Together with Knowledge and Mistress Wise, Jealousia and Spitefulnia had also returned to the palace. Since they had been to stay with Knowledge, however, and had shared her work, they had completely unlearnt how to quarrel; and so it happened that when they entered the tower again and saw their rooms with the wrecked furniture strewn everywhere, and the urge came back to them to squabble, they realized all of a sudden that they had forgotten what words to use in order to begin, and they remained for an instant frozen and motionless, staring at one another.
Knowledge, who had only just arrived at that moment herself, sent one of them off to milk the cow, and the other away to weave reed baskets, so they might keep the chickens inside until the henhouse had been rebuilt; and so it came to pass that the two sisters missed their very last chance to resume their old quarrelsome ways.
As a result, tranquillity and soothing silence reigned everywhere in the palace. There was never any screaming to be heard.
The King read his paper in peace every evening, and Knowledge had taught Queen Barmy how to knit stockings; in this way, she managed to win over the King’s heart — for he had grown weary, he said, of stepping all day on the bits of broken glass and snippets of tin that the Queen kept scattering everywhere on the floor with all the frills and trinkets she strove to make.
Spring returned, the trees were once again covered with green leaves, the strawberries pushed through, ripening nicely, and the wild rocket grew plentiful everywhere; the birds came back from their wintering places, and hunting was resumed. The farmer-soldiers sowed anew, not only the fields of the previous year, but new ones as well, and agriculture was re-established throughout the realm.
From the camp to the capital, and from there again to the smithy of Miserlix, there was now a long, wide and well-paved road.
The Prince ordered then the woodsmen-soldiers to stop cutting down the trees from the forests along the river, and to begin felling those in the wooded thickets close to Miserlix’s smithy. And there, where they had felled many trees, he had them plant young saplings, so that these might grow and be useful at a later time.
With the very last load of timber that the Prince had sent out to be sold to the King the Royal Cousin, the Prince instructed Polycarpus to buy horses, so they could transport the logs more easily to the riverbank.
Together with the horses, he ordered also chickens and ducks, geese and goats. And once the ships returned, he distributed the poultry and the goats to the villages, with the order that each householder should build a pen and a coop. And every day he travelled, now to this village, now to the next, to see whether the villagers were looking after their livestock, and whether they had followed his instructions.
As soon as the village women saw the skilfully built pens and the tidy henhouses, they felt the urge to have each a small garden of their own, where they could grow their vegetables, instead of having to go all the way to the woods every day to collect wild greens.
And next to the garden, they also felt the urge to spruce up their own little cottages. And those whose sons were still abroad had the schoolmaster write them a letter to tell them to come back.
The schoolmaster wrote a letter, which read as follows:
Come back, my child, the good days have returned to our land, everyone has come home, and is earning his bread here today; you alone are still left withering away on your lonesome in foreign parts!
The women were deeply touched when the schoolmaster read this out to them, and each one wanted this letter for her own child, because, as they said, it was so very lovely! The schoolmaster therefore wrote out the same letter for all, and the letters were sent out.
The youths who were still abroad came back to their villages, young Penniless amongst them; seeing everyone else’s vineyard green and thriving, he too applied himself to the task of pruning his climbing vine and cultivating his small garden.
After the example of old Penniless, his neighbour too planted a climbing vine. The other neighbours saw this, and they too planted theirs. Those who had pruned and treated their vineyards with sulphur the previous summer had such a bounteous harvest of grapes that they loaded ships, and sent the grapes to be sold in the kingdom of the King the Royal Cousin.
The beehives had multiplied. They collected the honey in earthenware jars, and together with the grapes they had it all sent abroad to be sold.
“What on earth is going on in the kingdom of those Fatalists?” asked once again the King the Royal Cousin. “They buy lambs and horses, for which they pay with golden florins, they sell mountains of timber and grapes and honey. Could it be that the Regent, my cousin, has finally snapped out of his slumber?”
Polycarpus merely smiled, however, as he had done before, and did not speak; he simply took the florins and left with the ships.
His Majesty then sent for his High Chancellor and told him:
“You are to go to the kingdom of the Fatalists, and travel to its every corner. Afterwards you are to come to me and give me a full account of what you did and did not see.”
The High Chancellor went; and he toured all the villages and towns. He came back to his king and this is what he said to him:
“I saw a country where all the roads are well laid, and all the houses are neatly built and freshly painted white; I saw villages where all the cottages are well cared for, surrounded by little orchards filled with orange trees, apple trees, cherry trees and other trees and vegetables; I saw field after field sown with wheat and barley, broad beans and corn, stretching farther than the eye can see. And I saw at each dwelling one or two goats, some chickens, ducks and geese; I saw the prairies swarming with lambs; at evenfall, I saw herds of cows coming down the mountains. I saw smiling faces, and heard singing everywhere. And I did not meet a single beggar.”
The King began to pace up and down deep in thought; then he spoke to his High Chancellor.
“What you say is all well and good. But I will not be hoodwinked. The King of the Fatalists has always been a dunce. He never armed a single soldier in his life. How is he to defend all this if ever I were to get the urge to go and take it from him?”
“I saw,” the High Chancellor said in turn, “the river packed tight with ships, and I counted amongst them ten or so which were clad all over with iron. Crossing our borders, I saw a citadel on each rock and mountain top, with tremendous turrets. I saw soldiers everywhere I turned to look. I saw small children shooting with the bow, hunting deer and killing birds at the snap of one’s fingers!”
“What stuff and nonsense are you telling me?” interjected His Majesty. “You did not dream of these things, by any chance?”
“I saw them with my own eyes, my lord, I touched them with my hands.”
“How can this be, then? Did that beggarly cousin of mine stumble across some treasure? Tell me, what does his palace look like?”
“I walked by a mountain bursting with greenery, where, amongst the vegetation, the blossoming orange trees vied with the flowering almond trees for beauty, as lovely in their attire as brides on their wedding day. I went all the way up and was greatly astonished to find there a great half-ruined edifice, with a donjon tower, which alone seemed habitable. At the windows, I saw spotless white curtains, and all around the tower there were cows and goats grazing, keeping good company with the chickens. Passing under an open window, I heard sparkling female laughter. But I saw no one. I descended the mountain, and asked who lived in that ruin. And the people answered: ‘The King!’ I did not believe them, so I asked elsewhere. Again they told me that it was the King’s palace. And again I did not believe them, and I went to the camp, which is by the river. There I saw many tents, but few soldiers, so I asked where the men were. They replied: ‘In the fields!’ And I asked who lived in the ruin on the summit of the mountain. And again they said: ‘The King!’ Seeing my bafflement, they indicated a youth who was just arriving, dressed in white woollen clothes, same as all the other soldiers, his arrows in a quiver slung behind his back, bow in hand. His face was covered with dust and dripping with sweat; around his waist he wore an old leather money belt, where a large dark stain could be seen. All the soldiers ran to him, and kissed his hands as soon as they saw him. And such was the joy that spread over their faces that I found myself bewildered, and I asked who it was. And they replied: ‘The Prince!’ Again, I did not believe them, and I laughed and asked them: ‘He wouldn’t also be living up there in the ruin on the mountain top, would he?’ And they answered: ‘No. That is where his father lives, the King. The Prince lives here with us.’ Then I left, my lord, and came back to tell you what I had seen and heard.”