The many ups and downs of her life had given the Princess Rosalba
prodigious strength of mind, and that highly principled young
woman presently recovered from her fainting-fit, out of which Fairy
Blackstick, by a precious essence which the Fairy always carried in her
pocket, awakened her. Instead of tearing her hair, crying, and bemoaning
herself, and fainting again, as many young women would have done,
Rosalba remembered that she owed an example of firmness to her subjects;
and though she loved Giglio more than her life, was determined, as she
told the Fairy, not to interfere between him and justice, or to cause
him to break his royal word.
"I cannot marry him, but I shall love him always," says she to
Blackstick; "I will go and be present at his marriage with the Countess,
and sign the book, and wish them happy with all my heart. I will see,
when I get home, whether I cannot make the new Queen some handsome
presents. The Crim Tartary crown diamonds are uncommonly fine, and I
shall never have any use for them. I will live and die unmarried like
Queen Elizabeth, and, of course, I shall leave my crown to Giglio when
I quit this world. Let us go and see them married, my dear Fairy, let me
say one last farewell to him; and then, if you please, I will return to
my own dominions."
So the Fairy kissed Rosalba with peculiar tenderness, and at once
changed her wand into a very comfortable coach-and-four, with a steady
coachman, and two respectable footmen behind, and the Fairy and Rosalba
got into the coach, which Angelica and Bulbo entered after them. As
for honest Bulbo, he was blubbering in the most pathetic manner, quite
overcome by Rosalba's misfortune. She was touched by the honest fellow's
sympathy, promised to restore to him the confiscated estates of Duke
Padella his father, and created him, as he sat there in the coach,
Prince, Highness, and First Grandee of the Crim Tartar Empire. The
coach moved on, and, being a fairy coach, soon came up with the bridal
procession.
Before the ceremony at church it was the custom in Paflagonia, as it is
in other countries, for the bride and bridegroom to sign the Contract
of Marriage, which was to be witnessed by the Chancellor, Minister, Lord
Mayor, and principal officers of state. Now, as the royal palace was
being painted and furnished anew, it was not ready for the reception of
the King and his bride, who proposed at first to take up their residence
at the Prince's palace, that one which Valoroso occupied when Angelica
was born, and before he usurped the throne.
So the marriage party drove up to the palace: the dignitaries got out of
their carriages and stood aside: poor Rosalba stepped out of her coach,
supported by Bulbo, and stood almost fainting up against the railings
so as to have a last look of her dear Giglio. As for Blackstick, she,
according to her custom, had flown out of the coach window in some
inscrutable manner, and was now standing at the palace door.
Giglio came up the steps with his horrible bride on his arm, looking
as pale as if he was going to execution. He only frowned at the Fairy
Blackstick--he was angry with her, and thought she came to insult his
misery.
"Get out of the way, pray," says Gruffanuff haughtily. "I wonder why you
are always poking your nose into other people's affairs?"
"Are you determined to make this poor young man unhappy?" says
Blackstick.
"To marry him, yes! What business is it of yours? Pray, madam, don't say
'you' to a Queen," cries Gruffanuff.
"You won't take the money he offered you?"
"No."
"You won't let him off his bargain, though you know you cheated him when
you made him sign the paper?"
"Impudence! Policemen, remove this woman!" cries Gruffanuff. And the
policemen were rushing forward, but with a wave of her wand the Fairy
struck them all like so many statues in their places.
"You won't take anything in exchange for your bond, Mrs. Gruffanuff,"
cries the Fairy, with awful severity. "I speak for the last time."
"No!" shrieks Gruffanuff, stamping with her foot. "I'll have my husband,
my husband, my husband!"
"YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR HUSBAND!" the Fairy Blackstick cried; and advancing
a step, laid her hand upon the nose of the KNOCKER.
As she touched it, the brass nose seemed to elongate, the open mouth
opened still wider, and uttered a roar which made everybody start.
The eyes rolled wildly; the arms and legs uncurled themselves, writhed
about, and seemed to lengthen with each twist; the knocker expanded into
a figure in yellow livery, six feet high; the screws by which it was
fixed to the door unloosed themselves, and JENKINS GRUFFANUFF once more
trod the threshold off which he had been lifted more than twenty years
ago!
"Master's not at home," says Jenkins, just in his old voice; and Mrs.
Jenkins, giving a dreadful YOUP, fell down in a fit, in which nobody
minded her.
For everybody was shouting, "Huzzay! huzzay!" "Hip, hip, hurray!" "Long
live the King and Queen!" "Were such things ever seen?" "No, never,
never, never!" "The Fairy Blackstick for ever!"
The bells were ringing double peals, the guns roaring and banging most
prodigiously. Bulbo was embracing everybody; the Lord Chancellor was
flinging up his wig and shouting like a madman; Hedzoff had got the
Archbishop round the waist, and they were dancing a jig for joy; and as
for Giglio, I leave you to imagine what HE was doing, and if he kissed
Rosalba once, twice--twenty thousand times, I'm sure I don't think he
was wrong.
So Gruffanuff opened the hall door with a low bow, just as he had been
accustomed to do, and they all went in and signed the book, and then
they went to church and were married, and the Fairy Blackstick sailed
away on her cane, and was never more heard of in Paflagonia.