They say there was a queen who was so bad-tempered that no one who
could help it would come near her. All the servants ran away when she
came out of her apartment, for fear she should scold and maltreat them;
all the people ran away when she drove out, for fear she should vex
them with some tyrannical order.
As she was rich and beautiful, and ruled over vast dominions, many
princes--who in their distant kingdoms had heard nothing of her
failing--came to sue for her hand, but she sent them all away and
would have nothing to say to any of them. She used to say she did not
want to have anyone to be her master; she had rather live and govern
by herself, and have everything her own way.
As time went on, however, the council of state grew dissatisfied
with this resolution. They insisted that she must marry, that there
might be a family of princes to carry on the succession to the throne
without dispute. When the queen found that she could not help it she
agreed she would marry; but she was determined she would not marry
any of the princes who had come to court her, because, as they were
equal to herself in birth and state, they would want to rule over her
and expect obedience from her. She declared she would marry no one
but a certain duke, who, as she had observed in the council and in
the state banquets and balls, was always very quiet and hardly ever
spoke at all. She thought he would make a nice quiet manageable sort
of husband, and she would have him if she must have one at all.
The duke was as silent as usual when he was spoken to about it; but
as he made no objection he was reckoned to have consented, and the
marriage was duly solemnised.
As soon as the marriage was over the queen went on making her
arrangements and ordering matters in the palace just as if nothing had
happened, and she were still her own mistress. In particular she issued
invitations for the grandest ball she had ever given, asking to it all
the ministers and their families, and all the nobility of the kingdom.
The husband said nothing to all this, only a few hours before the time
appointed for the banquet he called to the queen, saying: 'Put on your
travelling dress, and make haste; the carriage will be round directly.'
'I'm not going to put on my travelling dress,' answered the queen
scornfully; 'I am just seeing about my evening dress for the banquet
this evening.'
'If you are not ready in your travelling dress in five minutes,
when the carriage comes round, it will be worse for you. Mind I have
warned you.'
And he looked so determined that she quailed before him.
'How can we be going into the country, when I have invited half the
kingdom to a banquet?' exclaimed the queen.
'I have invited no one,' answered the husband quietly. 'Don't stand
hesitating when I tell you to do a thing; go and get ready directly! we
are going into the country!' he added in his most positive voice,
and, though she shed many secret tears over the loss of the banquet,
she ventured to oppose nothing more to his orders, but went up and
dressed, and when the carriage came round she was nearly ready. In
about five minutes she came down.
'I won't say anything this time about your keeping me waiting,' he
said when she appeared; 'but mind it does not happen again, or you
will be sorry for it.'
The queen had a favourite little dog, which she fondled and talked to
all the way, to show she was offended with her husband and independent
of his conversation.
Watching an opportunity when she was silent, the husband said to the
little dog, 'Jump on to my lap.'
'He's not going to obey you,' said the queen contemptuously; 'he's
my dog!'
'I keep no one about me who does not obey me,' said her husband
quietly; and he took out his pistol and shot the dog through the head.
The queen began to understand that the husband she had chosen was
not a person to be trifled with, nor did she venture even to utter
a complaint.
When they arrived at the villa, as the queen was going to her apartment
to undress, her husband called her to him into his room and bade her
pull off his boots.
The queen's first impulse was to utter a haughty refusal; but by this
time she had learnt that, as she would certainly have to give in to him
in the end, it was better to do his bidding with a good grace at the
first. So she said nothing, but knelt down and pulled off his boots.
When she had done this he got up and said: 'Now sit down in this
armchair and I will take off your shoes; for my way is that one should
help the other. If you behave to me as a wife should, you need never
fear but that I shall behave to you as a husband should.'
By the time their visit to the country was at an end, and when they
returned to the capital, everybody found their naughty queen had
become the most angelic being imaginable.
[After people's bad tempers, their follies form the most prolific
subject of the Ciarpe.]