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150 palace, and all the wonders the Prince had seen in it, disappeared. He found himself in a dense forest, more than a hundred leagues from the tower in which the King, his father, had confined him.

Let us leave him to recover from his natural astonishment, and look back to see, first, what is passing amongst the guards which his father had placed around his person, and secondly, what happens to the Princess Trognon. The poor warders, surprised that their Prince did not call for his supper, entered his chamber, and not finding him, searched for him everywhere, in great fear that he had escaped. Their labour being in vain, they were in despair, for they made sure that the King, who was so terrible a tyrant, would put them to death; and after thinking over all the expedients likely to appease him, they decided that one of them should go to bed, and not allow himself to be seen; that they should say that the Prince was very ill; that, shortly afterwards, they should pretend that he was dead; and that the burial of a log of wood would get them out of the scrape. This remedy appeared to them infallible, and they immediately began to put their plan into execution. The smallest of the guards was dressed up with a great hump, and put in the Prince's bed. The King was informed that his son was very ill. He thought it was only said to move his compassion, and he determined not to relax in the least his severity. This was exactly what the trembling warders wished for, and the more they said on the subject, the more indifference to it was manifested by the King.

As for the Princess Trognon, she arrived in a little machine which was only a cubit in height, and carried in a litter. King Brun went to meet her. When he saw her so deformed, seated in a bowl, her skin covered with scales like that of a cod-fish, her eyebrows meeting, her nose large and flat, and her mouth reaching to her ears, he could not forbear saying, "Truly, Princess Trognon, it becomes you to despise my Torticoli. Know that he is very ugly; but to speak the truth, he is less so than you." "My liege," said the Princess, "I am not vain enough to be offended at the rudeness of your speech. I do not know that it may not be, in your opinion, a sure mode of persuading me to love your charming Torticoli; but I declare to you, notwithstanding my miserable bowl, and