Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 (23 page)

Who felt foolish but John, when he awoke, twenty-four hours after,
and found himself without purse, without mantle, and without
Princess? He tore his hair, he beat his breast, he trampled on the
bouquet, and tore the scarf of the traitress to atoms.

Besides this he was very hungry, and he had nothing to eat.

He thought of all the wonderful things his grandmother had told
him when he was a child, but none of them helped him now. He was
in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under
which he had been sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit
as yellow as gold.

'Here goes for the plums,' he said to himself, 'all is fair in
war.'

He climbed the tree and began to eat steadily. But he had hardly
swallowed two plums when, to his horror, he felt as if something
was growing on his forehead. He put up his hand and found that he
had two horns!

He leapt down from the tree and rushed to a stream that flowed
close by. Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns,
that would not have disgraced the head of a goat.

Then his courage failed him.

'As if it was not enough,' said he, 'that a woman should trick me,
but the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns.
What a pretty figure I should cut if I went back into the world!'

But as he was still hungry, and the mischief was done, he climbed
boldly up another tree, and plucked two plums of a lovely green
colour. No sooner had he swallowed two than the horns disappeared.
The little soldier was enchanted, though greatly surprised, and
came to the conclusion that it was no good to despair too quickly.
When he had done eating an idea suddenly occurred to him.

'Perhaps,' thought he, 'these pretty little plums may help me to
recover my purse, my cloak, and my heart from the hands of this
wicked Princess. She has the eyes of a deer already; let her have
the horns of one. If I can manage to set her up with a pair, I
will bet any money that I shall cease to want her for my wife. A
horned maiden is by no means lovely to look at.' So he plaited a
basket out of the long willows, and placed in it carefully both
sorts of plums. Then he walked bravely on for many days, having no
food but the berries by the wayside, and was in great danger from
wild beasts and savage men. But he feared nothing, except that his
plums should decay, and this never happened.

At last he came to a civilised country, and with the sale of some
jewels that he had about him on the evening of his flight he took
passage on board a vessel for the Low Countries. So, at the end of
a year and a day, he arrived at the capital of the kingdom.

The next day he put on a false beard and the dress of a date
merchant, and, taking a little table, he placed himself before the
door of the church.

He spread carefully out on a fine white cloth his Mirabelle plums,
which looked for all the world as if they had been freshly
gathered, and when he saw the Princess coming out of church he
began to call out in a feigned voice: 'Fine plums! lovely plums!'

'How much are they?' said the Princess.

'Fifty crowns each.'

'Fifty crowns! But what is there so very precious about them? Do
they give one wit, or will they increase one's beauty?'

'They could not increase what is perfect already, fair Princess,
but still they might add something.'

Rolling stones gather no moss, but they sometimes gain polish; and
the months which John had spent in roaming about the world had not
been wasted. Such a neatly turned compliment flattered Ludovine.

'What will they add?' she smilingly asked.

'You will see, fair Princess, when you taste them. It will be a
surprise for you.'

Ludovine's curiosity was roused. She drew out the purse and shook
out as many little heaps of fifty crowns as there were plums in
the basket. The little soldier was seized with a wild desire to
snatch the purse from her and proclaim her a thief, but he managed
to control himself.

His plums all sold, he shut up shop, took off his disguise,
changed his inn, and kept quiet, waiting to see what would happen.

No sooner had she reached her room than the Princess exclaimed,
'Now let us see what these fine plums can add to my beauty,' and
throwing off her hood, she picked up a couple and ate them.

Imagine with what surprise and horror she felt all of a sudden
that something was growing out of her forehead. She flew to her
mirror and uttered a piercing cry.

'Horns! so that was what he promised me! Let someone find the
plum-seller at once and bring him to me! Let his nose and ears be
cut off! Let him be flayed alive, or burnt at a slow fire and his
ashes scattered to the winds! Oh, I shall die of shame and
despair!'

Her women ran at the sound of her screams, and tried to wrench off
the horns, but it was of no use, and they only gave her a violent
headache.

The King then sent round a herald to proclaim that he would give
the hand of the Princess to anyone who would rid her of her
strange ornaments. So all the doctors and sorcerers and surgeons
in the Low Countries and the neighbouring kingdoms thronged to the
palace, each with a remedy of his own. But it was all no good, and
the Princess suffered so much from their remedies that the King
was obliged to send out a second proclamation that anyone who
undertook to cure the Princess, and who failed to do it, should be
hanged up to the nearest tree.

But the prize was too great for any proclamation to put a stop to
the efforts of the crowd of suitors, and that year the orchards of
the Low Countries all bore a harvest of dead men.

The King had given orders that they should seek high and low for
the plum-seller, but in spite of all their pains, he was nowhere
to be found.

When the little soldier discovered that their patience was worn
out, he pressed the juice of the green Queen Claude plums into a
small phial, bought a doctor's robe, put on a wig and spectacles,
and presented himself before the King of the Low Countries. He
gave himself out as a famous physician who had come from distant
lands, and he promised that he would cure the Princess if only he
might be left alone with her.

'Another madman determined to be hanged,' said the King. 'Very
well, do as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a
rope round his neck.'

As soon as the little soldier was in the presence of the Princess
he poured some drops of the liquid into a glass. The Princess had
scarcely tasted it, when the tip of the horns disappeared.

'They would have disappeared completely,' said the pretended
doctor, 'if there did not exist something to counteract the
effect. It is only possible to cure people whose souls are as
clean as the palm of my hand. Are you sure you have not committed
some little sin? Examine yourself well.'

Ludovine had no need to think over it long, but she was torn in
pieces between the shame of a humiliating confession, and the
desire to be unhorned. At last she made answer with downcast eyes,

'I have stolen a leather purse from a little soldier.'

'Give it to me. The remedy will not act till I hold the purse in
my hands.'

It cost Ludovine a great pang to give up the purse, but she
remembered that riches would not benefit her if she was still to
keep the horns.

With a sigh, she handed the purse to the doctor, who poured more
of the liquid into the glass, and when the Princess had drunk it,
she found that the horns had diminished by one half.

'You must really have another little sin on your conscience. Did
you steal nothing from this soldier but his purse?'

'I also stole from him his cloak.'

'Give it me.'

'Here it is.'

This time Ludovine thought to herself that when once the horns had
departed, she would call her attendants and take the things from
the doctor by force.

She was greatly pleased with this idea, when suddenly the
pretended physician wrapped himself in the cloak, flung away the
wig and spectacles, and showed to the traitress the face of the
Little Soldier.

She stood before him dumb with fright.

'I might,' said John, 'have left you horned to the end of your
days, but I am a good fellow and I once loved you, and besides—
you are too like the devil to have any need of his horns.'

John had wished himself in the house of the Seagull. Now the
Seagull was seated at the window, mending her net, and from time
to time her eyes wandered to the sea as if she was expecting
someone. At the noise made by the little soldier, she looked up
and blushed.

'So it is you!' she said. 'How did you get here?' And then she
added in a low voice, 'And have you married your Princess?'

Then John told her all his adventures, and when he had finished,
he restored to her the purse and the mantle.

'What can I do with them?' said she. 'You have proved to me that
happiness does not lie in the possession of treasures.'

'It lies in work and in the love of an honest woman,' replied the
little soldier, who noticed for the first time what pretty eyes
she had. 'Dear Seagull, will you have me for a husband?' and he
held out his hand.

'Yes, I will,' answered the fisher maiden, blushing very red, 'but
only on condition that we seal up the purse and the mantle in the
copper vessel and throw them into the sea.'

And this they did.

Charles Deulin.

There were once upon a time three brothers, of whom the eldest was
called Jacob, the second Frederick, and the youngest Peter. This
youngest brother was made a regular butt of by the other two, and
they treated him shamefully. If anything went wrong with their
affairs, Peter had to bear the blame and put things right for
them, and he had to endure all this ill-treatment because he was
weak and delicate and couldn't defend himself against his stronger
brothers. The poor creature had a most trying life of it in every
way, and day and night he pondered how he could make it better.
One day, when he was in the wood gathering sticks and crying
bitterly, a little old woman came up to him and asked him what was
the matter; and he told her all his troubles.

'Come, my good youth,' said the old dame, when he had finished his
tale of woe, 'isn't the world wide enough? Why don't you set out
and try your fortune somewhere else?'

Peter took her words to heart, and left his father's house early
one morning to try his fortune in the wide world, as the old woman
had advised him. But he felt very bitterly parting from the home
where he had been born, and where he had at least passed a short
but happy childhood, and sitting down on a hill he gazed once more
fondly on his native place.

Suddenly the little old woman stood before him, and, tapping him
on the shoulder, said, 'So far good, my boy; but what do you mean
to do now?'

Peter was at a loss what to answer, for so far he had always
thought that fortune would drop into his mouth like a ripe cherry.
The old woman, who guessed his thoughts, laughed kindly and said,
'I'll tell you what you must do, for I've taken a fancy to you,
and I'm sure you won't forget me when you've made your fortune.'

Peter promised faithfully he wouldn't, and the old woman
continued:

'This evening at sunset go to yonder pear-tree which you see
growing at the cross roads. Underneath it you will find a man
lying asleep, and a beautiful large swan will be fastened to the
tree close to him. You must be careful not to waken the man, but
you must unfasten the swan and take it away with you. You will
find that everyone will fall in love with its beautiful plumage,
and you must allow anyone who likes to pull out a feather. But as
soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it, it will scream
out, and then you must say, "Swan, hold fast." Then the hand of
the person who has touched the bird will be held as in a vice, and
nothing will set it free, unless you touch it with this little
stick which I will make you a present of. When you have captured a
whole lot of people in this way, lead your train straight on with
you; you will come to a big town where a Princess lives who has
never been known to laugh. If you can only make her laugh your
fortune is made; then I beg you won't forget your old friend.'

Peter promised again that he wouldn't, and at sunset he went to
the tree the old woman had mentioned. The man lay there fast
asleep, and a large beautiful swan was fastened to the tree beside
him by a red cord. Peter loosed the bird, and led it away with him
without disturbing the bird's master.

He walked on with the swan for some time, and came at last to a
building-yard where some men were busily at work. They were all
lost in admiration of the bird's beautiful plumage, and one
forward youth, who was covered with clay from head to foot, called
out, 'Oh, if I'd only one of those feathers how happy I should
be!'

'Pull one out then,' said Peter kindly, and the youth seized one
from the bird's tail; instantly the swan screamed, and Peter
called out, 'Swan, hold fast,' and do what he could the poor youth
couldn't get his hand away. The more he howled the more the others
laughed, till a girl who had been washing clothes in the
neighbouring stream hurried up to see what was the matter. When
she saw the poor boy fastened to the swan she felt so sorry for
him that she stretched out her hand to free him. The bird
screamed.

'Swan, hold fast,' called out Peter, and the girl was caught also.

When Peter had gone on for a bit with his captives, they met a
chimney sweep, who laughed loudly over the extraordinary troop,
and asked the girl what she was doing.

'Oh, dearest John,' replied the girl, 'give me your hand and set
me free from this cursed young man.'