Prince Prigio | Page 9

would speak ill of him. She had never seen the prince, for she was but newly come to Pantouflia; but she declared that it was his misfortune, not his fault, to be so clever. "And, then, think how hard they made him work at school! Besides," said this kind young lady, "I hear he is extremely handsome, and very brave; and he has a good heart, for he was kind, I have heard, to a poor boy, and did all his examination papers for him, so that the boy passed first in everything. And now he is Minister for Education, though he can't do a line of Greek prose!"
The prince blushed at this, for he knew his conduct had not been honourable. But he at once fell over head and ears in love with the young lady, a thing he had never done in his life before, because--he said--"women were so stupid!" You see he was so clever!
Now, at this very moment--when the prince, all of a sudden, was as deep in love as if he had been the stupidest officer in the room--an extraordinary thing happened! Something seemed to give a whirr! in his brain, and in one instant he knew all about it! He believed in fairies and fairy gifts, and understood that his cap was the cap of darkness, and his shoes the seven-league boots, and his purse the purse of Fortunatus! He had read about those things in historical books: but now he believed in them.
[Illustration: Chapter Seven]
CHAPTER VII.
--The Prince Falls in Love
HE understood all this, and burst out laughing, which nearly frightened an old lady near him out of her wits. Ah! how he wished he was only in evening dress, that he might dance with the charming young lady. But there he was, dressed just as if he were going out to hunt, if anyone could have seen him. So, even if he took off his cap of darkness, and became visible, he was no figure for a ball. Once he would not have cared, but now he cared very much indeed.
But the prince was not clever for nothing. He thought for a moment, then went out of the room, and, in three steps of the seven-league boots, was at his empty, dark, cold palace again. He struck a light with a flint and steel, lit a torch, and ran upstairs to the garret. The flaring light of the torch fell on the pile of "rubbish," as the queen would have called it, which he turned over with eager hands. Was there--yes, there was another cap! There it lay, a handsome green one with a red feather.
The prince pulled off the cap of darkness, put on the other, and said:
"I wish I were dressed in my best suit of white and gold, with the royal Pantouflia diamonds!"
In one moment there he was in white and gold, the greatest and most magnificent dandy in the whole world, and the handsomest man!
"How about my boots, I wonder," said the prince; for his seven-league boots were stout riding-boots, not good to dance in, whereas now he was in elegant shoes of silk and gold.
He threw down the wishing cap, put on the other--the cap of darkness--and made three strides in the direction of Gluckstein. But he was only three steps nearer it than he had been, and the seven-league boots were standing beside him on the floor!
"No," said the prince; "no man can be in two different pairs of boots at one and the same time! That's mathematics!"
He then hunted about in the lumber-room again till he found a small, shabby, old Persian carpet, the size of a hearthrug. He went to his own room, took a portmanteau in his hand, sat down on the carpet, and said:
"I wish I were in Gluckstein."
In a moment there he found himself; for this was that famous carpet which Prince Hussein bought long ago, in the market at Bisnagar, and which the fairies had brought, with the other presents, to the christening of Prince Prigio.
[Illustration: Page 40]
When he arrived at the house where the ball was going on, he put the magical carpet in the portmanteau, and left it in the cloakroom, receiving a numbered ticket in exchange. Then he marched in all his glory (and, of course, without the cap of darkness) into the room where they were dancing. Everybody made place for him, bowing down to the ground, and the loyal band struck up The Prince's March:
Heaven bless our Prince Prigio! What is there he doesn't know? Greek, Swiss, German (High and Low), And the names of the mountains in Mexico, Heaven bless the prince!
He used to be very fond of this march, and the words--some people even said he had made them himself. But now, somehow, he