The Little Lame Prince

M >> Miss Mulock Pseudonym of Maria Dinah Craik >> The Little Lame Prince


"Dear sister," said she, "I am persuaded you cannot have forgotten the
good office I did you when, after your unhappy marriage, you besought
a readmittance into Fairyland; since then I never desired any favor
at your hands, but now the time is come. Pardon, then, this lovely
princess; consent to her nuptials with this young prince. I will engage
he shall be ever constant to her; the thread of their days shall be spun
of gold and silk; they shall live to complete your happiness; and I will
never forget the obligation you lay upon me."

"Charming Gentilla," cried the fairy, "I consent to whatever you desire.
Come, my dear children, and receive my love." So saying, she embraced
them both.

Abricotina, just then entering, cast her eyes upon Leander; she knew
him again, and saw he was perfectly happy, at which she, too, was quite
satisfied.

"Prince," condescendingly said the fairy-mother, "I will remove the
Island of Calm Delights into your own kingdom, live with you myself, and
do you great services."

Whether or not Prince Leander appreciated this offer, he bowed low, and
assured his mother-in-law that no favor could be equal to the one he
had that day received from her hands. This short compliment pleased the
fairy exceedingly, for she belonged to those ancient days when people
used to stand a whole day upon one leg complimenting one another. The
nuptials were performed in a most splendid manner, and the young prince
and princess lived together happily many years, beloved by all around
them.




PRINCE CHERRY

LONG ago there lived a monarch, who was such a very, honest man that his
subjects entitled him the Good King. One day, when he was out hunting,
a little white rabbit, which had been half-killed by his hounds,
leaped right into his majesty's arms. Said he, caressing it: "This poor
creature has put itself under my protection, and I will allow no one to
injure it." So he carried it to his palace, had prepared for it a neat
little rabbit-hutch, with abundance of the daintiest food, such as
rabbits love, and there he left it.

The same night, when he was alone in his chamber, there appeared to
him a beautiful lady. She was dressed neither in gold, nor silver,
nor brocade; but her flowing robes were white as snow, and she wore a
garland of white roses on her head. The Good King was greatly astonished
at the sight; for his door was locked, and he wondered how so dazzling a
lady could possibly enter; but she soon removed his doubts.

"I am the fairy Candide," said she, with a smiling and gracious air.
"Passing through the wood where you were hunting, I took a desire to
know if you were as good as men say you are I therefore changed myself
into a white rabbit and took refuge in your arms. You saved me and now I
know that those who are merciful to dum beasts will be ten times more so
to human beings. You merit the name your subjects give you: you are the
Good King. I thank you for your protection, and shall be always one
of your best friends. You have but to say what you most desire, and I
promise you your wish shall be granted."

"Madam," replied the king, "if you are a fairy, you must know, without
my telling you, the wish of my heart. I have one well-beloved son,
Prince Cherry: whatever kindly feeling you have toward me, extend it to
him."

"Willingly," said Candide. "I will make him the handsomest, richest, or
most powerful prince in the world: choose whichever you desire for him."

"None of the three," returned the father. "I only wish him to be
good--the best prince in the whole world. Of what use would riches,
power, or beauty be to him if he were a bad man?"

"You are right," said the fairy; "but I can not make him good: he
must do that himself. I can only change his external fortunes; for
his personal character, the utmost I can promise is to give him good
counsel, reprove him for his faults, and even punish him, if he will not
punish himself. You mortals can do the same with your children."

"Ah, yes!" said the king, sighing. Still, he felt that the kindness of a
fairy was something gained for his son, and died not long after, content
and at peace.

Prince Cherry mourned deeply, for he dearly loved his father, and would
have gladly given all his kingdoms and treasures to keep him in life a
little longer. Two days after the Good King was no more, Prince Cherry
was sleeping in his chamber, when he saw the same dazzling vision of the
fairy Candide.

"I promised your father," said she, "to be your best friend, and in
pledge of this take what I now give you;" and she placed a small gold
ring upon his finger. "Poor as it looks, it is more precious than
diamonds; for whenever you do ill it will prick your finger. If, after
that warning, you still continue in evil, you will lose my friendship,
and I shall become your direst enemy."'

So saying, she disappeared, leaving Cherry in such amazement that he
would have believed it all a dream, save for the ring on his finger.

He was for a long time so good that the ring never pricked him at all;
and this made him so cheerful and pleasant in his humor that everybody
called him "Happy Prince Cherry." But one unlucky day he was out hunting
and found no sport, which vexed him so much that he showed his ill
temper by his looks and ways. He fancied his ring felt very tight and
uncomfortable, but as it did not prick him he took no heed of this:
until, re-entering his palace, his little pet dog, Bibi, jumped up
upon him and was sharply told to get away. The creature, accustomed to
nothing but caresses, tried to attract his attention by pulling at his
garments, when Prince Cherry turned and gave it a severe kick. At this
moment he felt in his finger a prick like a pin.

"What nonsense!" said he to himself. "The fairy must be making game of
me. Why, what great evil have I done! I, the master of a great empire,
cannot I kick my own dog?"

A voice replied, or else Prince Cherry imagined it, "No, sire; the
master of a great empire has a right to do good, but not evil. I--a
fairy--am as much above you as you are above your dog. I might punish
you, kill you, if I chose; but I prefer leaving you to amend your
ways. You have been guilty of three faults today--bad temper, passion,
cruelty: do better to-morrow."

The prince promised, and kept his word a while; but he had been brought
up by a foolish nurse, who indulged him in every way and was always
telling him that he would be a king one day, when he might do as he
liked in all things. He found out now that even a king cannot always do
that; it vexed him and made him angry. His ring began to prick him so
often that his little finger was continually bleeding. He disliked
this, as was natural, and soon began to consider whether it would not be
easier to throw the ring away altogether than to be constantly annoyed
by it. It was such a queer thing for a king to have a spot of blood on
his finger! At last, unable to put up with it any more, he took his ring
off and hid it where he would never see it; and believed himself the
happiest of men, for he could now do exactly what he liked. He did it,
and became every day more and more miserable.

One day he saw a young girl, so beautiful that, being always accustomed
to have his own way, he immediately determined to espouse her. He never
doubted that she would be only too glad to be made a queen, for she
was very poor. But Zelia--that was her name--answered, to his great
astonishment, that she would rather not marry him.

"Do I displease you?" asked the prince, into whose mind it had never
entered that he could displease anybody.

"Not at all, my prince," said the honest peasant maiden. "You are very
handsome, very charming; but you are not like your father the Good King.
I will not be your queen, for you would make me miserable."

At these words the prince's love seemed all to turn to hatred: he gave
orders to his guards to convey Zelia to a prison near the palace,
and then took counsel with his foster brother, the one of all his ill
companions who most incited him to do wrong.

"Sir," said this man, "if I were in your majesty's place, I would never
vex myself about a poor silly girl. Feed her on bread and water till
she comes to her senses; and if she still refuses you, let her die in
torment, as a warning to your other subjects should they venture to
dispute your will. You will be disgraced should you suffer yourself to
be conquered by a simple girl."

"But," said Prince Cherry, "shall I not be disgraced if I harm a
creature so perfectly innocent?"

"No one is innocent who disputes your majesty's authority," said the
courtier, bowing; "and it is better to commit an injustice than allow it
to be supposed you can ever be contradicted with impunity."

This touched Cherry on his weak point--his good impulses faded; he
resolved once more to ask Zelia if she would marry him, and if she again
refused, to sell her as a slave. Arrived at the cell in which she was
confined, what was his astonishment to find her gone! He knew not whom
to accuse, for he had kept the key in his pocket the whole time. At
last, the foster-brother suggested that the escape of Zelia might have
been contrived by an old man, Suliman by name, the prince's former
tutor, who was the only one who now ventured to blame him for anything
that he did. Cherry sent immediately, and ordered his old friend to be
brought to him, loaded heavily with irons. Then, full of fury, he went
and shut himself up in his own chamber, where he went raging to and fro,
till startled by a noise like a clap of thunder. The fairy Candide stood
before him.

"Prince," said she, in a severe voice, "I promised your father to give
you good counsels and to punish you if you refused to follow them. My
counsels were forgotten, my punishment despised. Under the figure of a
man, you have been no better than the beasts you chase: like a lion in
fury, a wolf in gluttony, a serpent in revenge, and a bull in brutality.
Take, therefore, in your new form the likeness of all these animals."

Scarcely had Prince Cherry heard these words than to his horror he found
himself transformed into what the Fairy had named. He was a creature
with the head of a lion, the horns of a bull, the feet of a wolf, and
the tail of a serpent. At the same time he felt himself transported to
a distant forest, where, standing on the bank of a stream, he saw
reflected in the water his own frightful shape, and heard a voice
saying:

"Look at thyself, and know thy soul has become a thousand times uglier
even than thy body."

Cherry recognized the voice of Candide, and in his rage would have
sprung upon her and devoured her; but he saw nothing and the same voice
said behind him:

"Cease thy feeble fury, and learn to conquer thy pride by being in
submission to thine own subjects."

Hearing no more, he soon quitted the stream, hoping at least to get rid
of the sight of himself; but he had scarcely gone twenty paces when he
tumbled into a pitfall that was laid to catch bears; the bear-hunters,
descending from some trees hard by, caught him, chained him, and only
too delighted to get hold of such a curious-looking animal, led him
along with them to the capital of his own kingdom.

There great rejoicings were taking place, and the bear-hunters, asking
what it was all about, were told that it was because Prince Cherry,
the torment of his subjects, had just been struck dead by a
thunderbolt--just punishment of all his crimes. Four courtiers, his
wicked companions, had wished to divide his throne between them; but the
people had risen up against them and offered the crown to Suliman, the
old tutor whom Cherry had ordered to be arrested.

All this the poor monster heard. He even saw Suliman sitting upon his
own throne and trying to calm the populace by representing to them that
it was not certain Prince Cherry was dead; that he might return one day
to reassume with honor the crown which Suliman only consented to wear as
a sort of viceroy.

"I know his heart," said the honest and faithful old man; "it is
tainted, but not corrupt. If alive, he may reform yet, and be all his
father over again to you, his people, whom he has caused to suffer so
much."

These words touched the poor beast so deeply that he ceased to beat
himself against the iron bars of the cage in which the hunters carried
him about, became gentle as a lamb, and suffered himself to be taken
quietly to a menagerie, where were kept all sorts of strange and
ferocious animals a place which he had himself often visited as a boy,
but never thought he should be shut up there himself.

However, he owned he had deserved it all, and began to make amends by
showing himself very obedient to his keeper. This man was almost as
great a brute as the animals he had charge of, and when he was in ill
humor he used to beat them without rhyme or reason. One day, while he
was sleeping, a tiger broke loose and leaped upon him, eager to devour
him. Cherry at first felt a thrill of pleasure at the thought of being
revenged; then, seeing how helpless the man was, he wished himself free,
that he might defend him. Immediately the doors of his cage opened.
The keeper, waking up, saw the strange beast leap out, and imagined, of
course, that he was going to be slain at once. Instead, he saw the tiger
lying dead, and the strange beast creeping up and laying itself at his
feet to be caressed. But as he lifted up his hand to stroke it, a voice
was heard saying, "Good actions never go unrewarded;" and instead of
the frightful monster, there crouched on the ground nothing but a pretty
little dog.

Cherry, delighted to find himself thus metamorphosed, caressed the
keeper in every possible way, till at last the man took him up into
his arms and carried him to the king, to whom he related this wonderful
story, from beginning to end. The queen wished to have the charming
little dog; and Cherry would have been exceedingly happy could he have
forgotten that he was originally a man and a king. He was lodged most
elegantly, had the richest of collars to adorn his neck, and heard
himself praised continually. But his beauty rather brought him into
trouble, for the queen, afraid lest he might grow too large for a pet,
took advice of dog-doctors, who ordered that he should be fed entirely
upon bread, and that very sparingly; so poor Cherry was sometimes nearly
starved.

One day, when they gave him his crust for breakfast, a fancy seized him
to go and eat it in the palace garden; so he took the bread in his mouth
and trotted away toward a stream which he knew, and where he sometimes
stopped to drink. But instead of the stream he saw a splendid palace,
glittering with gold and precious stones. Entering the doors was a crowd
of men and women, magnificently dressed; and within there was singing
and dancing and good cheer of all sorts. Yet, however grandly and gayly
the people went in, Cherry noticed that those who came out were pale,
thin, ragged, half-naked, covered with wounds and sores. Some of them
dropped dead at once; others dragged themselves on a little way and
then lay down, dying of hunger, and vainly begged a morsel of bread from
others who were entering in--who never took the least notice of them.

Cherry perceived one woman, who was trying feebly to gather and eat some
green herbs. "Poor thing!" said he to himself; "I know what it is to be
hungry, and I want my breakfast badly enough; but still it will kill me
to wait till dinner time, and my crust may save the life of this poor
woman."

So the little dog ran up to her and dropped his bread at her feet; she
picked it up and ate it with avidity. Soon she looked quite recovered,
and Cherry, delighted, was trotting back again to his kennel, when he
heard loud cries, and saw a young girl dragged by four men to the door
of the palace, which they were trying to compel her to enter. Oh, how
he wished himself a monster again, as when he slew the tiger!--for the
young girl was no other than his beloved Zelia. Alas! what could a poor
little dog do to defend her? But he ran forward and barked at the men,
and bit their heels, until at last they chased him away with heavy
blows. And then he lay down outside the palace door, determined to watch
and see what had become of Zelia.

Conscience pricked him now. "What!" thought he, "I am furious against
these wicked men, who are carrying her away; and did I not do the same
myself? Did I not cast her into prison, and intend to sell her as a
slave? Who knows how much more wickedness I might not have done to her
and others, if Heaven's justice had not stopped me in time?"

While he lay thinking and repenting, he heard a window open and saw
Zelia throw out of it a bit of dainty meat. Cherry, who felt hungry
enough by this time, was just about to eat it, when the woman to whom he
had given his crust snatched him up in her arms.

"Poor little beast!" cried she, patting him, "every bit of food in that
palace is poisoned: you shall not touch a morsel."

And at the same time the voice in the air repeated again, "Good actions
never go unrewarded;" and Cherry found himself changed into a beautiful
little white pigeon. He remembered with joy that white was the color of
the fairy Candide, and began to hope that she was taking him into favor
again.

So he stretched his wings, delighted that he might now have a chance
of approaching his fair Zelia. He flew up to the palace windows, and,
finding one of them open, entered and sought everywhere, but he could
not find Zelia. Then, in despair, he flew out again, resolved to go over
the world until he beheld her once more.

He took flight at once and traversed many countries, swiftly as a bird
can, but found no trace of his beloved. At length in a desert, sitting
beside an old hermit in his cave and par-taking with him his frugal
repast, Cherry saw a poor peasant girl and recognized Zelia. Transported
with joy, he flew in, perched on her shoulder, and expressed his delight
and affection by a thousand caresses.

She, charmed with the pretty little pigeon, caressed it in her turn, and
promised it that if it would stay with her she would love it always.

"What have you done, Zelia?" said the hermit, smiling; and while he
spoke the white pigeon vanished, and there stood Prince Cherry in his
own natural form. "Your enchantment ended, prince, when Zelia promised
to love you. Indeed, she has loved you always, but your many faults
constrained her to hide her love. These are now amended, and you may
both live happy if you will, because your union is founded upon mutual
esteem."

Cherry and Zelia threw themselves at the feet of the hermit, whose form
also began to change. His soiled garments became of dazzling whiteness,
and his long beard and withered face grew into the flowing hair and
lovely countenance of the fairy Candide.

"Rise up, my children," said she; "I must now transport you to your
palace and restore to Prince Cherry his father's crown, of which he is
now worthy."

She had scarcely ceased speaking when they found themselves in the
chamber of Suliman, who, delighted to find again his beloved pupil and
master, willingly resigned the throne, and became the most faithful of
his subjects.

King Cherry and Queen Zelia reigned together for many years, and it is
said that the former was so blameless and strict in all his duties that
though he constantly wore the ring which Candide had restored to him, it
never once pricked his finger enough to make it bleed.




THE PRINCE WITH THE NOSE

THERE was once a king who was passionately in love with a beautiful
princess, but she could not be married because a magician had
enchanted her. The king went to a good fairy to inquire what he should
do. Said the fairy, after receiving him graciously: "Sir, I will tell
you a great secret. The princess has a great cat whom she loves so well
that she cares for nothing and nobody else; but she will be obliged to
marry any person who is adroit enough to walk upon the cat's tail."

"That will not be very difficult," thought the king to himself, and
departed, resolving to trample the cat's tail to pieces rather than not
succeed in walking upon it. He went immediately to the palace of his
fair mistress and the cat; the animal came in front of him, arching
its back in anger as it was wont to do. The king lifted up his foot,
thinking nothing would be so easy as to tread on the tail, but he found
himself mistaken. Minon--that was the creature's name--twisted itself
round so sharply that the king only hurt his own foot by stamping on the
floor. For eight days did he pursue the cat everywhere: up and down
the palace he was after it from morning till night, but with no better
success; the tail seemed made of quicksilver, so very lively was it. At
last the king had the good fortune to catch Minon sleeping, when tramp!
tramp! he trod on the tail with all his force.

Minon woke up, mewed horribly, and immediately changed from a cat into a
large, fierce-looking man, who regarded the king with flashing eyes.

"You must marry the princess," cried he, "because you have broken the
enchantment in which I held her; but I will be revenged on you. You
shall have a son with a nose as long as--that;" he made in the air a
curve of half a foot; "yet he shall believe it is just like all other
noses, and shall be always unfortunate till he has found out it is not.
And if you ever tell anybody of this threat of mine, you shall die on
the spot." So saying the magician disappeared.

The king, who was at first much terrified, soon began to laugh at this
adventure. "My son might have a worse misfortune than too long a nose,"
thought he. "At least it will hinder him neither in seeing nor hearing.
I will go and find the princess and marry her at once."

He did so, but he only lived a few months after, and died before his
little son was born, so that nobody knew anything about the secret of
the nose.

The little prince was so much wished for that when he came into the
world they agreed to call him Prince Wish. He had beautiful blue eyes
and a sweet little mouth, but his nose was so big that it covered half
his face. The queen, his mother, was inconsolable; but her ladies tried
to satisfy her by telling her that the nose was not nearly so large as
it seemed, that it would grow smaller as the prince grew bigger, and
that if it did not a large nose was indispensable to a hero. All great
soldiers, they said, had great noses, as everybody knew. The queen was
so very fond of her son that she listened eagerly to all this comfort.
Shortly she grew so used to the princes's nose that it did not seem to
her any larger than ordinary noses of the court; where, in process
of time, everybody with a long nose was very much admired, and the
unfortunate people who had only snubs were taken very little notice of.

Great care was observed in the education of the prince; and as soon as
he could speak they told him all sorts of amusing tales, in which all
the bad people had short noses, and all the good people had long ones.
No person was suffered to come near him who had not a nose of more than
ordinary length; nay, to such an extent did the countries carry their
fancy, that the noses of all the little babies were ordered to be pulled
out as far as possible several times a day, in order to make them grow.
But grow as they would, they never could grow as long as that of Prince
Wish. When he was old enough his tutor taught him history; and whenever
any great king or lovely princess was referred to, the tutor always took
care to mention that he or she had a long nose. All the royal apartments
were filled with pictures and portraits having this peculiarity, so
that at last Prince Wish began to regard the length of his nose as his
greatest perfection, and would not have had it an inch less even to save
his crown.

When he was twenty years old his mother and his people wished him to
marry. They procured for him the likenesses of many princesses, but the
one he preferred was Princess Darling, daughter of a powerful monarch
and heiress to several kingdoms. Alas! with all her beauty, this
princess had one great misfortune, a little turned-up nose, which,
every one else said made her only the more bewitching. But here, in the
kingdom of Prince Wish, the courtiers were thrown by it into the utmost
perplexity. They were in the habit of laughing at all small noses; but
how dared they make fun of the nose of Princess Darling? Two unfortunate
gentlemen, whom Prince Wish had overheard doing so, were ignominiously
banished from the court and capital.

After this, the courtiers became alarmed, and tried to correct their
habit of speech; but they would have found themselves in constant
difficulties, had not one clever person struck out a bright idea. He
said that though it was indispensably necessary for a man to have
a great nose, women were very different; and that a learned man had
discovered in a very old manuscript that the celebrated Cleopatra, Queen
of Egypt, the beauty of the ancient world, had a turned-up nose. At this
information Prince Wish was so delighted that he made the courtier a
very handsome present, and immediately sent off ambassadors to demand
Princess Darling in marriage.