[Illustration: Detail of Wiggs meeting her Fairy]
The Princess Hyacinth came in from her morning's ride in a very bad temper. She went straight up to her favourite seat on the castle walls and sent for Wiggs.
"Wiggs," she said, "what's the matter with me?"
Wiggs looked puzzled. She had been dusting the books in the library; and when you dust books you simplymuststop every now and then to take just one little peep inside, and then you look inside another one and another one, and by the time you have finished dusting, your head is so full of things you have seen that you have to be asked questions very slowly indeed.
"I'm pretty, aren't I?" went on Hyacinth.
That was an easy one.
"Lovely!" said Wiggs, with a deep breath.
"And I'm not unkind to anybody?"
"Unkind!" said Wiggs indignantly.
"Then why—oh, Wiggs, I know it's silly of me, but ithurtsme that my people are so much fonder of the Countess than of me."
"Oh, I'm sure they're not, your Royal Highness."
"Well, they cheer her much louder than they cheer me."
Wiggs tried to think of a way of comforting her mistress, but her head was still full of the last book she had dusted.
"Why should they be so fond of her?" demanded Hyacinth.
"Perhaps because she's so funny," said Wiggs.
"Funny! Is she funny?" said the Princess coldly. "She doesn't makemelaugh."
"Well, itwasfunny of her to make Woggs march round and round that tree like that,wasn'tit?"
"Like what? You don't mean——" The Princess's eyes were wide open with astonishment. "Was that Woggs all the time?"
"Yes, your Royal Highness. Wasn't it lovely and funny of her?"
The Princess looked across to the forest and nodded to herself.
"Yes. That's it. Wiggs, I don't believe there has ever been an Army at all. . . . And I pay them every week!" She added solemnly, "There are moments when I don't believe that woman is quite honest."
"Do you mean she isn't good?" asked Wiggs in awe.
Hyacinth nodded.
"I'mnevergood," said Wiggs firmly.
"What do you mean, silly? You're the best little girl in Euralia."
"I'mnot. I do awful things sometimes. Do you know what I did yesterday?"
"Something terrible!" smiled Hyacinth.
"I tore my apron."
"You baby! That isn't being bad," said Hyacinth absently. She was still thinking of that awful review.
"The Countess says it is."
"The Countess!"
"Do you know why I want to beverygood?" said Wiggs, coming up close to the Princess.
"Why, dear?"
"Because then I could dance like a fairy."
"Is that how it's done?" asked the Princess, rather amused. "The Countess must danceveryheavily." She suddenly remembered something and added: "Why, of course, child, you were going to tell me about a fairy you met, weren't you? That was weeks ago, though. Tell me now. It will help me to forget things which make me rather angry."
It was a simple little story. There must have been many like it in the books which Wiggs had been dusting; but these were simple times, and the oldest story always seemed new.
Wiggs had been by herself in the forest. A baby rabbit had run past her, terrified; a ferret in pursuit. Wiggs had picked the little fluffy thing up in her arms and comforted it; the ferret had slowed down, walked past very indifferently with its hands, as it were, in its pockets, hesitated a moment, and then remembered an important letter which it had forgotten to post. Wiggs was left alone with the baby rabbit, and before she knew where she was, the rabbit was gone and there was a fairy in front of her.
[Illustration: The rabbit was gone, and there was a fairy in front of her, verso][Illustration: The rabbit was gone, and there was a fairy in front of her, recto]
"You have saved my life," said the fairy. "That was a wicked magician after me, and if he had caught me then, he would have killed me."
"Please, your Fairiness, I didn't know fairiescoulddie," said Wiggs.
"They can when they take on animal shape or human shape. He could not hurt me now, but before——" She shuddered.
"I'm so glad you're all right now," said Wiggs politely.
"Thanks to you, my child. I must reward you. Take this ring. When you have been good for a whole day, you can have one good wish; when you have been bad for a whole day, you can have one bad wish. One good wish and one bad wish—that is all it will allow anybody to have."
With these words she vanished and left Wiggs alone with the ring.
So, ever after that, Wiggs tried desperately hard to be good and have the good wish, but it was difficult work. Something always went wrong; she tore her apron or read books when she ought to have been dusting, or—— Well, you or I would probably have given it up at once, and devoted ourselves to earning the bad wish. But Wiggs was a nice little girl.
"And, oh, Idoso want to be good," said Wiggs earnestly to the Princess, "so that I could wish to dance like a fairy." She had a sudden anxiety. "Thatisa good wish,isn'tit?"
"It's a lovely wish; but I'm sure you could dance now if you tried."
"I can't," said Wiggs. "I always dance like this."
She jumped up and danced a few steps. Wiggs was a dear little girl, but her dancing reminded you of a very dusty road going up-hill all the way, with nothing but suet-puddings waiting for you on the top. Something like that.
"It isn'treallygraceful, is it?" she said candidly, as she came to rest.
"Well, I suppose the fairiesdodance better than that."
"So that's why I want to be good, so as I can have my wish."
"I really must see this ring," said the Princess. "It sounds fascinating." She looked coldly in front of her and added, "Good-morning, Countess." (How long had the woman been there?)
"Good-morning, your Royal Highness. I ventured to come up unannounced. Ah, sweet child." She waved a caressing hand at Wiggs.
(Even if she had overheard anything, it had only been child's talk.)
"What is it?" asked the Princess. She took a firm hold of the arms of her chair. She wouldnot,not,notgive way to the Countess this time.
"The merest matter of business, your Royal Highness. Just this scheme for the Encouragement of Literature. Your Royal Highness very wisely decided that in the absence of the men on the sterner business of fighting it was the part of us women to encourage the gentler arts; and for this purpose . . . there was some talk of a competition, and—er——"
"Ah, yes," said Hyacinth nervously. "I will look into that to-morrow."
"A competition," said Belvane, gazing vaguely over Hyacinth's head. "Some sort of a money prize," she added, as if in a trance.
"There should certainly be some sort of a prize," agreed the Princess. (Why not, she asked herself, if one is to encourage literature?)
"Bags of gold," murmured Belvane to herself. "Bags and bags of gold. Big bags of silver and little bags of gold." She saw herself tossing them to the crowd.
"Well, we'll go into that to-morrow," said Hyacinth hastily.
"I have it all drawn up here," said Belvane. "Your Royal Highness has only to sign. It savessomuch trouble," she added with a disarming smile. . . . She held the document out—all in the most beautiful colours.
Mechanically the Princess signed.
"Thank you, your Royal Highness." She smiled again, and added, "And now perhaps I had better see about it at once." The Guardian of Literature took a dignified farewell of her Sovereign and withdrew.
Hyacinth looked at Wiggs in despair.
"There!" she said. "That's me. I don't know what it is about that woman, but I feel just a child in front of her. Oh, Wiggs, Wiggs, I feel so lonely sometimes with nothing but women all around me. I wish I had a man here to help me."
"Areallthe men fighting inallthe countries?"
"Not all the countries. There's—Araby. Don't you remember—oh, but of course you wouldn't know anything about it. But Father was just going to ask Prince Udo of Araby to come here on a visit, when the war broke out. Oh, I wish, IwishFather were back again." She laid her head on her arms; and whether she would have shed a few royal tears or had a good homely cry, I cannot tell you. For at that moment an attendant came in. Hyacinth was herself again at once.
"There is a messenger approaching on a horse, your Royal Highness," she announced. "Doubtless from His Majesty's camp."
With a shriek of delight, and an entire lack of royal dignity, the Princess, followed by the faithful Wiggs, rushed down to receive him.
Meanwhile, what of the Countess? She was still in the Palace, and, more than that, she was in the Throne Room of the Palace, and, more even than that, she was on the Throne, of the Throne Room of the Palace.
She couldn't resist it. The door was open as she came down from her interview with the Princess, and she had to go in. There was a woman in there, tidying up, who looked questioningly at Belvane as she entered.
"You may leave," said the Countess with dignity. "Her Royal Highness sent me in here to wait for her."
The woman curtsied and withdrew.
The Countess then uttered these extraordinary words:
"When I am Queen in Euralia they shall leave me backwards!"
Her subsequent behaviour was even more amazing.
She stood by the side of the door, and putting her hand to her mouth said shrilly, "Ter-rum, ter-rum, terrumty-umty-um." Then she took her hand away and announced loudly, "Her Majesty Queen Belvane the First!" after which she cheered slightly.
Then in came Her Majesty, a very proper dignified gracious Queen—none of your seventeen-year-old chits. Bowing condescendingly from side to side she made her way to the Throne, and with a sweep of her train she sat down.
Courtiers were presented to her; representatives from foreign countries; Prince Hanspatch of Tregong, Prince Ulric, the Duke of Highanlow.
"Ah, my dear Prince Hanspatch," she cried, stretching out her hand to the right of her; "and you, dear Prince Ulric," with a graceful movement of the left arm towards him; "and, dear Duke,youalso!" Her right hand, which Prince Hanspatch had by now finished with, went out to the Duke of Highanlow that he too might kiss it.
But it was arrested in mid-air. She felt rather than saw that the Princess was watching her in amazement from the doorway.
Without looking round she stretched out again first one arm and then the other. Then, as if she had just seen the Princess, she jumped up in a pretty confusion.
"Oh, your Royal Highness," she cried, "you caught me at my physical exercises!" She gave a self-conscious little laugh. "My physical exercises—a forearm movement." Once again she stretched out her arm. "Building up the—er—building up—building up——"
Her voice died away, for the Princess still looked coldly at her.
"Charming, Countess," she said. "I am sorry to interrupt you, but I have some news for you. You will like to know that I am inviting Prince Udo of Araby here on a visit. I feel we want a little outside help in our affairs."
"Prince Udo?" cried the Countess. "Here?"
"Have you any objection?" said Hyacinth. She found it easier to be stern now, for the invitation had already been sent off by the hand of the King's Messenger. Nothing that the Countess could say could influence her.
"No objection, your Royal Highness; but it seems so strange. And then the expense! Men are such hearty eaters. Besides," she looked with a charming smile from the Princess to Wiggs, "we were all getting on sonicelytogether! Of course if he just dropped in for afternoon tea one day——"
"He will make a stay of some months, I hope." There were no wizards in Barodia, and therefore the war would be a long one. It was this which had decided Hyacinth.
"Of course," said Belvane, "whatever your Royal Highness wishes, but I do think that His Majesty——"
"My dear Countess," said Hyacinth, with a smile, "the invitation has already gone, so there's nothing more to be said, is there? Had you finished your exercises? Yes? Then, Wiggs, will you conduct her ladyship downstairs?"
She turned and left her. The Countess watched her go, and then stood tragically in the middle of the room, clasping her diary to her breast.
"This is terrible!" she said. "I feelyearsolder." She held out her diary at arm's length and said in a gloomy voice, "Whatan entry for to-morrow!" The thought cheered her up a little. She began to consider plans. How could she circumvent this terrible young man who was going to put them all in their places. She wished that——
All at once she remembered something.
"Wiggs," she said, "what was it I heard you saying to the Princess about a wish?"
"Oh, that's my ring," said Wiggs eagerly. "If you've been good for a whole day you can have a good wish. And my wish is that——"
"A wish!" said Belvane to herself. "Well, I wish that——" A sudden thought struck her. "You said that you had to be good for a whole day first?"
"Yes."
Belvane mused.
"I wonder what they mean bygood," she said.
"Of course," explained Wiggs, "if you've been bad for a whole day you can have a bad wish. But I should hate to have a bad wish, wouldn't you?"
"Simply hate it, child," said Belvane. "Er—may I have a look at that ring?"
"Here it is," said Wiggs; "I always wear it round my neck."
The Countess took it from her.
"Listen," she said. "Wasn't that the Princess calling you? Run along, quickly, child." She almost pushed her from the room and closed the door on her.
Alone again, she paced from end to end of the great chamber, her left hand nursing her right elbow, her chin in her right hand.
"If you are good for a day," she mused, "you can have a good wish. If you are bad for a day you can have a bad wish. Yesterday I drew ten thousand pieces of gold for the Army; the actual expenses were what I paid—what I owe Woggs. . . . I suppose that is what narrow-minded people call being bad. . . . I suppose this Prince Udo would call it bad. . . . I suppose he thinks he will marry the Princess and throw me into prison." She flung her head back proudly. "Never!"
Standing in the middle of the great Throne Room, she held the ring up in her two hands and wished.
"I wish," she said, and there was a terrible smile in her eyes, "I wish that something very—veryhumorousshall happen to Prince Udo on his journey."
[Illustration: Detail of Udo and Coronel on their journey]
Everybody likes to make a good impression on his first visit, but there were moments just before his arrival in Euralia when Prince Udo doubted whether the affair would go as well as he had hoped. You shall hear why.
He had been out hunting with his friend, the young Duke Coronel, and was returning to the Palace when Hyacinth's messenger met him. He took the letter from him, broke the seals, and unrolled it.
"Wait a moment, Coronel," he said to his friend. "This is going to be an adventure of some sort, and if it's an adventure I shall want you with me."
"I'm in no hurry," said Coronel, and he got off his horse and gave it into the care of an attendant. The road crossed a stream here. Coronel sat up on the little stone bridge and dropped pebbles idly into the water.
The Prince read his letter.
Plop . . . Plop . . . Plop . . . Plop . . .
The Prince looked up from his letter.
"How many days' journey is it to Euralia?" he asked Coronel.
"How long did it take the messenger to come?" answered Coronel, without looking up. (Plop.)
"I might have thought of that myself," said Udo, "only this letter has rather upset me." He turned to the messenger. "How long has it——?"
"Isn't the letter dated?" said Coronel. (Plop.)
Udo paid no attention to this interruption and finished his question to the messenger.
"A week, sire."
"Ride on to the castle and wait for me. I shall have a message for you."
"What is it?" said Coronel, when the messenger had gone. "An adventure?"
"I think so. I think we may call it that, Coronel."
"With me in it?"
"Yes, I think you will be somewhere in it."
Coronel stopped dropping his pebbles and turned to the Prince.
"May I hear about it?"
Udo held out the letter; then feeling that a lady's letter should be private, drew it back again. He prided himself always on doing the correct thing.
"It's from Princess Hyacinth of Euralia," he said; "she doesn't say much. Her father is away fighting, and she is alone and she is in some trouble or other. It ought to make rather a good adventure."
Coronel turned away and began to drop his pebbles into the stream again.
"Well, I wish you luck," he said. "If it's a dragon, don't forget that——"
"But you're coming, too," said Udo, in dismay. "I must have you with me."
"Doing what?"
"What?"
"Doing what?" said Coronel again.
"Well," said Prince Udo awkwardly, "er—well, you—well."
He felt that it was a silly question for Coronel to have asked. Coronel knew perfectly well what he would be doing all the time. In Udo's absence he would be telling Princess Hyacinth stories of his Royal Highness's matchless courage and wisdom. An occasional discussion also with the Princess upon the types of masculine beauty, leading up to casual mention of Prince Udo's own appearance, would be quite in order. When Prince Udo was present Coronel would no doubt find the opportunity of drawing Prince Udo out, an opportunity of which a stranger could not so readily avail himself.
But of course you couldn't very well tell Coronel that. A man of any tact would have seen it at once.
"Of course," he said, "don't come if you don't like. But it would look rather funny if I went quite unattended; and—and her Royal Highness is said to be very beautiful," he added lamely.
Coronel laughed. There are adventures and adventures; to sit next to a very beautiful Princess and discuss with her the good looks of another man was not the sort of adventure that Coronel was looking for.
He tossed the remainder of his pebbles into the stream and stood up.
"Of course, if your Royal Highness wishes——"
"Don't be a fool, Coronel," said his Royal Highness, rather snappily.
"Well, then, I'll come with my good friend Udo if he wants me."
"I do want you."
"Very well, that settles it. After all," he added to himself, "there may betwodragons."
Two dragons would be one each. But from all accounts there were not two Princesses.
* * * * *
So three days later the friends set out with good hearts upon the adventure. The messenger had been sent back to announce their arrival; they gave him three days' start, and hoped to gain two days upon him. In the simple fashion of those times (so it would seem from Roger Scurvilegs) they set out with no luggage and no clear idea of where they were going to sleep at night. This, after all, is the best spirit in which to start a journey. It is the Gladstone bag which has killed romance.
They started on a perfect summer day, and they rode past towers and battlements, and by the side of sparkling streams, and came out into the sunlight again above sleepy villages, and, as they rode, Coronel sang aloud and Udo tossed his sword into the air and caught it again. As evening fell they came to a woodman's cottage at the foot of a high hill, and there they decided to rest for the night. An old woman came out to welcome them.
"Good evening, your Royal Highness," she said.
[Illustration: As evening fell they came to a woodman's cottage at the foot of a high hill, verso][Illustration: As evening fell they came to a woodman's cottage at the foot of a high hill, recto]
"You know me?" said Udo, more pleased than surprised.
"I know all who come into my house," said the old woman solemnly, "and all who go away from it."
This sort of conversation made Coronel feel creepy. There seemed to be a distinction between the people who came to the house and the people who went away from it which he did not like.
"Can we stay here the night, my good woman?" said Udo.
"You have hurt your hand," she said, taking no notice of his question.
"It's nothing," said Udo hastily. On one occasion he had caught his sword by the sharp end by mistake—a foolish thing to have done.
"Ah, well, since you won't want hands where you're going, it won't matter much."
It was the sort of thing old women said in those days, and Udo did not pay much attention to it.
"Yes, yes," he said; "but can you give my friend and myself a bed for to-night?"
"Seeing that you won't be travelling together long, come in and welcome."
She opened the door and they followed her in.
As they crossed the threshold, Udo half turned round and whispered over his shoulder to Coronel,
"Probably a fairy. Be kind to her."
"How can one be kind to one's hostess?" said Coronel. "It's she who has to be kind tous."
"Well, you know what I mean; don't be rude to her."
"My dear Udo, this tome—the pride of Araby, the favourite courtier of his Majesty, the——"
"Oh, all right," said Udo.
"Sit down and rest yourselves," said the old woman. "There'll be something in the pot for you directly."
"Good," said Udo. He looked approvingly at the large cauldron hanging over the fire. It was a big fireplace for such a small room. So he thought when he first looked at it, but as he gazed, the room seemed to get bigger and bigger, and the fireplace to get farther and farther away, until he felt that he was in a vast cavern cut deep into the mountainside. He rubbed his eyes, and there he was in the small kitchen again and the cauldron was sending out a savoury smell.
"There'll be something in it for all tastes," went on the old woman, "even for Prince Udo's."
"I'm not so particular as all that," said Udo mildly. The room had just become five hundred yards long again, and he was feeling quiet.
"Not now, but you will be."
She filled them a plate each from the pot; and pulling their chairs up to the table, they fell to heartily.
"This is really excellent," said Udo, as he put down his spoon and rested for a moment.
"You'd think you'd always like that, wouldn't you?" she said.
"I always shall be fond of anything so perfectly cooked."
"Ah," remarked the old woman thoughtfully.
Udo was beginning to dislike her particular style of conversation. It seemed to carry the merest suggestion of a hint that something unpleasant was going to happen to him. Nothing apparently was going to happen to Coronel. He tried to drag Coronel into the conversation in case the old woman had anything over for him.
"My friend and I," he said, "hope to be in Euralia the day after to-morrow."
"No harm in hoping," was the answer.
"Dear me, is something going to happen to us on the way?"
"Depends what you call 'us.'"
Coronel pushed back his chair and got up.
"I know what's going to happen to me," he said. "I'm going to sleep."
"Well," said Udo, getting up too, "we've got a long day before us to-morrow, and apparently we are in for an adventure—er,weare in for an adventure of some sort." He looked anxiously at the old woman, but she made no sign. "And so let's to bed."
"This way," said the old woman, and by the light of a candle she led them upstairs.
* * * * *
Udo slept badly. He had a feeling (just as you have) that something was going to happen to him; and it was with some surprise that he woke up in the morning to find himself much as he was when he went to bed. He looked at himself in the glass; he invited Coronel to gaze at him; but neither could discover that anything was the matter.
"After all," said Udo, "I don't suppose she meant anything. These old women get into a way of talking like that. If anybody is going to be turned into anything, it's much more likely to be you."
"Is that why you brought me with you?" asked Coronel.
I suppose that by this time they had finished their dressing. Roger Scurvilegs tells us nothing on such important matters; no doubt from modesty. "Next morning they rose," he says, and disappoints us of a picture of Udo brushing his hair. They rose and went down to breakfast.
The old woman was in a less cryptic mood at breakfast. She was particularly hospitable to Udo, and from some secret store produced an unending variety of good things for him to eat. To Coronel it almost looked as if she were fattening him up for something, but this suggestion was received with such bad grace by Udo that he did not pursue the subject.
As soon as breakfast was over they started off again. From one of the many bags of gold he carried, Udo had offered some acknowledgment to the old woman, but she had refused to take it.
"Nay, nay," she said. "I shall be amply rewarded before the day is out." And she seemed to be smiling to herself as if she knew of some joke which the Prince and Coronel did not yet share.
"I like to-day," said Coronel as they rode along. "There's a smell of adventure in the air. Red roofs, green trees, blue sky, white road—I could fall in love to-day."
"Who with?" said Udo suspiciously.
"Any one—that old woman, if you like."
"Oh, don't talk of her," said the Prince with a shudder. "Coronel, hadn't you a sense of beingoutof some joke that she was in?"
"Perhaps we shall be in it before long. I could laugh very easily on a morning like this."
"Oh, I can see a joke as well as any one," said Udo. "Don't be afraid that I shan't laugh, too. No doubt it will make a good story, whatever it is, to tell to the Princess Hyacinth. Coronel," he added solemnly, the thought having evidently only just occurred to him, "I am all impatience to help that poor girl in her trouble." And as if to show his impatience, he suddenly gave the reins a shake and cantered ahead of his companion. Smiling to himself, Coronel followed at his leisure.
They halted at mid-day in a wood, and made a meal from some provisions which the old woman had given them; and after they had eaten, Udo lay down on a mossy bank and closed his eyes.
"I'm sleepy," he said; "I had a restless night. Let's stay here awhile; after all, there's no hurry."
"Personally," said Coronel, "I'm all impatience to help that——"
"I tell you I had a very bad night," said Udo crossly.
"Oh, well, I shall go off and look for dragons. Coronel, the Dragon Slayer. Good-bye."
"Only half an hour," said Udo.
"Right."
With a nod to the Prince he strolled off among the trees.
[Illustration: Small decoration of Belvane writing in her diary.]
[Illustration: Detail of Udo in his animal form, coming out of some plants.]
This is a painful chapter for me to write. Mercifully it is to be a short one. Later on I shall become used to the situation; inclined, even, to dwell upon its humorous side; but for the moment I cannot see beyond the sadness of it. That to a Prince of the Royal House of Araby, and such an estimable young man as Udo, those things should happen. Roger Scurvilegs frankly breaks down over it. "That abominable woman," he says (meaning, of course, Belvane), and he has hysterics for more than a page.
Let us describe it calmly.
Coronel came back from his stroll in the same casual way in which he had started and dropped down lazily upon the grass to wait until Udo was ready to mount. He was not thinking of Udo. He was wondering if Princess Hyacinth had an attendant of surpassing beauty, or a dragon of surpassing malevolence—if, in fact, there were any adventures in Euralia for a humble fellow like himself.
"Coronel!" said a small voice behind him.
He turned round indifferently.
"Hullo, Udo, where are you?" he said. "Isn't it time we were starting?"
"We aren't starting," said the voice.
"What's the matter? What are you hiding in the bushes for? Whatever's the matter, Udo?"
"I'm not very well."
"My poor Udo, what's happened?" He jumped up and made towards him.
"Stop!" shrieked the voice. "I command you!"
Coronel stopped.
"Your Royal Highness's commands," he began rather coldly——
There was an ominous sniffing from the bushes.
"Coronel," said an unhappy voice at last, "I think I'm coming out."
Wondering what it all meant, Coronel waited in silence.
"Yes, I am coming out, Coronel," said the voice. "But you mustn't be surprised if I don't look very well. I'm—I'm—Coronel, here I am," said Udo pathetically and he stepped out.
Coronel didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Poor Prince Udo!
[Illustration: "Coronel, here I am," said Udo pathetically, and he stepped out, verso][Illustration: "Coronel, here I am," said Udo pathetically, and he stepped out, recto]
He had the head and the long ears of a rabbit, and in some unfortunate way a look of the real Prince Udo in spite of it. He had the mane and the tail of a lion. In between the tail and the mane it is difficult to say what he was, save that there was an impression of magnificence about his person—such magnificence, anyhow, as is given by an astrakhan-trimmed fur coat.
Coronel decided that it was an occasion for tact.
"Ah, here you are," he said cheerfully. "Shall we get along?"
"Don't be a fool, Coronel," said Udo, almost crying. "Don't pretend that you can'tseethat I've got a tail."
"Why, bless my soul, so you have. A tail! Well, think of that!"
Udo showed what he thought of it by waving it peevishly.
"This is not a time for tact," he said. "Tell me what I look like."
Coronel considered for a moment.
"Really frankly?" he asked.
"Y—yes," said Udo nervously.
"Then, frankly, your Royal Highness looks—funny."
"Veryfunny?" said Udo wistfully.
"Veryfunny," said Coronel.
His Highness sighed.
"I was afraid so," he said. "That's the cruel part about it. Had I been a lion there would have been a certain pathetic splendour about my position. Isolated—cut off—suffering in regal silence." He waved an explanatory paw. "Even in the most hideous of beasts there might be a dignity." He meditated for a moment. "Have you ever seen a yak, Coronel?" he asked.
"Never."
"I saw one once in Barodia. It is not a beautiful animal, Coronel; but as a yak I should not have been entirely unlovable. One does not laugh at a yak, Coronel, and where one does not laugh one may come to love. . . . What does my head look like?"
"It looks—striking."
"I haven't seen it, you see."
"To one who didn't know your Royal Highness it would convey the impression of a rabbit."
Udo laid his head between his paws and wept.
"A r—rabbit!" he sobbed. So undignified, so lacking in true pathos, so—— And not even a whole rabbit," he added bitterly.
"How did it happen?"
"I don't know, Coronel. I just went to sleep, and woke up feeling rather funny, and——" He sat up suddenly and stared at Coronel. "It was that old woman did it. You mark my words, Coronel; she did it."
"Why should she?"
"I don't know. I was very polite to her. Don't you remember my saying to you, 'Be polite to her, because she's probably a fairy!' You see, I saw through her disguise at once. Coronel, what shall we do? Let's hold a council of war and think it over."
So they held a council of war.
Prince Udo put forward two suggestions.
The first was that Coronel should go back on the morrow and kill the old woman.
The second was that Coronel should go back that afternoon and kill the old woman.
Coronel pointed out that as she had turned Prince Udo into—into a—a—("Quite so," said Udo)—it was likely that she alone could turn him back again, and that in that case he had better only threaten her.
"I wantsomebodykilled," said Udo, rather naturally.
"Suppose," said Coronel, "you stay here for two days while I go back and see the old witch, and make her tell me what she knows. She knows something, I'm certain. Then we shall see better what to do."
Udo mused for a space.
"Why didn't they turnyouinto anything?" he asked.
"Really, I don't know. Perhaps because I'm too unimportant."
"Yes, that must be it." He began to feel a little brighter. "Obviously, that's it." He caressed a whisker with one of his paws. "They were afraid of me."
He began to look so much happier that Coronel thought it was a favourable moment in which to withdraw.
"Shall I go now, your Royal Highness?"
"Yes, yes, you may leave me."
"And shall I find you here when I come back?"
"You may or you may not, Coronel; you may or you may not. . . . Afraid of me," he murmured to himself. "Obviously."
"And if I don't?"
"Then return to the Palace."
"Good-bye, your Royal Highness."
Udo waved a paw at him.
"Good-bye, good-bye."
Coronel got on his horse and rode away. As soon as he was out of earshot he began to laugh. Spasm after spasm shook him. No sooner had he composed himself to gravity than a remembrance of Udo's appearance started him off again.
"I couldn't have stayed with him a moment longer," he thought. "I should have burst. Poor Udo! However, we'll soon get him all right."
That evening he reached the place where the cottage had stood, but it was gone. Next morning he rode back to the wood. Udo was gone too. He returned to the Palace, and began to think it out.
* * * * *
Left to himself Udo very soon made up his mind. There were three courses open to him.
He might stay where he was till he was restored to health.
This he rejected at once. When you have the head of a rabbit, the tail of a lion, and the middle of a woolly lamb, the need for action of some kind is imperative. All the blood of your diverse ancestors calls to you to be up and doing.
He might go back to Araby.
To Araby, where he was so well-known, so respected, so popular? To Araby, where he rode daily among his father's subjects that they might have the pleasure of cheering him? How awkward for everybody!
On to Euralia then?
Why not? The Princess Hyacinth had called for him. What devotion it showed if he came to her even now—in his present state of bad health! She was in trouble: enchanters, wizards, what-nots. Already, then, he had suffered in her service—so at least he would say, and so possibly it might be. Coronel had thought him—funny; but women had not much sense of humour as a rule. Probably as a child Hyacinth had kept rabbits . . . or lambs. She would find him—strokable. . . . And the lion in him . . . in his tail, his fierce mane . . . she would find that inspiring. Women like to feel that there is something fierce, untamable in the man they love; well, there it was.
It was not as if he had Coronel with him. Coronel and he (in his present health) could never have gone into Euralia together; the contrast was too striking; but he alone, Hyacinth's only help! Surely she would appreciate his magnanimity.
Also, as he had told himself a moment ago, there was quite a chance that it was a Euralian enchanter who had put this upon him—to prevent him helping Hyacinth. If so, he had better go to Euralia in order to deal with that enchanter. For the moment, he did not see exactly how to deal with him, but no doubt he would think of some tremendously cunning device later on.
To Euralia then with all dispatch.
He trotted off. As Coronel had said, they were evidently afraid of him.