'Talk about business after breakfast, I tell you!' says His
Majesty, quite sulky.

'We shall have a war, Sire, depend on it,' says the Minister.
'His father, King Padella. . .'

'His father, King WHO?' says the King. 'King Padella is not
Giglio's father. My brother, King Savio, was Giglio's father.'

'It's Prince Bulbo they are hanging, Sire, not Prince Giglio,'
says the Prime Minister.

'You told me to hang the Prince, and I took the ugly one,' says
Hedzoff. 'I didn't, of course, think Your Majesty intended to

murder your own flesh and blood! '
The King for all reply flung the plate of sausages at Hedzoff's

head. The Princess cried out 'Hee-kareekaree!' and fell down in
a fainting fit.

'Turn the cock of the urn upon Her Royal Highness,' said the
King, and the boiling water gradually revived her. His Majesty

looked at his watch, compared it by the clock in the parlour, and
by that of the church in the square opposite; then he wound it

up; then he looked at it again. 'The great question is,' says
he, 'am I fast or am I slow? If I'm slow, we may as well go on

with breakfast. If I'm fast, why, there is just the possibility
of saving Prince Bulbo. It's a doosid awkward mistake, and upon

my word, Hedzoff, I have the greatest mind to have you hanged
too.'

'Sire, I did but my duty; a soldier has but his orders. I didn't
expect after forty-seven years of faithful service that my

sovereign would think of putting me to a felon's death!'
'A hundred thousand plagues upon you! Can't you see that while

you are talking my Bulbo is being hung?' screamed the Princess.
'By Jove! she's always right, that girl, and I'm so absent,' says

the King, looking at his watch again. 'Ha! there go the drums!
What a doosid awkward thing though!'

'Oh, papa, you goose! Write the reprieve, and let me run with
it,' cries the Princess--and she got a sheet of paper, and pen

and ink, and laid them before the King.
'Confound it! where are my spectacles?' the Monarch exclaimed.

'Angelica! go up into my bedroom, look under my pillow, not your
mamma's; there you'll see my keys. Bring them down to me,

and--Well, well! what impetuous things these girls are!'
Angelica was gone, and had run up panting to the bedroom, and

found the keys, and was back again before the King had finished a
muffin. 'Now, love,' says he, 'you must go all the way back for

my desk, in which my spectacles are. If you would but have heard
me out. . . Be hanged to her! There she is off again. Angelica!

ANGELICA!' When His Majesty called in his LOUD voice, she knew
she must obey, and came back.

'My dear, when you go out of a room, how often have I told you,
SHUT THE DOOR. That's a darling. That's all.' At last the

keys and the desk and the spectacles were got, and the King
mended his pen, and signed his name to a reprieve, and Angelica

ran with it as swift as the wind. 'You'd better stay, my love,
and finish the muffins. There's no use going. Be sure it's too

late. Hand me over that raspberry jam, please,' said the
Monarch. 'Bong! Bawong! There goes the half-hour. I knew it

was.'
Angelica ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. She ran up Fore Street,

and down High Street, and through the Market-place, and down to
the left, and over the bridge, and up the blind alley, and back

again, and round by the Castle, and so along by the Haberdasher's
on the right, opposite the lamp-post, and round the square, and

she came--she came to the EXECUTION PLACE, where she saw Bulbo
laying his head on the block!!! The executioner raised his axe,

but at that moment the Princess came panting up and cried
'Reprieve!' 'Reprieve!' screamed the Princess. 'Reprieve!'

shouted all the people. Up the scaffold stairs she sprang, with
the agility of a lighter of lamps; and flinging herself in

Bulbo's arms, regardless of all ceremony, she cried out, 'Oh, my
Prince! my lord! my love! my Bulbo! Thine Angelica has been in

time to save thy precious existence, sweet rosebud; to prevent
thy being nipped in thy young bloom! Had aught befallen thee,

Angelica too had died, and welcomed death that joined her to her
Bulbo.'

'H'm! there's no accounting for tastes,' said Bulbo, looking so
very much puzzled and uncomfortable that the Princess, in tones

of tenderest strain, asked the cause of his disquiet.
'I tell you what it is, Angelica,' said he, 'since I came here

yesterday, there has been such a row, and disturbance, and
quarrelling, and fighting, and chopping of heads off, and the

deuce to pay, that I am inclined to go back to Crim Tartary.'
'But with me as thy bride, my Bulbo! Though wherever thou art is

Crim Tartary to me, my bold, my beautiful, my Bulbo!'
'Well, well, I suppose we must be married,' says Bulbo. 'Doctor,

you came to read the Funeral Service--read the Marriage Service,
will you? What must be, must. That will satisfy Angelica, and

then, in the name of peace and quietness, do let us go back to
breakfast.'

Bulbo had carried a rose in his mouth all the time of the dismal
ceremony. It was a fairy rose, and he was told by his mother

that he ought never to part with it. So he had kept it between
his teeth, even when he laid his poor head upon the block, hoping

vaguely that some chance would turn up in his favour. As he
began to speak to Angelica, he forgot about the rose, and of

course it dropped out of his mouth. The romantic Princess
instantly stooped and seized it. 'Sweet rose!' she exclaimed,

'that bloomed upon my Bulbo's lip, never, never will I part from
thee!' and she placed it in her bosom. And you know Bulbo

COULDN'T ask her to give the rose back again. And they went to
breakfast; and as they walked, it appeared to Bulbo that Angelica

became more exquisitely lovely every moment.
He was frantic until they were married; and now, strange to say,

it was Angelica who didn't care about him! He knelt down, he
kissed her hand, he prayed and begged; he cried with admiration;

while she for her part said she really thought they might wait;
it seemed to her he was not handsome any more--no, not at all,

quite the reverse; and not clever, no, very stupid; and not well
bred, like Giglio; no, on the contrary, dreadfully vul--

What, I cannot say, for King Valoroso roared out 'POOH, stuff!'
in a terrible voice. 'We will have no more of this

shilly-shallying! Call the Archbishop, and let the Prince and
Princess be married offhand!'

So, married they were, and I am sure for my part I trust they
will be happy.

XII. HOW BETSINDA FLED, AND WHAT BECAME OF HER
Betsinda wandered on and on, till she passed through the town

gates, and so on the great Crim Tartary road, the very way on
which Giglio too was going. 'Ah!' thought she, as the diligence

passed her, of which the conductor was blowing a delightful tune
on his horn, 'how I should like to be on that coach!' But the

coach and the jingling horses were very soon gone. She little
knew who was in it, though very likely she was thinking of him

all the time.
Then came an empty cart, returning from market; and the driver

being a kind man, and seeing such a very pretty girl trudging
along the road with bare feet, most good-naturedly gave her a

seat. He said he lived on the confines of the forest, where his
old father was a woodman, and, if she liked, he would take her so

far on her road. All roads were the same to little Betsinda, so
she very thankfully took this one.

And the carter put a cloth round her bare feet, and gave her some
bread and cold bacon, and was very kind to her. For all that she

was very cold and melancholy. When after travelling on and on,
evening came, and all the black pines were bending with snow, and

there, at last, was the comfortable light beaming in the
woodman's windows; and so they arrived, and went into his

cottage. He was an old man, and had a number of children, who
were just at supper, with nice hot bread-and-milk, when their

elder brother arrived with the cart. And they jumped and clapped
their hands; for they were good children; and he had brought them

toys from the town. And when they saw the pretty stranger, they
ran to her, and brought her to the fire, and rubbed her poor

little feet, and brought her bread and milk.
'Look, father!' they said to the old woodman, 'look at this poor

girl, and see what pretty cold feet she has. They are as white
as our milk! And look and see what an odd cloak she has, just

like the bit of velvet that hangs up in our cupboard, and which
you found that day the little cubs were killed by King Padella,

in the forest! And look, why, bless us all! she has got round
her neck just such another little shoe as that you brought home,

and have shown us so often--a little blue velvet shoe!'
'What,' said the old woodman, 'what is all this about a shoe and

a cloak?'
And Betsinda explained that she had been left, when quite a

little child, at the town with this cloak and this shoe. And the
persons who had taken care of her had--had been angry with her,

for no fault, she hoped, of her own. And they had sent her away
with her old clothes--and here, in fact, she was. She remembered

having been in a forest--and perhaps it was a dream--it was so
very odd and strange--having lived in a cave with lions there;

and, before that, having lived in a very, very fine house, as
fine as the King's, in the town.

When the woodman heard this, he was so astonished, it was quite
curious to see how astonished he was. He went to his cupboard,

and took out of a stocking a five-shilling piece of King
Cavolfiore, and vowed it was exactly like the young woman. And

then he produced the shoe and piece of velvet which he had kept
so long, and compared them with the things which Betsinda wore.

In Betsinda's little shoe was written, 'Hopkins, maker to the
Royal Family'; so in the other shoe was written, 'Hopkins, maker

to the Royal Family.' In the inside of Betsinda's piece of cloak
was embroidered, 'PRIN ROSAL'; in the other piece of cloak was

embroidered 'CESS BA. NO. 246.' So that when put together you
read, 'PRINCESS ROSALBA. NO. 246.'

On seeing this, the dear old woodman fell down on his knee,
saying, 'O my Princess, O my gracious royal lady, O my rightful

Queen of Crim Tartary,--I hail thee--I acknowledge thee--I do
thee homage!' And in token of his fealty, he rubbed his

venerable nose three times on the ground, and put the Princess's
foot on his head.

'Why,' said she, 'my good woodman, you must be a nobleman of my
royal father's Court!' For in her lowly retreat, and under the

name of Betsinda, HER MAJESTY, ROSALBA, Queen of Crim Tartary,
had read of the customs of all foreign courts and nations.

'Marry, indeed, am I, my gracious liege--the poor Lord Spinachi
once--the humblewoodman these fifteen years syne. Ever since

the tyrant Padella (may ruin overtake the treacherous knave!)
dismissed me from my post of First Lord.'

'First Lord of the Toothpick and Joint Keeper of the Snuffbox? I
mind me! Thou heldest these posts under our royal Sire. They

are restored to thee, Lord Spinachi! I make thee knight of the
second class of our Order of the Pumpkin (the first class being

reserved for crowned heads alone). Rise, Marquis of Spinachi!'
And with indescribablemajesty, the Queen, who had no sword

handy, waved the pewter spoon with which she had been taking her
bread-and-milk, over the bald head of the old nobleman, whose

tears absolutely made a puddle on the ground, and whose dear
children went to bed that night Lords and Ladies Bartolomeo,

Ubaldo, Catarina, and Ottavia degli Spinachi!
The acquaintance HER MAJESTY showed with the history, and noble

families of her empire, was wonderful. 'The House of Broccoli
should remain faithful to us,' she said; 'they were ever welcome

at our Court. Have the Articiocchi, as was their wont, turned to

• prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)
• majesty [´mædʒisti] n.壮丽；崇高；尊严 (初中英语单词)
• princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
• faithful [´feiθfəl] a.忠实的；可靠的 (初中英语单词)
• monarch [´mɔnək] n.君主；(大)王 (初中英语单词)
• darling [´dɑ:liŋ] n.爱人 a.亲爱的 (初中英语单词)
• sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
• ceremony [´seriməni] n.典礼；礼仪；客气 (初中英语单词)
• existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
• wherever [weər´evə] conj.无论在哪里 (初中英语单词)
• funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
• romantic [rəu´mæntik] a.传奇(式)的；浪漫的 (初中英语单词)
• reverse [ri´və:s] v.颠倒；(使)反向 (初中英语单词)
• stupid [´stju:pid] a.愚蠢的；糊涂的 (初中英语单词)
• contrary [´kɔntrəri] a.相反的 n.相反 (初中英语单词)
• dreadfully [dredfuli] ad.可怕地；糟透地 (初中英语单词)
• conductor [kən´dʌktə] n.指导者；向导者 (初中英语单词)
• delightful [di´laitful] a.讨人喜欢的 (初中英语单词)
• velvet [´velvit] n.&a.天鹅绒(般的) (初中英语单词)
• stocking [´stɔkiŋ] n.长统袜 (初中英语单词)
• gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
• acknowledge [ək´nɔlidʒ] vt.(公开)承认；感谢 (初中英语单词)
• retreat [ri´tri:t] v.&n.退却；撤退；放弃 (初中英语单词)
• humble [´hʌmbəl] a.谦卑的 vt.贬抑 (初中英语单词)
• keeper [´ki:pə] n.管理人；看守；保管人 (初中英语单词)
• absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
• acquaintance [ə´kweintəns] n.相识；熟人，相识的人 (初中英语单词)
• hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
• awkward [´ɔ:kwəd] a.笨拙的；为难的 (高中英语单词)
• execution [,eksi´kju:ʃən] n.执行；演奏；表演 (高中英语单词)
• regardless [ri´gɑ:dləs] a.不留心的；不关心的 (高中英语单词)
• uncomfortable [ʌn´kʌmftəbəl] a.不舒服的，不自在的 (高中英语单词)
• strain [strein] vt.拉紧 vi.拖 n.张力 (高中英语单词)
• disturbance [di´stə:bəns] n.扰乱，骚动 (高中英语单词)
• frantic [´fræntik] a.发狂的；急忙的 (高中英语单词)
• archbishop [,ɑ:tʃ´biʃəp] n.大主教 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• melancholy [´melənkəli] n.忧郁 a.忧郁的 (高中英语单词)
• cupboard [´kʌbəd] n.碗柜，食橱 (高中英语单词)
• tyrant [´taiərənt] n.暴君；霸主；专制君主 (高中英语单词)
• overtake [,əuvə´teik] vt.追上；赶上 (高中英语单词)
• treacherous [´tretʃərəs] a.虚伪的；不忠的 (高中英语单词)
• knight [nait] n.骑士；爵士 (高中英语单词)
• pumpkin [´pʌmpkin] n.南瓜 (高中英语单词)
• marquis [´mɑ:kwis] n.侯爵 (高中英语单词)
• bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (英语四级单词)
• befallen [bi´fɔ:lən] befall的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• nobleman [´nəublmən] n.贵族 (英语四级单词)
• impetuous [im´petjuəs] a.急促的；猛烈的 (英语六级单词)
• half-hour [´hɑ:f-auə] n.&a.(每)三十分钟的 (英语六级单词)
• rosebud [´rəuzbʌd] n.玫瑰花苞 (英语六级单词)
• exquisitely [´ekswizit] ad.精巧地，优美地 (英语六级单词)
• woodman [´wudmən] n.伐木工 (英语六级单词)
• beaming [´bi:miŋ] a.笑吟吟的 (英语六级单词)
• indescribable [,indis´kraibəbəl] a.难以形容的 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)