Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia: Being the Adventures of Prince Prigio's Son. Lang Andrew

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      “Yes, my dear; but it wanted some wit, if I may say so, to do that, and Dick just goes at it hammer and tongs: anybody could do it. It’s intellect I miss in Ricardo. How am I to know whether he could make a good fight for it without all these fairy things? I wonder what the young rogue is about to-day? He’ll be late for dinner, as usual, I daresay. I can’t stand want of punctuality at meals,” remarked his Majesty, which is a sign that he was growing old after all; for where is the fun of being expected always to come home in time for dinner when, perhaps, you are fishing, and the trout are rising splendidly?

      “Young people will be young people,” said the queen. “If you are anxious about him, why don’t you look for him in the magic crystal?”

      Now the magic crystal was a fairy present, a great ball of glass in which, if you looked, you saw the person you wanted to see, and what he was doing, however far away he might be, if he was on the earth at all.1

      “I’ll just take a look at it,” said the king; “it only wants three-quarters of an hour to dinner-time.”

      His Majesty rose, and walked to the crystal globe, which was in a stand, like other globes. He stared into it, he turned it round and round, and Queen Rosalind saw him grow quite pale as he gazed.

      “I don’t see him anywhere,” said the king, “and I have looked everywhere. I do hope nothing has happened to the boy. He is so careless. If he dropped his Cap of Darkness in a fight with a giant, why who knows what might occur?”

      “Oh, ’Gio, how you frighten me!” said the queen.

      King Prigio was still turning the crystal globe.

      “Stop!” he cried; “I see a beautiful princess, fastened by iron chains to a rock beside the sea, in a lonely place. They must have fixed her up as a sacrifice to a sea-monster, like what’s-her-name.”

      This proves how anxious he was, or, being so clever and learned, he would have remembered that her name was Andromeda.

      “I bet Dick is not far off, where there is an adventure on hand. But where on earth can he be?.. My word!” suddenly exclaimed the monarch, in obvious excitement.

      “What is it, dear?” cried the queen, with all the anxiety of a mother.

      “Why, the sea where the girl is, has turned all red as blood!” exclaimed the king. “Now it is all being churned up by the tail of a tremendous monster. He is a whopper! He’s coming on shore; the girl is fainting. He’s out on shore! He is extremely poorly, blood rushing from his open jaws. He’s dying! And, hooray! here’s Dick coming out of his enormous mouth, all in armour set with sharp spikes, and a sword in his hand. He’s covered with blood, but he’s well and hearty. He must have been swallowed by the brute, and cut him up inside. Now he’s cutting the beast’s head off. Now he’s gone to the princess; a very neat bow he has made her. Dick’s manners are positively improving! Now he’s cutting her iron chains off with the Sword of Sharpness. And now he’s made her another bow, and he’s actually taking leave of her. Poor thing! How disappointed she is looking. And she’s so pretty, too. I say, Rosalind, shall I shout to him through the magic horn, and tell him to bring her home here, on the magic carpet?”

      “I think not, dear; the palace is quite full,” said the queen. But the real reason was that she wanted Ricardo to marry her favourite Princess Jaqueline, and she did not wish the new princess to come in the way.

      “As you like,” said the king, who knew what was in her mind very well. “Besides, I see her own people coming for her. I’m sorry for her, but it can’t be helped, and Dick is half-way home by now on the Shoes of Swiftness. I daresay he will not keep dinner waiting after all. But what a fright the boy has given me!”

      At this moment a whirring in the air and a joyous shout were heard. It was Prince Ricardo flying home on his Seven-league Boots.

      “Hi, Ross!” he shouted, “just weigh this beast’s head. I’ve had a splendid day with a sea-monster. Get the head stuffed, will you? We’ll have it set up in the billiard-room.”

      “Yes, Master Dick – I mean your Royal Highness,” said Ross, a Highland keeper, who had not previously been employed by a Reigning Family. “It’s a fine head, whatever,” he added, meditatively.

      Prince Ricardo now came beneath the library window, and gave his parents a brief account of his adventure.

      “I picked the monster up early in the morning,” he said, “through the magic telescope, father.”

      “What country was he in?” said the king.

      “The country people whom I met called it Ethiopia. They were niggers.”

      “And in what part of the globe is Ethiopia, Ricardo?”

      “Oh! I don’t know. Asia, perhaps,” answered the prince.

      The king groaned.

      “That boy will never understand our foreign relations. Ethiopia in Asia!” he said to himself, but he did not choose to make any remark at the moment.

      The prince ran upstairs to dress. On the stairs he met the Princess Jaqueline.

      “Oh, Dick! are you hurt?” she said, turning very pale.

      “No, not I; but the monster is. I had a capital day, Jack; rescued a princess, too.”

      “Was she – was she very pretty, Dick?”

      “Oh! I don’t know. Pretty enough, I daresay. Much like other girls. Why, you look quite white! What’s the matter? Now you look all right again;” for, indeed, the Princess Jaqueline was blushing.

      “I must dress. I’m ever so late,” he said, hurrying upstairs; and the princess, with a little sigh, went down to the royal drawing-room.

      CHAPTER II.

      Princess Jaqueline Drinks the Moon

      When dinner was over and the ladies had left the room, the king tried to speak seriously to Prince Ricardo. This was a thing which he disliked doing very much.

      “There’s very little use in preaching,” his Majesty used to say, “to a man, or rather a boy, of another generation. My taste was for books; I only took to adventures because I was obliged to do it. Dick’s taste is for adventures; I only wish some accident would make him take to books. But everyone must get his experience for himself; and when he has got it, he is lucky if it is not too late. I wish I could see him in love with some nice girl, who would keep him at home.”

      The king did not expect much from talking seriously to Dick. However, he began by asking questions about the day’s sport, which Ricardo answered with modesty. Then his Majesty observed that, from all he had ever read or heard, he believed Ethiopia, where the fight was, to be in Africa, not in Asia.

      “I really wish, Ricardo, that you would attend to your geography a little more. It is most necessary to a soldier that he should know where his enemy is, and if he has to fight the Dutch, for instance, not to start with his army for Central Asia.”

      “I could always spot them through the magic glass, father,” said Dick; “it saves such a lot of trouble. I hate geography.”

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