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

the Princess was bringing with her. It never

occurred to him that they could apply to the bride herself.

 

The Princess Rosette’s portrait was carried at the head of the

procession, and after it walked the King surrounded by his courtiers.

He was all impatience to see the lovely Princess, but when he

caught sight of the nurse’s daughter he was furiously angry, and

would not advance another step. For she was really ugly enough

to have frightened anybody.

 

`What!’ he cried, `have the two rascals who are my prisoners

dared to play me such a trick as this? Do they propose that I

shall marry this hideous creature? Let her be shut up in my great

tower, with her nurse and those who brought her here; and as for

them, I will have their heads cut off.’

 

Meanwhile the King and the Prince, who knew that their

sister must have arrived, had made themselves smart, and sat

expecting every minute to be summoned to greet her. So when the

gaoler came with soldiers, and carried them down into a black

dungeon which swarmed with toads and bats, and where they were up

to their necks in water, nobody could have been more surprised and

dismayed than they were.

 

`This is a dismal kind of wedding,’ they said; `what can have

happened that we should be treated like this? They must mean to

kill us.’

 

And this idea annoyed them very much. Three days passed

before they heard any news, and then the King of the Peacocks came

and berated them through a hole in the wall.

 

`You have called yourselves King and Prince,’ he cried, `to try

and make me marry your sister, but you are nothing but beggars,

not worth the water you drink. I mean to make short work with

you, and the sword is being sharpened that will cut off your heads!’

 

`King of the Peacocks,’ answered the King angrily, `you had

better take care what you are about. I am as good a King as yourself,

and have a splendid kingdom and robes and crowns, and

plenty of good red gold to do what I like with. You are pleased to

jest about having our heads cut off; perhaps you think we have stolen

something from you?’

 

At first the King of the Peacocks was taken aback by this bold

speech, and had half a mind to send them all away together; but

his Prime Minister declared that it would never do to let such a

trick as that pass unpunished, everybody would laugh at him; so the

accusation was drawn up against them, that they were impostors,

and that they had promised the King a beautiful Princess in marriage

who, when she arrived, proved to be an ugly peasant girl.

 

This accusation was read to the prisoners, who cried out that

they had spoken the truth, that their sister was indeed a Princess

more beautiful than the day, and that there was some mystery

about all this which they could not fathom. Therefore they

demanded seven days in which to prove their innocence, The King

of the Peacocks was so angry that he would hardly even grant them

this favour, but at last he was persuaded to do so.

 

While all this was going on at court, let us see what had been

happening to the real Princess. When the day broke she and Frisk

were equally astonished at finding themselves alone upon the sea,

with no boat and no one to help them. The Princess cried and

cried, until even the fishes were sorry for her.

 

`Alas!’ she said, `the King of the Peacocks must have ordered

me to be thrown into the sea because he had changed his mind

and did not want to marry me. But how strange of him, when I

should have loved him so much, and we should have been so happy

together!’

 

And then she cried harder than ever, for she could not help still

loving him. So for two days they floated up and down the sea, wet

and shivering with the cold, and so hungry that when the Princess

saw some oysters she caught them, and she and Frisk both ate some,

though they didn’t like them at all. When night came the Princess

was so frightened that she said to Frisk:

 

`Oh! Do please keep on barking for fear the soles should come

and eat us up!’

 

Now it happened that they had floated close in to the shore,

where a poor old man lived all alone in a little cottage. When he

heard Frisk’s barking he thought to himself:

 

`There must have been a shipwreck!’ (for no dogs ever passed

that way by any chance), and he went out to see if he could be of

any use. He soon saw the Princess and Frisk floating up and

down, and Rosette, stretching out her hands to him, cried:

 

`Oh! Good old man, do save me, or I shall die of cold and

hunger!’

 

When he heard her cry out so piteously he was very sorry for

her, and ran back into his house to fetch a long boat-hook. Then he

waded into the water up to his chin, and after being nearly drowned

once or twice he at last succeeded in getting hold of the Princess’s

bed and dragging it on shore.

 

Rosette and Frisk were joyful enough to find themselves once

more on dry land, and the Princess thanked the old man heartily;

then, wrapping herself up in her blankets, she daintily picked her way

up to the cottage on her little bare feet. There the old man lighted

a fire of straw, and then drew from an old box his wife’s dress and

shoes, which the Princess put on, and thus roughly clad looked as

charming as possible, and Frisk danced his very best to amuse her.

 

The old man saw that Rosette must be some great lady, for her

bed coverings were all of satin and gold. He begged that she

would tell him all her history, as she might safely trust him. The

Princess told him everything, weeping bitterly again at the thought

that it was by the King’s orders that she had been thrown overboard.

 

`And now, my daughter, what is to be done?’ said the old man.

`You are a great Princess, accustomed to fare daintily, and I have

nothing to offer you but black bread and radishes, which will not

suit you at all. Shall I go and tell the King of the Peacocks that

you are here? If he sees you he will certainly wish to marry you.’

 

`Oh no!’ cried Rosette, `he must be wicked, since he tried to

drown me. Don’t let us tell him, but if you have a little basket

give it to me.’

 

The old man gave her a basket, and tying it round Frisk’s neck

she said to him: `Go and find out the best cooking-pot in the town

and bring the contents to me.’

 

Away went Frisk, and as there was no better dinner cooking in

all the town than the King’s, he adroitly took the cover off the pot

and brought all it contained to the Princess, who said:

 

`Now go back to the pantry, and bring the best of everything you

find there.’

 

So Frisk went back and filled his basket with white bread, and

red wine, and every kind of sweetmeat, until it was almost too

heavy for him to carry.

 

When the King of the Peacocks wanted his dinner there was

nothing in the pot and nothing in the pantry. All the courtiers

looked at one another in dismay, and the King was terribly cross.

 

`Oh well! `he said, `if there is no dinner I cannot dine, but

take care that plenty of things are roasted for supper.’

 

When evening came the Princess said to Frisk:

 

`Go into the town and find out the best kitchen, and bring me

all the nicest morsels that are being roasted upon the spit.’

 

Frisk did as he was told, and as he knew of no better kitchen

than the King’s, he went in softly, and when the cook’s back was

turned took everything that was upon the spit, As it happened it

was all done to a turn, and looked so good that it made him hungry

only to see it. He carried his basket to the Princess, who at once

sent him back to the pantry to bring all the tarts and sugar plums

that had been prepared for the King’s supper.

 

The King, as he had had no dinner, was very hungry and

wanted his supper early, but when he asked for it, lo and behold it

was all gone, and he had to go to bed half-starved and in a terrible

temper. The next day the same thing happened, and the next, so that

for three days the King got nothing at all to eat, because just when

the dinner or the supper was ready to be served it mysteriously

disappeared. At last the Prime Minister began to be afraid that

the King would be starved to death, so he resolved to hide himself

in some dark corner of the kitchen, and never take his eyes off the

cooking-pot. His surprise was great when he presently saw a little

green dog with one ear slip softly into the kitchen, uncover the

pot, transfer all its contents to his basket, and run off. The Prime

Minister followed hastily, and tracked him all through the town to

the cottage of the good old man; then he ran back to the King and

told him that he had found out where all his dinners and suppers

went. The King, who was very much astonished, said he should

like to go and see for himself. So he set out, accompanied by the

Prime Minister and a guard of archers, and arrived just in time to

find the old man and the Princess finishing his dinner.

 

The King ordered that they should be seized and bound with

ropes, and Frisk also.

 

When they were brought back to the palace some one told the

King, who said:

 

`To-day is the last day of the respite granted to those impostors;

they shall have their heads cut off at the same time as these

stealers of my dinner.’ Then the old man went down on his knees

before the King and begged for time to tell him everything. While

he spoke the King for the first time looked attentively at the

Princess, because he was sorry to see how she cried, and when he

heard the old man saying that her name was Rosette, and that she

had been treacherously thrown into the sea, he turned head over

heels three times without stopping, in spite of being quite weak from

hunger, and ran to embrace her, and untied the ropes which bound

her with his own hands, declaring that he loved her with all his heart.

 

Messengers were sent to bring the Princes out of prison, and

they came very sadly, believing that they were to be executed at

once: the nurse and her daughter and the boatman were brought

also. As soon as they came in Rosette ran to embrace her brothers,

while the traitors threw themselves down before her and begged for

mercy. The King and the Princess were so happy that they freely

forgave them, and as for the good old man he was splendidly rewarded,

and spent the rest of his days in the palace. The King of the

Peacocks made ample amends to the King and Prince for the way

in which they had been treated, and did everything in his power