Page:The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray Vol.20.pdf/277

Rh jewels, and blinding to your eyes to look at, but was water-proof, gun-proof, and sword-proof: so that, in the midst of the very hottest battles, his Majesty rode about as calmly as if he had been a British Grenadier at Alma. Were I engaged in ﬁghting for my country, I should like such a suit of armor as Prince Giglio wore; but, you know, he was a prince of a fairy tale, and they always have these wonderful things.

Besides the fairy armor, the Prince had a fairy horse, which would gallop at any pace you please; and a fairy

sword, which would lengthen, and run through a whole regiment of enemies at once. With such a weapon at command, I wonder, for my part, he thought of ordering his army out; but forth they all came, in magnificent new uniforms: Hedzoff and the Prince’s two college friends each commanding a division, and his Majesty prancing in person at the head of them all.

Ah! if I had the pen of Sir Archibald Alison, my dear friends, would I not now entertain you with the account of a most tremendous shindy? Should not ﬁne blows be struck? dreadful wounds be delivered? arrows darken the air? cannon-balls crash through the battalions? cavalry