Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/171

Rh Your daughter should have been handsomer." She replied, "Hold thy tongue, fool; thou wilt bring some misfortune upon us!"

They sent to inform the king that the Princess was approaching. "Well," said he, "have her brothers told me the truth? Is she more beautiful than her picture?"—"Sire," they replied, "it is quite sufficient for her to be as handsome." "Yes, surely," said the king, "I shall be perfectly satisfied with that. Let us go and see her,"—for he knew by the great noise they were making in the court, that she had arrived, and he could not distinguish anything they were saying, except, "Fie! fie! how ugly she is!" He thought they must be speaking of some dwarf or animal she might have brought with her, for it never could have entered his head that it actually applied to herself.

The portrait of the Princess was carried at the end of a long staff, uncovered, and the king walked in solemn procession after it, with all his barons, and all his peacocks, followed by the ambassadors from the neighbouring kingdoms. The King of the Peacocks was exceedingly impatient to see his dear Rosette. Mercy! when he did see her, he was nearly dying on the spot!—He flew into the greatest passion in the world. He rent his clothes;—he would not go near her;—she frightened him. "How!" he cried, "the two scoundrels I hold in prison are bold, indeed, to have made sport of me, and to have proposed to me to marry a baboon like that. They shall die.—Go! Lock up instantly that impertinent girl, her nurse, and the fellow who brought them hither. Fling them into the lowest dungeon of my great tower."

On the other hand, the King and his brother who were prisoners, and who knew the day on which their sister ought to arrive, had put on their best clothes to receive her. Instead of opening their prison and setting them at liberty as they had hoped, the jailor came with some soldiers and made them descend into a cell, perfectly dark, and full of horrid reptiles, where they were up to their necks in water. Nobody was ever more astonished or more miserable. "Alas!" they cried to each other, "this is a sad wedding for us! What can have brought so great a misfortune upon us?" They knew not what in the world to think, except, that they were doomed to die; and they were completely overwhelmed