"In sooth, I believe you are, indeed, of my kin! Something tells me so.
I am sure that Gerda, your great-great-grandmother came from my Kingdom,
and was sister of my great-great-grandfather."
"I think so too," said the Lady Anyse.
"Cousin," declared Red Rex, "you have been too long away from the land
of your fathers. Will you go back with me, to my little daughter? She
has no mother, and she needs one badly; some one from a peaceful
Kingdom. I think she needs you. I am going, moreover, to make for her a
splendid Aquarium, like this of Kisington. This also will need your
care."
"I think so too," said the Lady Anyse.
"Then you will come back with me?" begged Red Rex, more eagerly than he
had ever begged for anything in his life. "It will make a new bond
between our Kingdoms, so that we shall never be at war again."
"I think so too!" said the Lady Anyse, who was a woman of few words.
So that matter was happily settled, to the Red King's great content. And
a happy thing, indeed, it proved for the little Princess Hope and for
the two Kingdoms.
When the second week began, Red Rex left Kisington to visit King Victor
at the Capital City. Harold and Robert and Richard accompanied him as
pages, each wearing a beautiful suit of velvet and gold, and each riding
on a fine little white pony, the gift of Red Rex.
What a glorious trip that was! For first they made a detour to the Town
of Hushby. There still stood the inn where Arthur had met pretty Margot
who afterwards became his Countess, and where he had his first adventure
with the wicked Oscar. From there the party went up into the mountains
where the Dragon used to live. Harold and the other two boys scrambled
about among the rocks, and after a while they found the very place which
had been the Dragon's den. It was a cave fifty feet long and twelve feet
high, very black and gloomy. And in it were a great many skulls and
bones of persons whom the Dragon had killed and eaten in those dreadful
years, long, long ago. But now it was empty and forgotten.
From Hushby they rode to the Capital City, which was all decked with
banners and flowers to receive Red Rex, the ex-War-Lord. Then began a
season of royal merrymaking to celebrate the peace between the two
Kingdoms. There were banquets and dancing and games and pageants,
processions and concerts and fireworks, all of which the Red King and
his three pages enjoyed hugely. King Victor was very kind to them, and
made them happy in every way he could devise.
He invited them to the Royal Museum, where they were privileged to view
some of the most precious treasures of the Kingdom. They saw in a glass
case on a velvet mat the tiny stuffed Dragon himself; he who had once
been the Terror of Hushby. They saw, too, the now un-magical glass with
which Arthur had vanquished his enemy. It looked like any other mere
reading-glass with an ivory handle, and it was hard to believe what
wonders it had done. In this same collection was the first pie-plate
brought by Rafe's messenger to the King, after that clever cook became
pie-maker-in-ordinary to the throne.
Here, too, was the glove of that royal giantess, the Princess Agnes, who
had refused to marry Arthur because he was too little. It was as broad
as a palm-leaf fan, and much thicker. Close by the monster glove lay a
tiny white moccasin, which had once been worn by Ursula, the bear's
daughter, and which had been brought back from the far land of that sad
story by one of the sea-rovers of Kisington, who had first told the
tale.
Here also was one of the partly-grated nuts with which Meg had flavored
the first King's Pie; and a precious pearl from Gerda's Wonder-Garden,
the gift of the grateful Mermaid. There, worn to rags, by the passage of
many years, was the original lion-doll made by Claribel, from the model
of the Lion Passant. And this the Red King liked best of all. But there
were many interesting things in the Museum of King Victor which recalled
to Red Rex the stories that Harold had read to him.
One day King Victor and a merry party rode to the town of Derrydown in
the north. Here was the great lion-doll factory, started by Claribel and
the Lion Passant, which had made their fortune and that of Derrydown.
The party stopped at the old Red Lion Inn where the sign still swung
over the door as in the days when the Lion Passant had first been struck
by its resemblance to his family crest. And because it was his family
crest also, Red Rex made the landlord a handsome present. In these days
the Red King was generosity itself.
Hard by the Inn was the very same tiny hut in which Claribel had lived;
and over the fireplace still showed dimly the carved coat of arms and
the motto, _Noblesse oblige_.
When Red Rex saw this, he stood and stared at it a long time, saying
nothing. "I used to think that meant 'A King can do no wrong,'" said he
at last in a low voice to King Victor. "Now I believe it means, 'A King
must do no wrong.'"
"So I too believe," agreed King Victor. "But I would make the motto say
still more. Every one can be noble, and a noble must do no wrong."
"It shall be the motto of my people!" declared Red Rex. And so it
became.
But there were other tales of this neighborhood which Red Rex
remembered. "May we not go hunting in the Ancient Wood, of which I have
heard?" asked Red Rex while they tarried in Derrydown. "I understand
that it is not far, and that there is great game to be had in those
still coverts."
"Nay; in these days we do not hunt in my Kingdom," replied King Victor.
"Since hearing the tale of the Bear's Daughter it has been no pleasure
for any of us to kill or hurt any dumb creature."
"Ah!" cried Red Rex. "I had forgot that story! Hans wounded a poor
friendly bear who had done him no harm. That was cowardly, indeed! True,
Cousin. Neither do I wish to hunt any more. It was that tale which you
punctuated by your noisy arrival in Kisington, do you remember? I picked
out that story for myself; and it has done a service to the wild
creatures of my Kingdom, who will henceforth be safe from me and mine.
But, indeed, though we do not hunt, I would fain see this Ancient Wood,
where the Old Gnome lived in his hollow tree."
"We will go this very day," answered King Victor. And go they did. Sure
enough, in a clearing they found the house which David had built for his
little wife, snug and clean and empty. Close by in the thick woods the
three boys discovered a giant tree-stump, papered with moss and hung
with cobweb hammocks, which they felt sure had been the house of the
Hermit Gnome in the days before he became a Fairy.
"I must bring my little daughter Hope to see this place," declared the
Red King. "She would love it best of all. What good times she would have
with me here in the forest! I would tell her the story of David, and
learn myself to be a woodsman."
"It is more amusing than war," declared King Victor. "With books in the
city and woodcraft in the wild, who would be a soldier? Look, now! I
will give to your little Princess Hope as a gift this tiny cottage,
where David and his wife and little daughter lived so happily. When she
comes to visit our Kingdom,--often, as I hope,--you can play at being a
woodsman; which is a good game. But you must promise to let me be your
guest for at least one night of each visit. For I, too, love these woods
and this little house which has been my secret retreat for many years.
Will you accept my gift for your little daughter, Cousin?"
"Gladly do I accept!" cried Red Rex. And they shook hands gayly.
Still further they penetrated across the meadow to the woods once called
the Great Fear. Red Rex was anxious to know more of that once dangerous
neighborhood. But since peace had become the fashion in the Kingdom, the
wicked Gnomes, who had tried as long as possible to prick war-poison
into the hearts of men, found their occupation gone. When the good
King's peace plans reached their ears the Gnomes groaned in despair.
They held a council, and decided unanimously to curl up forthwith in the
long sleep and let the world alone.
There was now no sign of them, save where here and there a gnarled arm
or burly bended knee seemed to push up from the ground. But these were
so covered with mould and moss that it was impossible to tell them from
the fallen tree-trunks or mounds of earth. Harold and Robert and Richard
did not disturb these mossy mysteries. In times of peace it is better to
let sleeping Gnomes lie. Only the makers of ammunition and warships and
newspaper scareheads (of whom there were none in King Victor's land)
would be eager to see those busy-bodies awake and at their malicious
work again, causing peaceful places to become a Great Fear.
When the happy fortnight ended, the Red King went back to his Kingdom
and his little Princess Hope, taking with him the beautiful Lady Anyse.
Then began a time of peace in that hitherto restless land; a time of
peace and prosperity and happiness, of neighborliness and the exchange
of friendly doings. King Victor went to visit the erstwhile War-Lord,
and in that time taught the Red King many useful arts of peace. And who,
think you, went with King Victor on that visit? Who but the good
Librarian and Harold, his adopted son. The Librarian had his pockets
full of plans for a grand new library to be established in the Capital
of Red Rex. And Harold had his pockets full of stories for the little
Princess, and his bag full of sweetmeats for that same wee lady, made by
his kind mother who was now pie-maker-general to the Red King, according
as they had planned.
Harold and the Princess Hope, who was the dearest of little girls in
pink-and-gold, became the best of friends. And when the following summer
she came with Red Rex and the Queen Anyse to live in the hut in the
Ancient Wood and play at being wood-folk, Harold and Richard and Robert
came also. The three boys encamped (like Boy Scouts) in the woods close
by the hollow tree which had once been the cell of the Hermit Gnome. And
they used his house for their cooling cellar!
*****
So ended the Siege of Kisington, where the books conquered. And the days
of peace continued until the time when Harold, having become a famous
scholar, was chosen Librarian and Governor of Kisington.
In those days there were no more forts or walls or jealous boundaries
between the Kingdoms; for the lands were one in peace and good-will.
There were no armies or weapons or disputes; for the nations understood
and loved and trusted one another, and their rulers were wise men and
women.
In those days the Princess Hope had become the most beautiful
book-loving maiden in the world, and the wise Governor of her father's
fairest city, adjoining Kisington.
Of course you can guess what happened next?
And they lived happy ever after.