Chapter XVI
A Melancholy Chapter The Prince had gone some way when the King called after him. How he wished he had the seven-league boots on, or that he had the cap of darkness in his pocket! If he had been so lucky, he would now have got back to Gluckstein. and crossed the border with Lady Rosalind. A million of money may not seem much, but a pair of young people who really love each other could live happily on less than the cheque he had in his pocket. However, the King shouted very loud, as he always did when he meant to be obeyed, and the Prince sauntered slowly back again.
"Prigio!" said His Majesty, "where were you off to?
Don't you remember that this is your wedding day? My proclamation offered not only the money (which you have), but the hand of the Lady Moiinda, which the Court chaplain will presently make your own. I congratulate you, sir; Moiinda is a dear girl."
"I have the highest affection and esteem for my cousin, sir," said the Prince, "but-"
"I'll never marry him!" cried poor MoHnda, kneeling at the throne, where her streaming eyes and hair made a pretty and touching picture. "Never! I despise him!"
"I was about to say, sir," the Prince went on, "that I cannot possibly have the pleasure of wedding my cousin."
"The family gallows, I presume, is in good working order?" asked the King of the family executioner, a tall gaunt man in black and scarlet, who was only employed in the case of members of the biood royal.
"Never better, sire," said the man, bowing with more courtliness than his profession indicated.
"Very well," said the King. "Prince Prigio, you have your choice. There is the gallows, here is Lady Moiinda. My duty is painful, but clear. A king's word cannot be broken.
Molly, or be hanged!"
The Prince bowed respectfully to Lady Moiinda.
"Madam, my cousin," said he, "your clemency will excuse my answer, and you will not misinterpret the apparent discourtesy of my conduct. I am compelled, most unwillingly, to slight your charms, and to select the Extreme Rigour of the Law. Executioner, lead on! Do your duty; for me, Prigio est pret!"-for this was his motto, and meant that he was ready.
Poor Lady Moiinda could not but be hurt by the Prince's preference for death over marriage to her, little as she liked him. "Is life then so worthless? and is Moiinda so terrible a person, that you prefer those arms." and she pointed to the gallows, "to theseT'-here she held out her own, which were very white, round, and pretty; for Moiinda was a goodhearted girl, she could not bear to see Prigio put to death; and then, perhaps, she reflected that there are worse positions than the queenship of Pantouflia. For Alphonso was gone- crying would not bring him back.
"Ah, madam!'* said the Prince, "you are forgiving-"
"For you are brave!" said Moiinda, feeling quite a respect for him.
"But neither your heart nor mine is ours to give. Since mine is another's, I understand too well this feeling of yours'.
Do not let us buy life at the price of happiness and honour."
Then, turning to the King, the Prince said: "Sir, is there no way but by death or marriage? You say you cannot keep half only of your promise; and that if I accept the reward I must also unite myself with my unwilling cousin. Cannot the whole proclamation be annulled, and will you consider the bargain void if I tear up this flimsy scroll?"
And here the Prince fluttered in the air the cheque for Ј!,000.000.
For a moment the King was tempted; but then he said to himself: "Never mind, it's only an extra penny on the incometax." Then: "Keep your dross," he shouted, meaning the million; "but let me keep my promise. To chapel at once, or-" and he pointed to the executioner. "The word of a king of Pantouflia is sacred."
"And so is that of a crown prince," answered Prigio, "and mine is pledged to a lady."
"She shall be a mourning bride," cried the King savagely,
"unless"-here he paused for a moment-"unless you bring me back Alphonso and Enrico, safe and well!"
The Prince thought for the space of a flash of lightning. "I accept the alternative," he said, "if Your Majesty will grant me my conditions."
"Name them!" said the King.
"Let me be transported to Gluckstein, left there unguarded, and if, in three days, I do not return with my brothers safe and well, Your Majesty shall be spared a cruet duty. Prigio of Pantouflia will perish by his own hand."
The King, whose mind did not work very quickly, took some minutes to think it over. Then he saw that by granting the Prince's conditions, he would either recover his,dear sons, or, at least, get rid of Prigio, without the unpleasantness of having him executed. For, though some kings have put their eldest sons to death, and most have wished to do so, they have never been better loved by the people for their Roman virtue.
"Honour bright?" said the King at last.
"Honour bright!" answered the Prince, and for the first time in many months, the royal father and son shook hands.
"For you, madam," said Prigio in a stately way to Lady Molinda, "in less than a week I trust we shall be taking our vows at the same altar, and that the close of the ceremony which finds us cousins will leave us brother and sister."
Poor Molinda merely stared; for she could not imagine what he meant. In a moment he was gone; and having taken, by me King's permission, the flying carpet, he was back at the ambassador's house in Gluckstein.
Chapter XVII
The Black Cat and the Brethren Who was glad to see the Prince, if it was not Lady Rosalind?
The white roses of her cheeks turned to red roses in a moment, and men back to white again, they were so alarmed at the change. So the two went into the gardens together, and talked about a number of things; but at last the Prince told her that, before three days were over, all would be well, or alt would be over with him. For either he would have brought his brothers back, sound and well. to Falkenstein, or he would not survive his dishonour.
"It is no more than right," he said, "for had I gone first, neither of them would have been sent to meet the monster after I had fallen. And I should have fallen, dear Rosalind, if I had faced the Firedrake before I knew you."
Then when she asked him why, and what good she had done him, he told her all the story; and how, before he fell in love with her. he didn't believe in fairies, or Firedrakes, or caps of darkness, or anything nice and impossible, but only in horrid useless facts, and chemistry, and geology, and arithmetic, and mathematics, and even political economy. And the Firedrake would have made a mouthful of him then.
So she was delighted when she heard this, almost as much delighted as she was afraid that he might fail in the most difficult adventure. For it was one thing to egg on a Remora to kill a Firedrake, and quite another to find the princes if they were alive, and restore them if they were dead!
But the Prince said he had his plan, and he stayed that night at the ambassador's. Next morning he rose very early, before anyone else was up, that he might not have to say "Goodbye" to Lady Rosalind. Then he flew in a moment to the old lonely castle, where nobody went for fear of ghosts, ever since the Court retired to Falkenstein.
How still it was, how deserted; not a sign of life, and yet the Prince was looking everywhere/or some living thing. He hunted through the castle in vain, and then went out to the stable yard; but all the dogs of course had been taken away, and the neighbouring fanners had offered homes to the poultry. At last, stretched at full length in a sunny place, the Prince found a very old, half-blind, miserable cat. The poor creature was lean, and its fur had fallen off in patches; it could no longer catch birds, nor even mice, and there was nobody to give milk to it. But cats do not look far into the future; and this old black cat-Frank was his name-had got a breakfast somehow, and was happy in the sun. The Prince stood and looked at him pityingly, and he thought that even a sick old cat was, in some ways, happier than most men.