The Princess, astonished at this sight, asked the men for whom they were working.
“Madam,” replied the chief among them, “for Prince Riquet with the Tuft, whose marriage will take place to-morrow.” The Princess, still more surprised than she was before, and suddenly recollecting that it was just a twelvemonth from the day on which she had promised to marry Prince Riquet with the Tuft, was overcome with trouble and amazement. The reason of her not having remembered her promise was, that when she made it she had been a very foolish person, and when she became gifted with the new mind that the Prince had given her, she had forgotten all her follies.
She had not taken another thirty steps, when Riquet with the Tuft presented himself before her, gaily and splendidly attired, like a Prince about to be married. “You see, madam,” said he, “I keep my word punctually, and I doubt not that you have come thither to keep yours, and to make me, by the giving of your hand, the happiest of men.”
“I confess to you, frankly,” answered the Princess, “that I have not yet made up my mind on that matter, and that I do not think I shall ever be able to do so in the way you wish.” “You astonish me, madam,” said Riquet with the Tuft. “I have no doubt I do,” said the Princess; “and assuredly, had I to deal with a stupid person, with a man without intelligence, I should feel greatly perplexed. ‘A Princess is bound by her word,’ he would say to me, ‘and you must marry me, as you have promised to do so.’ But as the person to whom I speak is, of all men in the world, the one of greatest sense and understanding, I am certain he will listen to reason. You know that, when I was no better than afool, I nevertheless could not decide to marry you—how can you expect, now that I have the mind which you have given me, and which renders me much more difficult to please than before, that I should take to-day a resolution which I could not then? If you seriously thought of marrying me, you did very wrong to take away my stupidity, and so enable me to see more clearly than I saw then.” “If a man without intelligence,” replied Riquet with the Tuft, “who reproached you with your breach of promise, might have a right, as you have just intimated, to be treated with indulgence, why would you, madam, that I should receive less consideration in a matter which affects the entire happiness of my life? Is it reasonable that persons of intellect should be in a worse position than those that have none? Can you assert this—you who have so much, and who so earnestly desired to possess it? But let us come to the point, if you please. Setting aside my ugliness, is there anything in me that displeases you? Are you dissatisfied with my birth, my understanding, my temper, or my manners?”
“Not in the least,” replied the Princess; “I admire in you everything you have mentioned.”
“If that is so,” rejoined Riquet with the Tuft, “I shall soon be happy, as you have it in your power to make me the most pleasing looking of men.”
“How can that be done?” asked the Princess.
“It can be done,” said Riquet with the Tuft, “if you love me sufficiently to wish that it should be. And, in order, madam, that you should have no doubt about it, know that the same fairy, who, on the day I was born, endowed me with the power to give intelligence to the person I chose, gave you also the power to render handsome the man you should love, and on whom you should wish to bestow this favour.”
“If such be the fact,” said the Princess, “I wish, with all my heart, that you should become the handsomest and most lovable Prince in the world, and I bestow the gift on you to the fullest extent in my power.”
The Princess had no sooner pronounced these words than Riquet with the Tuft appeared to her eyes, of all men in the world, the handsomest, the best made, and most attractive she had ever seen. There are some who assert that it was not the spell of the fairy, but love alone that caused the metamorphosis. They say that the Princess, having reflected on the perseverance of her lover, on his prudence, and on all the good qualities of his heart and mind, no longer saw the deformity of his body, or the ugliness of his features; that his hump appeared to her nothing more than a good-natured shrug of his shoulders, and that instead of noticing, as she had done, how badly he limped, she saw in him only a certain lounging air, which charmed her. They say also that his eyes, which squinted, only seemed to her the more brilliant for this; and that the crookedness of his glance was to her merely expressive of his great love; and, finally, that his great red nose had in it, to her mind, something martial and heroic. However this may be, the Princess promised on the spot to marry him, provided he obtained the consent of the King, her father. The King, having learned that his daughter entertained a great regard for Riquet with the Tuft, whom he knew also to be a very clever and wise Prince, received him with pleasure as his son-in-law. The wedding took place the next morning, as Riquet with the Tuft had foreseen, and according to the orders which he had given a long time before.
No beauty, no talent, has power aboveSome indefinite charm discern’d only by love.
No beauty, no talent, has power aboveSome indefinite charm discern’d only by love.
No beauty, no talent, has power aboveSome indefinite charm discern’d only by love.
No beauty, no talent, has power above
Some indefinite charm discern’d only by love.
“That is delightful, but it ismuchtoo short,” said Titania smilingly.
“It is better too short than too long,” answered Oberon, “but perhaps the pretty little story-teller has another one for us?”
“If your Majesties wish it,” replied the dainty creature.
“Let it be a longer one this time,” said Titania, “and let it be another tale of true love,please.”
The French Fay considered for a moment, and then said, as if to herself, “Idoknow another story of true love rewarded after strange adventures, but I’m afraid it will be too long for his Majesty’s taste.”
“This one is forme,” said Titania, turning smilingly to the King, “and my Oberon need not listen if he does not wish to.”
“Be it as my Queen wishes,” said Oberon, who was really excited by the promise of hearing of strange adventures.
Then there was a sort of dainty rustling as of the breeze toying with the summer leaves while all the fairies about the circle settled comfortably down to listen to the long story which the French Fay named