THE PRINCESS NOBODY.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE
PRINCESS NOBODY
A
TALE OF FAIRY LAND
BY
ANDREW LANG
AFTER THE DRAWINGS BY RICHARD DOYLE
PRINTED IN COLOURS BY EDMUND EVANS
[Illustration]
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
[Illustration: An Evening Ride.]
BALLADE OF DEDICATION.
To all you babes at Branxholm Park,
This book I dedicate;
A book for winter evenings dark,
Too dark to ride or skate.
I made it up out of my pate,
And wasted midnight oil,
Interpreting each cut and plate--
The works of DICKY DOYLE!
When weary winter comes, and hark!
The Teviot roars in “spate”;
When half you think you’ll need the Ark,
The flood’s so fierce and great;
Think of the Prince and of his mate,
Their triumph and their toil,
And mark them drawn in all their state--
The works of DICKY DOYLE!
Now, if my nonsense hits the mark--
If Wynnie, Pop, and Kate,
Think tales of Fays and Giants stark,
Not wholly out of date--
Another time, perchance, I’ll prate,
And keep a merry coil,
Though ne’er I’ll match the drawings great--
The works of DICKY DOYLE!
_ENVOY._
Girls, may you ne’er know fear nor hate;
Boys, field like Mr. Royle!
And, please, don’t say I desecrate
The works of DICKY DOYLE!
[Illustration: Teasing a Butterfly.]
THE PRINCESS NOBODY
CHAPTER I.
THE PRINCESS NOBODY.
Once upon a time, when Fairies were much more common than they are now,
there lived a King and a Queen. Their country was close to Fairy Land,
and very often the little Elves would cross over the border, and come
into the King’s fields and gardens. The girl-fairies would swing out of
the bells of the fuschias, and loll on the leaves, and drink the little
drops of dew that fell down the stems. Here you may see all the Fairies
making themselves merry at a picnic on a fuschia, and an ugly little
Dwarf is climbing up the stalk.
[Illustration:
Here’s the King, in mournful mood,
They’d amuse him, if they could!]
Now the King and Queen of the country next to Fairy Land were very rich,
and very fond of each other; but one thing made them unhappy. They had
no child, neither boy nor girl, to sit on the Throne when they were dead
and gone. Often the Queen said she wished she had a child, even if it
were no bigger than her thumb; and she hoped the Fairies might hear her
and help her. But they never took any notice. One day, when the King had
been counting out his money all day (the day when the tributes were paid
in), he grew very tired. He took off his crown, and went into his
garden. Then he looked all round his kingdom, and said, “Ah! I would
give it all for a BABY!”
No sooner had the King said this, than he heard a little squeaking voice
near his foot: “You shall have a lovely Baby, if you will give me what I
ask.”
The King looked down, and there was the funniest little Dwarf that ever
was seen. He had a high red cap like a flower. He had a big moustache,
and a short beard that curled outwards. His cloak was red, like his cap,
and his coat was green, and he rode on a green Frog. Many people would
have been frightened, but the King was used to Fairies.
“You shall have a beautiful Baby, if you will give me what I ask,” said
the Dwarf again.
“I’ll give you anything you like,” said the King.
“Then promise to give me NIENTE,” said the Dwarf.
“Certainly,” said the King (who had not an idea what NIENTE meant). “How
will you take it?”
“I will take _it_,” said the Dwarf, “in my own way, on my own day.”
[Illustration: But the children were as jolly as ever, except one
naughty baby, and even _he_ was petted, as you see!]
[Illustration:
Here you see a Fairy host,
Fit to fight with Dwarf or Ghost.]
With that he set spurs to his Frog, which cleared the garden path at one
bound, and he was soon lost among the flowers.
Well, next day, a dreadful war broke out between the Ghosts and the
Giants, and the King had to set forth and fight on the side of his
friends the Giants.
A long, long time he was away; nearly a year. At last he came back to
his own country, and he heard all the church bells ringing merrily.
“What _can_ be the matter?” said the King, and hurried to his Palace,
where all the Courtiers rushed out and told him the Queen had got a
BABY.
“Girl or a boy?” says the King.
“A Princess, your Majesty,” says the Nurse, with a low curtsey,
correcting him.
Well, you may fancy how glad the King was, though he would have
_preferred_ a boy.
[Illustration:
Here are little Birds in plenty,
Singing to their Queen, NIENTE!]
“What have you called her?” he asked.
“Till your Majesty’s return, we thought it better not to christen the
Princess,” said the Nurse, “so we have called her by the Italian name
for _Nothing_: NIENTE; the Princess Niente, your Majesty.”
[Illustration]
When the King heard _that_, and remembered that he had promised to give
NIENTE to the Dwarf, he hid his face in his hands and groaned. Nobody
knew what he meant, or why he was sad, so he thought it best to keep it
to himself. He went in and kissed the Queen, and comforted her, and
looked at the BABY. Never was there a BABY so beautiful; she was like a
Fairy’s child, and so light, she could sit on a flower and not crush it.
She had little wings on her back; and all the birds were fond of her.
The peasants and common
[Illustration]
people (who said they “could not see why the _first_ Royal baby should
be called ‘Ninety’”) always spoke of her as the Princess Nobody. Only
the Courtiers called her Niente. The Water Fairy was her Godmother, but
(for a Fairy reason) they concealed her _real_ name, and of course, she
was not _christened_ Niente. Here you may see her sitting teaching the
little Birds to sing. They are all round her in a circle, each of them
singing his very best. Great fun she and all her little companions had
with the Birds; here they are, riding on them, and tumbling off when
the Bird kicks. And here, again, you may observe the baby Princess
riding a Parrot, while one of her Maids of Honour teases an Owl. Never
was there such a happy country; all Birds and Babies, playing together,
singing, and as merry as the day was long.
[Illustration]
Well, this joyful life went on till the Princess Niente was growing
quite a big girl; she was nearly fourteen. Then, one day, came a
tremendous knock at the Palace gates. Out rushed the Porter, and saw a
little Dwarf, in a red cap, and a red cloak, riding a green Frog.
[Illustration:
What a Baby: how absurd
To be bullied by a Bird!]
“Tell the King he is wanted,” said the Dwarf.
The Porter carried this rude message, and the King went trembling to the
door.
“I have come to claim your promise; you give me NIENTE,” said the Dwarf,
in his froggy voice.
Now the King had spoken long ago about his foolish promise, to the Queen
of the Water Fairies, a very powerful person, and Godmother of his
child.
“The Dwarf must be one of _my_ people, if he rides a Frog,” the Queen of
the Water Fairies had said. “Just send him to _me_, if he is
troublesome.”
The King remembered this when he saw the Dwarf, so he put a bold face on
it.
[Illustration]
“That’s you, is it?” said the King to the Dwarf. “Just you go to the
Queen of the Water Fairies; she will have a word to say to you.”
When the Dwarf heard that, it was _his_ turn to tremble. He shook his
little fist at the King; he half-drew his sword.
“I’ll have NIENTE yet,” he said, and he set spurs to his Frog, and
bounded off to see the Queen of the Water Fairies.
[Illustration]
It was night by the time the Dwarf reached the stream where the Queen
lived, among the long flags and rushes and reeds of the river.
Here you see him by the river; how tired his Frog looks! He is talking
to the Water Fairy. Well, he and the Water Fairy had a long talk, and
the end of it was that the Fairy found only one way of saving the
Princess. She flew to the King, and said, “I can only help you by making
the Princess vanish clean away. I have a bird here on whose back she can
fly away in safety. The Dwarf will not get her, but you will never see
her again, unless a brave Prince can find her where she is hidden, and
guarded by my Water Fairies.”
Then the poor mother and father cried dreadfully, but they saw there was
no hope. It was better that the Princess should vanish away, than that
she should be married to a horrid rude Dwarf, who rode on a Frog. So
they sent for the Princess, and kissed her, and embraced her, and wept
over her, and (gradually she faded out of their very arms, and vanished
clean away) then she flew away on the bird’s back.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
Here’s a Dwarf upon a Snail,
Take him off at once to jail!]