The King of the Low Countries was not a very scrupulous person, and
his daughter took after him. This was why she had been changed into a
serpent. It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little
soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the
meeting-place three times running. The cunning Princess then laid her
plans accordingly.
The wine that she had given to John in the castle of the goblins, the
bouquet of immortelles, and the scarf, all had the power of producing
sleep like death. And we know how they had acted on John.
However, even in this critical moment, Ludovine did not lose her head.
‘I thought you were simply a street vagabond,’ said she, in her most
coaxing voice; ‘and I find you are more powerful than any king. Here is
your purse. Have you got my scarf and my bouquet?’
‘Here they are,’ said the Kinglet, delighted with this change of tone,
and he drew them from his bosom. Ludovine fastened one in his buttonhole
and the other round his arm. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘you are my lord and
master, and I will marry you at your good pleasure.’
‘You are kinder than I thought,’ said John; ‘and you shall never be
unhappy, for I love you.’
‘Then, my little husband, tell me how you managed to carry me so quickly
to the ends of the world.’
The little soldier scratched his head. ‘Does she really mean to marry
me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is she only trying to deceive me again?’
But Ludovine repeated, ‘Won’t you tell me?’ in such a tender voice he
did not know how to resist her.
‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her the
secret, as long as I don’t give her the cloak.’
And he told her the virtue of the red mantle.
‘Oh dear, how tired I am!’ sighed Ludovine. ‘Don’t you think we had
better take a nap? And then we can talk over our plans.’
She stretched herself on the grass, and the Kinglet did the same. He
laid his head on his left arm, round which the scarf was tied, and was
soon fast asleep.
Ludovine was watching him out of one eye, and no sooner did she hear him
snore than she unfastened the mantle, drew it gently from under him
and wrapped it round her, took the purse from his pocket, and put it in
hers, and said: ‘I wish I was back in my own room.’ In another moment
she was there.