king flew off to\nManoa, for the wind, of course, died with the death of the Earthquaker.\n\nI cannot tell you the delight of all Manoa, and of the Inca, when they\nsaw the Flying Horse returning, and recognised their long-lost princess,\nwho rushed into the arms of her father.  They beat the serpent drums, for\nthey had no bells, on the tops of the temples.  They went quite mad with\ndelight: enemies kissed in the streets; and all the parents, without\nexception, allowed all the young people who happened to be in love to be\nmarried that very day.  Then Prigio brought back all the maidens, one\nafter the other, and Dick last; and he fell at the Inca's feet, and\nrequested leave to marry Jaqueline.\n\nBut, before that could be done, King Prigio, mounted on the palace\nbalcony, made a long but very lucid speech to the assembled people.  He\nbegan by explaining that he was not their God, Pachacamac, but king of a\npowerful country of which they had never heard before, as they lived very\nmuch withdrawn in an unknown region of the world.  Then he pointed out,\nin the most considerate manner, that their religion was not all he could\nwish, otherwise they would never sacrifice young ladies to wild birds and\nEarthquakers.  He next sketched out the merits of his own creed, that of\nthe Lutheran Church; and the Inca straightway observed that he proposed\nto establish it in Manoa at once.\n\nSome objection was raised by the old priest in the skull mask; but when\nthe Inca promised to make him an archbishop, and to continue all his\nrevenues, the priest admitted that he was perfectly satisfied; and the\ngeneral public cheered and waved their hats with emotion.  It was\narranged that the Inca, with his other daughters, should visit Pantouflia\nimmediately, both because he could not bear to leave Jaqueline, and also\nbecause there were a few points on which he felt that he still needed\ninformation.  The Government was left in the hands of the archbishop, who\nbegan at once by burning his skull mask (you may see one like it in the\nBritish Museum, in the Mexican room), and by letting loose all the birds\nand beasts which the Manoans used to worship.\n\nSo all the young people were married in the Golden Temple of the Sun, and\nall the Earthquaker's nurses who were under thirty were wedded to the\nyoung men who had been fond of them before they were sent into the hollow\nhill.  These young men had never cared for any one else.  Everybody wore\nbridal favours, all the unengaged young ladies acted as bridesmaids, and\nsuch a throwing of rice and old shoes has very seldom been witnessed.  As\nfor the happy royal pair, with their fathers, and the other princess (who\ndid not happen to be engaged), back they flew to Pantouflia.\n\nAnd there was Queen Rosalind waiting at the palace gates, and crying and\nlaughing with pleasure when she heard that the wish of her heart was\nfulfilled, and Jaqueline was to be her daughter.\n\n\"And, as for the Earthquaker,\" said her Majesty, \"I never was really\nanxious in the least, for I knew no beast in the world was a match for\n_you_, my dear.\"\n\nSo, just to make everything orderly and correct, Ricardo and Jaqueline\nwere married over again, in the Cathedral of Pantouflia.  The marriage\npresents came in afterwards, of course, and among them, what do you\nthink?  Why, the Seven-League Boots and the Sword of Sharpness, with a\nvery polite note of extraordinary size:\n\n   \"The Giant who does not Know when he has had Enough presents his\n   hearty congratulations to the royal pair, and begs to lay at their\n   feet the Seven-league Boots (they not fitting me) and the Sword which\n   Prince Ricardo left in the Giant's keeping recently.  The Giant hopes\n   _no bad blood_; and I am,\n\n   \"Yours very faithfully,\n   \"THE G., &c.\n\n\"P.S.--His little woman sends her congratulations.\"\n\nSo you see the Giant was not such a bad sort of fellow after all, and\nPrince Ricardo always admitted that he never met a foe more gallant and\ngood-humoured.\n\nWith such a clever wife, Ricardo easily passed all his examinations; and\nhis little son, Prince Prigio (named after his august grandfather), never\nhad to cry, \"Mamma, mamma, father's plucked again.\"\n\nSo they lived happily in a happy country, occasionally visiting Manoa;\nand as they possessed the magical Water o Life from the Fountain of\nLions, I do not believe that any of them ever died at all, but that\nPrigio is still King of Pantouflia.\n\n\"No need such kings should ever die!\"\n\n{The coach: p204.jpg}\n\nPRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n\n{21}  You can buy these glasses now from the Psychical Society, at half-a-\ncrown and upwards.\n\n{135}  See the works of D'Aulnoy.\n\n{146}  This Giant is mentioned, and his picture is drawn, in an old\nmanuscript of about 1875.\n\n{190}  _Huaca_, sacred stone.","title":"Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia: Being the Adventures of Prince Prigio's Son","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":23959}