FullReads

V

The next day no one talked of anything but the rich lord who had distributed money as he drove along. The talk even reached the Court, and the Queen, who was very curious, had a great desire to see the wonderful Prince.

‘Very well,’ said the King; ‘let him be asked to come and play cards with me.’

This time the Kinglet was not late for his appointment.

The King sent for the cards and they sat down to play. They had six games, and John always lost. The stake was fifty crowns, and each time he emptied his purse, which was full the next instant.

The sixth time the King exclaimed, ‘It is amazing!’

The Queen cried, ‘It is astonishing!’

The Princess said, ‘It is bewildering!’

‘Not so bewildering,’ replied the little soldier, ‘as your change into a serpent.’

‘Hush!’ interrupted the King, who did not like the subject.

‘I only spoke of it,’ said John, ‘because you see in me the man who delivered the Princess from the goblins and whom she promised to marry.’

‘Is that true?’ asked the King of the Princess.

‘Quite true,’ answered Ludovine. ‘But I told my deliverer to be ready to go with me when I passed by with my coach. I passed three times, but he slept so soundly that no one could wake him.’

‘What is your name?’ said the King, ‘and who are you?’

‘My name is John. I am a soldier, and my father is a boatman.’

‘You are not a fit husband for my daughter. Still, if you will give us your purse, you shall have her for your wife.’

‘My purse does not belong to me, and I cannot give it away.’

‘But you can lend it to me till our wedding-day,’ said the Princess with one of those glances the little soldier never could resist.

‘And when will that be?’

‘At Easter,’ said the monarch.

‘Or in a blue moon!’ murmured the Princess; but the Kinglet did not hear her and let her take his purse.

Next evening he presented himself at the palace to play picquet with the King and to make his court to the Princess. But he was told that the King had gone into the country to receive his rents. He returned the following day, and had the same answer. Then he asked to see the Queen, but she had a headache. When this had happened five or six times, he began to understand that they were making fun of him.

‘That is not the way for a King to behave,’ thought John. ‘Old scoundrel!’ and then suddenly he remembered his red cloak.

‘Ah, what an idiot I am!’ said he. ‘Of course I can get in whenever I like with the help of this.’

That evening he was in front of the palace, wrapped in his red cloak.

On the first story one window was lighted, and John saw on the curtains the shadow of the Princess.

‘I wish myself in the room of the Princess Ludovine,’ said he, and in a second he was there.

The King’s daughter was sitting before a table counting the money that she emptied from the inexhaustible purse.

‘Eight hundred and fifty, nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty–‘

‘A thousand,’ finished John. ‘Good evening everybody!’

The Princess jumped and gave a little cry. ‘You here! What business have you to do it? Leave at once, or I shall call–‘

‘I have come,’ said the Kinglet, ‘to remind you of your promise. The day after to-morrow is Easter Day, and it is high time to think of our marriage.’

Ludovine burst out into a fit of laughter. ‘Our marriage! Have you really been foolish enough to believe that the daughter of the King of the Low Countries would ever marry the son of a boatman?’

‘Then give me back the purse,’ said John.

‘Never,’ said the Princess, and put it calmly in her pocket.

‘As you like,’ said the little soldier. ‘He laughs best who laughs the last;’ and he took the Princess in his arms. ‘I wish,’ he cried, ‘that we were at the ends of the earth;’ and in one second he was there, still clasping the Princess tightly in his arms.