Transcribed from the 1893 J. W. Arrowsmith edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
{Book cover: p0.jpg}
PRINCE RICARDO OF PANTOUFLIA
BEING THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE
PRIGIO'S SON, BY ANDREW LANG
AUTHOR OF PRINCE PRIGIO
ILLUSTRATED BY
GORDON BROWNE
PUBLISHED AT BRISTOL BY J. W. ARROWSMITH,
QUAY STREET, AND AT LONDON BY SIMPKIN,
MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & COMPANY LIMITED
DEDICATION.
To Guy Campbell.
_My dear Guy_,
_You wanted to know more about Prince Prigio_, _who won the Lady
Rosalind_, _and killed the Firedrake and the Remora by aid of his Fairy
gifts_. _Here you have some of his later adventures_, _and you will
learn from this story the advantages of minding your book_.
_Yours always_,
_A. Lang_.
{Andrew Lang's signature: p0v.jpg}
Introductory.
Explaining Matters.
{Decorative letter T: p0ix.jpg}
There may be children whose education has been so neglected that they
have not read _Prince Prigio_. As this new story is about Prince
Prigio's son, Ricardo, you are to learn that Prigio was the child and
heir of Grognio, King of Pantouflia. The fairies gave the little Prince
cleverness, beauty, courage; but one wicked fairy added, "You shall be
_too_ clever." His mother, the queen, hid away in a cupboard all the
fairy presents,--the Sword of Sharpness, the Seven-League Boots, the
Wishing Cap, and many other useful and delightful gifts, in which her
Majesty did not believe! But after Prince Prigio had become universally
disliked and deserted, because he was so very clever and conceited, he
happened to find all the fairy presents in the old turret chamber where
they had been thrown. By means of these he delivered his country from a
dreadful Red-Hot Beast, called the Firedrake, and, in addition to many
other triumphs, he married the good and beautiful Lady Rosalind. His
love for her taught him not to be conceited, though he did not cease to
be extremely clever and fond of reading.
When this new story begins the Prince has succeeded to the crown, on the
death of King Grognio, and is unhappy about his own son, Prince Ricardo,
who is not clever, and who hates books! The story tells of Ricardo's
adventures: how he tried to bring back Prince Charlie to England, how he
failed; how he dealt with the odious old Yellow Dwarf; how he was aided
by the fair magician, the Princess Jaqueline; how they both fell into a
dreadful trouble; how King Prigio saved them; and how Jaqueline's dear
and royal papa was discovered; with the end of all these adventures. The
moral of the story will easily be discovered by the youngest reader, or,
if not, it does not much matter.
CHAPTER I.
The Troubles of King Prigio.
{Prince Ricardo and lady tied up: p13.jpg}
"I'm sure I don't know what to do with that boy!" said King Prigio of
Pantouflia.
"If _you_ don't know, my dear," said Queen Rosalind, his illustrious
consort, "I can't see what is to be done. You are so clever."
The king and queen were sitting in the royal library, of which the
shelves were full of the most delightful fairy books in all languages,
all equally familiar to King Prigio. The queen could not read most of
them herself, but the king used to read them aloud to her. A good many
years had passed--seventeen, in fact--since Queen Rosalind was married,
but you would not think it to look at her. Her grey eyes were as kind
and soft and beautiful, her dark hair as dark, and her pretty colour as
like a white rose blushing, as on the day when she was a bride. And she
was as fond of the king as when he was only Prince Prigio, and he was as
fond of her as on the night when he first met her at the ball.
"No, I don't know what to do with Dick," said the king.
He meant his son, Prince Ricardo, but he called him Dick in private.
"I believe it's the fault of his education," his Majesty went on. "We
have not brought him up rightly. These fairy books are at the bottom of
his provoking behaviour," and he glanced round the shelves. "Now, when
_I_ was a boy, my dear mother tried to prevent me from reading fairy
books, because she did not believe in fairies."
"But she was wrong, you know," said the queen. "Why, if it had not been
for all these fairy presents, the Cap of Darkness and all the rest of
them, you never could have killed the Fire-beast and the Ice-beast,
and--you never could have married me," the queen added, in a happy
whisper, blushing beautifully, for that was a foolish habit of hers.
"It is quite true," said the king, "and therefore I thought it best to
bring Dick up on fairy books, that he might know what is right, and have
no nonsense about him. But perhaps the thing has been overdone; at all
events, it is not a success. I wonder if fathers and sons will ever
understand each other, and get on well together? There was my poor
father, King Grognio, he wanted me to take to adventures, like other
princes, fighting Firedrakes, and so forth; and I did not care for it,
till _you_ set me on," and he looked very kindly at her Majesty. "And
now, here's Dick," the monarch continued, "I can't hold him back. He is
always after a giant, or a dragon, or a magician, as the case may be; he
will certainly be ploughed for his examination at College. Never opens a
book. What does he care, off after every adventure he can hear about? An
idle, restless youth! Ah, my poor country, when I am gone, what may not
be your misfortunes under Ricardo!"
Here his Majesty sighed, and seemed plunged in thought.
"But you are not going yet, my dear," said the queen. "Why you are not
forty! And young people will be young people. You were quite proud when
poor Dick came home with his first brace of gigantic fierce birds, killed
off his own sword, and with such a pretty princess he had rescued--dear
Jaqueline? I'm sure she is like a daughter to me. I cannot do without
her."
"I wish she were a daughter-in-law; I wish Dick would take a fancy to
marry her," said the king. "A nicer girl I never saw."
"And so accomplished," added Queen Rosalind. "That girl can turn herself
into anything--a mouse, a fly, a lion, a wheelbarrow, a church! I never
knew such talent for magic. Of course she had the _best_ of teachers,
the Fairy Paribanou herself; but very few girls, in our time, devote so
many hours to _practice_ as dear Jaqueline. Even now, when she is out of
the schoolroom, she still practises her scales. I saw her turning little
Dollie into a fish and back again in the bath-room last night. The child
was delighted."
In these times, you must know, princesses learned magic, just as they
learn the piano nowadays; but they had their music lessons too, dancing,
calisthenics, and the use of the globes.
"Yes, she's a dear, good girl," said the king; "yet she looks melancholy.
I believe, myself, that if Ricardo asked her to marry him, she would not
say 'No.' But that's just one of the things I object to most in Dick.
Round the world he goes, rescuing ladies from every kind of horror--from
dragons, giants, cannibals, magicians; and then, when a girl naturally
expects to be married to him, as is usual, off he rides! He has no more
heart than a flounder. Why, at his age I--"
"At his age, my dear, you were so hard-hearted that you were quite a
proverb. Why, I have been told that you used to ask girls dreadful
puzzling questions, like 'Who was Caesar Borgia?' 'What do you know of
Edwin and Morcar?' and so on."
"I had not seen _you_ then," said the king.
"And Ricardo has not seen _her_, whoever she may be. Besides, he can't
possibly marry all of them. And I think a girl should consider herself
lucky if she is saved from a dragon or a giant, without expecting to be
married next day."
"Perhaps; but it is usual," said the king, "and their families expect it,
and keep sending ambassadors to know what Dick's intentions are. I would
not mind it all so very much if he killed the monsters off his own sword,
as he did that first brace, in fair fight. But ever since he found his
way into that closet where the fairy presents lie, everything has been
made too easy for him. It is a royal road to glory, or giant-slaying
made easy. In his Cap of Darkness a poor brute of a dragon can't see
him. In his Shoes of Swiftness the giants can't catch him. His Sword of
Sharpness would cut any oak asunder at a blow!"
"But you were very glad of them when you made the Ice-beast and the Fire-
beast fight and kill each other," said the queen.
"Yes, my dear; but it wanted some wit, if I may say so, to do _that_, and
Dick just goes at it hammer and tongs: anybody could do it. It's
_intellect_ I miss in Ricardo. How am I to know whether he could make a
good fight for it without all these fairy things? I wonder what the
young rogue is about to-day? He'll be late for dinner, as usual, I
daresay. I can't stand want of punctuality at meals," remarked his
Majesty, which is a sign that he was growing old after all; for where is
the fun of being expected always to come home in time for dinner when,
perhaps, you are fishing, and the trout are rising splendidly?
"Young people will be young people," said the queen. "If you are anxious
about him, why don't you look for him in the magic crystal?"
Now the magic crystal was a fairy present, a great ball of glass in
which, if you looked, you saw the person you wanted to see, and what he
was doing, however far away he might be, if he was on the earth at all.
{21}
"I'll just take a look at it," said the king; "it only wants
three-quarters of an hour to dinner-time."
His Majesty rose, and walked to the crystal globe, which was in a stand,
like other globes. He stared into it, he turned it round and round, and
Queen Rosalind saw him grow quite pale as he gazed.
"I don't see him anywhere," said the king, "and I have looked everywhere.
I do hope nothing has happened to the boy. He is so careless. If he
dropped his Cap of Darkness in a fight with a giant, why who knows what
might occur?"
"Oh, 'Gio, how you frighten me!" said the queen.
King Prigio was still turning the crystal globe.
"Stop!" he cried; "I see a beautiful princess, fastened by iron chains to
a rock beside the sea, in a lonely place. They must have fixed her up as
a sacrifice to a sea-monster, like what's-her-name."
This proves how anxious he was, or, being so clever and learned, he would
have remembered that her name was Andromeda.
"I bet Dick is not far off, where there is an adventure on hand. But
where on earth can he be? . . . My word!" suddenly exclaimed the
monarch, in obvious excitement.
"What is it, dear?" cried the queen, with all the anxiety of a mother.
"Why, the sea where the girl is, has turned all red as blood!" exclaimed
the king. "Now it is all being churned up by the tail of a tremendous
monster. He is a whopper! He's coming on shore; the girl is fainting.
He's out on shore! He is extremely poorly, blood rushing from his open
jaws. He's dying! And, hooray! here's Dick coming out of his enormous
mouth, all in armour set with sharp spikes, and a sword in his hand. He's
covered with blood, but he's well and hearty. He must have been
swallowed by the brute, and cut him up inside. Now he's cutting the
beast's head off. Now he's gone to the princess; a very neat bow he has
made her. Dick's manners are positively improving! Now he's cutting her
iron chains off with the Sword of Sharpness. And now he's made her
another bow, and he's actually taking leave of her. Poor thing! How
disappointed she is looking. And she's so pretty, too. I say, Rosalind,
shall I shout to him through the magic horn, and tell him to bring her
home here, on the magic carpet?"
"I think not, dear; the palace is quite full," said the queen. But the
real reason was that she wanted Ricardo to marry her favourite Princess
Jaqueline, and she did not wish the new princess to come in the way.
"As you like," said the king, who knew what was in her mind very well.
"Besides, I see her own people coming for her. I'm sorry for her, but it
can't be helped, and Dick is half-way home by now on the Shoes of
Swiftness. I daresay he will not keep dinner waiting after all. But
what a fright the boy has given me!"
At this moment a whirring in the air and a joyous shout were heard. It
was Prince Ricardo flying home on his Seven-league Boots.
"Hi, Ross!" he shouted, "just weigh this beast's head. I've had a
splendid day with a sea-monster. Get the head stuffed, will you? We'll
have it set up in the billiard-room."
"Yes, Master Dick--I mean your Royal Highness," said Ross, a Highland
keeper, who had not previously been employed by a Reigning Family. "It's
a fine head, whatever," he added, meditatively.
{Ross weighing the beast's head: p28.jpg}
Prince Ricardo now came beneath the library window, and gave his parents
a brief account of his adventure.
"I picked the monster up early in the morning," he said, "through the
magic telescope, father."
"What country was he in?" said the king.
"The country people whom I met called it Ethiopia. They were niggers."
"And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, Ricardo?"
"Oh! I don't know. Asia, perhaps," answered the prince.
The king groaned.
"That boy will _never_ understand our foreign relations. Ethiopia in
Asia!" he said to himself, but he did not choose to make any remark at
the moment.
The prince ran upstairs to dress. On the stairs he met the Princess
Jaqueline.
"Oh, Dick! are you hurt?" she said, turning very pale.
"No, not I; but the monster is. I had a capital day, Jack; rescued a
princess, too."
"Was she--was she very pretty, Dick?"
"Oh! I don't know. Pretty enough, I daresay. Much like other girls.
Why, you look quite white! What's the matter? Now you look all right
again;" for, indeed, the Princess Jaqueline was blushing.
"I must dress. I'm ever so late," he said, hurrying upstairs; and the
princess, with a little sigh, went down to the royal drawing-room.