Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/524



upon a time, there was a very good, very mild, and very powerful King; but the Emperor Matapa, his neighbour, was still more powerful than he. They had waged great wars with one another. The Emperor had gained a considerable battle in the last war; and after killing or taking prisoners the greater portion of the King's officers and soldiers, he besieged his capital city, and took it thereby, making himself master of all the treasures in it. The King had scarcely time to save himself with the Dowager Queen, his sister. This Princess became a widow at a very early age; she was clever and beautiful; it is true she was proud, violent, and difficult of access.

The Emperor transported all the jewels and furniture belonging to the King to his own palace; he carried away an extraordinary number of soldiers, women, horses, and everything else that would be useful or agreeable to him: after he had depopulated the greater part of the kingdom, he returned triumphant to his own,—where he was received by the Empress and the Princess, his daughter, with a thousand demonstrations of joy. In the meantime, the defeated King was not inclined to sit down patiently under his misfortunes. He called round him a few troops, and formed by degrees a small army, to increase which as quickly as possible, he issued a proclamation, requiring all the gentlemen of his kingdom to come and serve in person, or to send one of their sons well mounted and armed, and disposed to second all his enterprises.