The Red Fairy Book - Andrew Lang (best novels for beginners TXT) 📗

our kingdom.’

 

Rosette thanked them for all the trouble they were taking on her

account, and promised to take great care of the kingdom, and only to

amuse herself by looking at the peacock, and making Frisk dance

while they were away.

 

So they set out, and asked everyone they met—

 

`Do you know the King of the Peacocks?’

 

But the answer was always, `No, no.’

 

Then they went on and on, so far that no one has ever been

farther, and at last they came to the Kingdom of the Cockchafers.

 

They had never before seen such a number of cockchafers, and

the buzzing was so loud that the King was afraid he should be

deafened by it. He asked the most distinguished-looking cockchafer

they met if he knew where they could find the King of the

Peacocks.

 

`Sire,’ replied the cockchafer, `his kingdom is thirty thousand

leagues from this; you have come the longest way.’

 

`And how do you know that?’ said the King.

 

`Oh!’ said the cockchafer, `we all know you very well, since we

spend two or three months in your garden every year.’

 

Thereupon the King and the Prince made great friends with him,

and they all walked arm-in-arm and dined together, and afterwards

the cockchafer showed them all the curiosities of his strange country,

where the tiniest green leaf costs a gold piece and more. Then

they set out again to finish their journey, and this time, as they knew

the way, they were not long upon the road. It was easy to guess

that they had come to the right place, for they saw peacocks in

every tree, and their cries could be heard a long way off:

 

When they reached the city they found it full of men and women

who were dressed entirely in peacocks’ feathers, which were evidently

thought prettier than anything else.

 

They soon met the King, who was driving about in a beautiful

little golden carriage which glittered with diamonds, and was drawn

at full speed by twelve peacocks. The King and the Prince were

delighted to see that the King of the Peacocks was as handsome as

possible. He had curly golden hair and was very pale, and he

wore a crown of peacocks’ feathers.

 

When he saw Rosette’s brothers he knew at once that they were

strangers, and stopping his carriage he sent for them to speak to

him. When they had greeted him they said:

 

`Sire, we have come from very far away to show you a beautiful

portrait.’

 

So saying they drew from their travelling bag the picture of

Rosette.

 

The King looked at it in silence a long time, but at last he said:

 

`I could not have believed that there was such a beautiful

Princess in the world!’

 

`Indeed, she is really a hundred times as pretty as that,’ said

her brothers.

 

`I think you must be making fun of me,’ replied the King of the

Peacocks.

 

`Sire,’ said the Prince, `my brother is a King, like yourself. He

is called “the King,” I am called “the Prince,” and that is the

portrait of our sister, the Princess Rosette. We have come to ask

if you would like to marry her. She is as good as she is beautiful,

and we will give her a bushel of gold pieces for her dowry.’

 

`Oh! with all my heart,’ replied the King, `and I will make her

very happy. She shall have whatever she likes, and I shall love

her dearly; only I warn you that if she is not as pretty as you have

told me, I will have your heads cut off.’

 

`Oh! certainly, we quite agree to that,’ said the brothers in one

breath.

 

`Very well. Off with you into prison, and stay there until the

Princess arrives,’ said the King of the Peacocks.

 

And the Princes were so sure that Rosette was far prettier than

her portrait that they went without a murmur. They were very

kindly treated, and that they might not feel dull the King came

often to see them. As for Rosette’s portrait that was taken up to

the palace, and the King did nothing but gaze at it all day and all

night.

 

As the King and the Prince had to stay in prison, they sent a

letter to the Princess telling her to pack up all her treasures as

quickly as possible, and come to them, as the King of the Peacocks

was waiting to marry her; but they did not say that they were in

prison, for fear of making her uneasy.

 

When Rosette received the letter she was so delighted that she

ran about telling everyone that the King of the Peacocks was found,

and she was going to marry him.

 

Guns were fired, and fireworks let off. Everyone had as many

cakes and sweetmeats as he wanted. And for three days everybody

who came to see the Princess was presented with a slice of bread-and-jam, a nightingale’s egg, and some hippocras. After having

thus entertained her friends, she distributed her dolls among them,

and left her brother’s kingdom to the care of the wisest old men of

the city, telling them to take charge of everything, not to spend any

money, but save it all up until the King should return, and above

all, not to forget to feed her peacock. Then she set out, only taking

with her her nurse, and the nurse’s daughter, and the little green

dog Frisk.

 

They took a boat and put out to sea, carrying with them the

bushel of gold pieces, and enough dresses to last the Princess ten

years if she wore two every day, and they did nothing but laugh and

sing. The nurse asked the boatman:

 

`Can you take us, can you take us to the kingdom of the peacocks?’

 

But he answered:

 

`Oh no! oh no!’

 

Then she said:

 

`You must take us, you must take us.’

 

And he answered:

 

`Very soon, very soon.’

 

Then the nurse said:

 

`Will you take us? will you take us?’

 

And the boatman answered:

 

`Yes, yes.’

 

Then she whispered in his ear:

 

`Do you want to make your fortune?’

 

And he said:

 

`Certainly I do.’

 

`I can tell you how to get a bag of gold,’ said she.

 

`I ask nothing better,’ said the boatman.

 

`Well,’ said the nurse, `to-night, when the Princess is asleep, you

must help me to throw her into the sea, and when she is drowned

I will put her beautiful clothes upon my daughter, and we will take

her to the King of the Peacocks, who will be only too glad to marry

her, and as your reward you shall have your boat full of diamonds.’

 

The boatman was very much surprised at this proposal, and

said:

 

`But what a pity to drown such a pretty Princess!’

 

However, at last the nurse persuaded him to help her, and when

the night came and the Princess was fast asleep as usual, with Frisk

curled up on his own cushion at the foot of her bed, the wicked nurse

fetched the boatman and her daughter, and between them they

picked up the Princess, feather bed, mattress, pillows, blankets and

all, and threw her into the sea, without even waking her. Now,

luckily, the Princess’s bed was entirely stuffed with phoenix feathers,

which are very rare, and have the property of always floating upon

water, so Rosette went on swimming about as if she had been in a

boat. After a little while she began to feel very cold, and turned

round so often that she woke Frisk, who started up, and, having a

very good nose, smelt the soles and herrings so close to him that he

began to bark. He barked so long and so loud that he woke all the

other fish, who came swimming up round the Princess’s bed, and

poking at it with their great heads. As for her, she said to herself:

 

`How our boat does rock upon the water! I am really glad

that I am not often as uncomfortable as I have been to-night.’

 

The wicked nurse and the boatman, who were by this time quite

a long way off, heard Frisk barking, and said to each other:

 

`That horrid little animal and his mistress are drinking our

health in sea-water now. Let us make haste to land, for we must

be quite near the city of the King of the Peacocks.’

 

The King had sent a hundred carriages to meet them, drawn by

every kind of strange animal. There were lions, bears, wolves, stags,

horses, buffaloes, eagles, and peacocks. The carriage intended for

the Princess Rosette had six blue monkeys, which could turn summer-saults, and dance on a tight-rope, and do many other charming

tricks. Their, harness was all of crimson velvet with gold buckles,

and behind the carriage walked sixty beautiful ladies chosen by the

King to wait upon Rosette and amuse her.

 

The nurse had taken all the pains imaginable to deck out her

daughter. She put on her Rosette’s prettiest frock, and covered her

with diamonds from head to foot. But she was so ugly that nothing

could make her look nice, and what was worse, she was sulky and

ill-tempered, and did nothing but grumble all the time.

 

When she stepped from the boat and the escort sent by the King

of the Peacocks caught sight of her, they were so surprised that they

could not say a single word.

 

`Now then, look alive,’ cried the false Princess. `If you don’t

bring me something to eat I will have all your heads cut off!’

 

Then they whispered one to another:

 

`Here’s a pretty state of things! she is as wicked as she is ugly.

What a bride for our poor King! She certainly was not worth bringing

from the other end of the world!’

 

But she went on ordering them all about, and for no fault at all

would give slaps and pinches to everyone she could reach.

 

As the procession was so long it advanced but slowly, and the

nurse’s daughter sat up in her carriage trying to look like a Queen.

But the peacocks, who were sitting upon every tree waiting to salute

her, and who had made up their minds to cry, `Long live our beautiful

Queen!’ when they caught sight of the false bride could not

help crying instead:

 

`Oh! how ugly she is!’

 

Which offended her so much that she said to the guards:

 

`Make haste and kill all these insolent peacocks who have dared

to insult me.’

 

But the peacocks only flew away, laughing at her.

 

The rogue of a boatman, who noticed all this, said softly to the

nurse:

 

`This is a bad business for us, gossip; your daughter ought to

have been prettier.’

 

But she answered:

 

`Be quiet, stupid, or you will spoil everything.’

 

Now they told the King that the Princess was approaching.

 

`Well,’ said he, `did her brothers tell me truly? Is she prettier

than her portrait?’

 

`Sire,’ they answered, `if she were as pretty that would do very well.’

 

`That’s true,’ said the King; `I for one shall be quite satisfied if

she is. Let us go and meet her.’ For they knew by the uproar that

she had arrived, but they could not tell what all the shouting was

about. The King thought he could hear the words:

 

`How ugly she is! How ugly she is!’ and he fancied they must

refer to some dwarf