THE PUPPET-KINGDOM IS SET IN ORDER.--HAUGHTINESS OF
NUTCRACKER, HIS WIFE, AND SUBJECTS.--ANTIPATHY OF THE
TWO PEOPLES.--THE ROOT-KING ABDICATES HIS
CROWN.--NUTCRACKER A TYRANT.--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR IN
ROOT-VALLEY.--THE WAR.--HARLEQUIN'S DEATH.--FLIGHT AND
DESTRUCTION OF THE PUPPET-KINGDOM.--NUTCRACKER'S
DEATH.--THE PRINCESS SAVED.
It took Prince Nutcracker a full week to put his State in order, to
erect towns, fortresses, and villages on their proper spots, and to
assign to his subjects their places and sphere of activity. All
this was admirably executed with the aid of his indefatigable
councillor Harlequin, who was the soul of the whole undertaking.
Everything too seemed to favour the new State, for as yet there had
been no cloud in the sky, no gust of wind to overthrow a company of
soldiers, no rain to wash off the beautiful colours of the castles,
or to wet the princely decorations of the great theatre.
Thus lived the young Princess for some days with her husband in joy
and splendour. She had laid aside her old dresses of leaves,
flowers, and gossamer, and was arrayed like the most elegant
State Puppet, after the newest Paris fashions. She left off her
natural lively movements, and assumed the stiff and stately
deportment of her husband and the ladies of the Court, who
considered it unbecoming to turn their head ever so little on
one side. She almost wholly forgot how to walk, while she
was constantly driving to balls, concerts, and parades, to
cockchafer-hunts and fly-chases. Her chief delight was in finery:
every day she put on a new dress, and before her windows were shops
of all the newest fashions, so that her first glance fell upon them
when she got up in the morning.
Her husband too, and his subjects, grew continually more and more
haughty. They looked down with contempt upon everything that was
not a Puppet, or so finely painted and varnished as they. Every
bird that flew past, or came near them, was pursued with the
greatest cruelty.
Even the Rootmen, who came from time to time for their pleasure,
were received with more and more coldness, insomuch that they soon
ceased coming at all. Nay the good King himself was compelled to
witness how his son-in-law and his own daughter came in time to
treat him with indifference. Naturally the former friendship of the
two Peoples was soon turned into bitter hatred. Before a month had
elapsed Prince Nutcracker's arrogance became so great, that he
demanded of the Rootmen a monthly tribute of two thousand of the
finest hazelnuts: at the same time he assembled his troops and
planted his fortresses in a line on the frontier of the
Root-kingdom, resolving, in case of refusal, to invade with his
army the territory of his father-in-law.
Such a violation of all right naturally filled the gentle spirit of
the good old King with indignation. One whole day long he wept
tears of bitterness into his mossy beard; he then publicly
renounced his ungrateful daughter, and forbade her ever to come
into his sight again. At length he retired from all affairs of
government; he felt that he was too tender-hearted for such arduous
business.
The tidings of this soon reached his daughter. Her eyes were now at
once opened, and she saw how unworthily she had given away her
hand, how from vanity she had violated her duty to her father, and
to all those who had once been dear to her. Alas, it was too late!
She tried all means to dissuade her husband from his unjust
demands, but he was resolute; and when she continued unceasingly
her entreaties, his anger turned against her likewise; he shut her
up in her room, and would not hear a word more from her. Instead of
joy and peace, her constant companions now were sorrow and
repentance.
Meanwhile in the Root-kingdom a young and vigorous King was
elected, who shared the hostility of his people against the
insolent intruders, and forthwith declared war upon them. He
resolved by a decisive battle either to annihilate or drive them
away, and to this end he summoned his Allies from all sides to his
aid. Rabbits and moles, lizards and worms, were to invade
Nutcracker's country by an underground attack, and overthrow towns
and villages; locusts, bees, and cockchafers were to fall upon the
enemy from the air; whilst on the ground the Rootmen themselves
should assail the foe with sharp rush-lances and two-edged blades
of grass.
The morning of the fatal battle dawned gloomily; the sky was
covered with black clouds. Clad in their green and brown moss coats
the Rootmen marched toward the Nutfield, so that the enemy did not
observe them until they were close under his fortresses. Suddenly
there burst forth a cannonade and firing from all the loopholes;
but the balls remained sticking in the moss of the assailants, who
answered the terrific discharge with loud laughter. Quickly the
army of the Rootmen pressed onward into the Nutfield: Prince
Nutcracker threw himself upon them with his Body-guard, but was
driven back; whereupon he fled into the palace, and made Harlequin
his Fieldmarshal. With wild leaps of despair Harlequin led the main
army to the field.
But soon a general panic seized upon all. The subterranean Allies
of the enemy had already undermined the ground along which the army
of Puppets were marching, and with it the fortresses, towns, and
villages on the Nutfield; at the same time almost all the buildings
round about tumbled one upon another with a loud crash.
Fieldmarshal Harlequin himself was seized by the leg by a fierce
old Mole, who dragged him down into the earth, in spite of the most
heroic struggles: he was never seen again!
This was the signal for a general and wild flight of Nutcracker's
brilliant army, who fled to the royal palace with the cry of "Save
yourselves as you can!" The palace consisted of strongly-built
wooden saloons, and longest withstood the labours of the
undermining animals. Here Nutcracker had already put the horses to
his State-carriage; then quickly jumping into it with his wife, he
holloa'd to the coachman, "Off and away, far out of this Valley, as
fast as you can, and as far as possible!" And all his people
crowded round the coach in wild confusion to find a refuge, for on
every side insects came flying and buzzing around in the air, and
with their wings overthrew everything that was not firmly fixed.
Away went the fugitives, rolling over the field like a great ball.
Although hard pressed by the enemy, and with the loss of many
killed, they succeeded in creeping through the great hedge which
surrounded the Valley, and escaping into the forest.
The reverses of the insolent Prince and his subjects now reached
their height: the very sky waged war against them, and poured down
upon them torrents of rain. Nutcracker and his Princess saw with
grief, from the windows of their coach, the torrent increasing and
overflowing the road,--their subjects, houses, and furniture swept
past in the whirlpool, one after another falling under the toils of
the march, tumbling over precipices or getting entangled in roots,
nettles, and heaps of fallen leaves, and perishing miserably.
Nutcracker's whole People were speedily destroyed: he too had not
gone many yards, when the water unglued the joints of his coach,
and the princely pair were carried away by the flood. But the
natural strong and active spirit of the Princess was now
re-awakened by the danger. How had she once used to skip about
exultingly, and swim upon the waves in such weather! With one hand
she seized her husband's pigtail, and with the other a twig. She
tried with a spring to reach the root of a tree; but alas! the hair
of the terrified Prince was not strong enough: the pigtail remained
in her hand, and she saw her husband carried away by the torrent
and vanish from her sight.
At first she called sorrowfully after him, but presently her
natural spirit became only the more daring. She threw off her silly
fashionable dress, soaked with the rain, which cramped her slender
limbs; and quickly clothing herself in the first leaves she could
find, climbed up like a squirrel into an old tree, and in a hole in
its branches sought shelter from the storm and the approaching
night.
[Illustration: Sixth Chapter.]