The Little Soldier · page 31 2 3 4201Have 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?’202‘Then give me back the purse,’ said John.203‘Never,’ said the Princess, and put it calmly in her pocket.204‘As you like,’ said the little soldier.205‘He laughs best who laughs the last;’ and he took the Princess in his arms.206‘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.207‘Ouf,’ said John, laying her gently at the foot of a tree.208‘I never took such a long journey before.209What do you say, madam?’210The Princess understood that it was no time for jesting, and did not answer.211Besides she was still feeling giddy from her rapid flight, and had not yet collected her senses.212VI213The King of the Low Countries was not a very scrupulous person, and his daughter took after him.214This was why she had been changed into a serpent.215It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the meeting-place three times running.216The cunning Princess then laid her plans accordingly.217The wine that she had given to John in the castle of the goblins, the bouquet of immortelles, and the scarf, all had the power of producing sleep like death.218And we know how they had acted on John.219However, even in this critical moment, Ludovine did not lose her head.220‘I thought you were simply a street vagabond,’ said she, in her most coaxing voice; ‘and I find you are more powerful than any king.checked by a teacher221Here is your purse.222Have you got my scarf and my bouquet?’223‘Here they are,’ said the Kinglet, delighted with this change of tone, and he drew them from his bosom.224Ludovine fastened one in his buttonhole and the other round his arm.225‘Now,’ she said, ‘you are my lord and master, and I will marry you at your good pleasure.’226‘You are kinder than I thought,’ said John; ‘and you shall never be unhappy, for I love you.’227‘Then, my little husband, tell me how you managed to carry me so quickly to the ends of the world.’228The little soldier scratched his head.229‘Does she really mean to marry me,’ he thought to himself, ‘or is she only trying to deceive me again?’230But Ludovine repeated, ‘Won’t you tell me?’ in such a tender voice he did not know how to resist her.231‘After all,’ he said to himself, ‘what does it matter telling her the secret, as long as I don’t give her the cloak.’232And he told her the virtue of the red mantle.233‘Oh dear, how tired I am!’ sighed Ludovine.234‘Don’t you think we had better take a nap?235And then we can talk over our plans.’236She stretched herself on the grass, and the Kinglet did the same.237He laid his head on his left arm, round which the scarf was tied, and was soon fast asleep.238Ludovine was watching him out of one eye, and no sooner did she hear him snore than she unfastened the mantle, drew it gently from under him and wrapped it round her, took the purse from his pocket, and put it in hers, and said: ‘I wish I was back in my own room.’239In another moment she was there.240VII241Who felt foolish but John, when he awoke, twenty-four hours after, and found himself without purse, without mantle, and without Princess?242He tore his hair, he beat his breast, he trampled on the bouquet, and tore the scarf of the traitress to atoms.243Besides this he was very hungry, and he had nothing to eat.244He thought of all the wonderful things his grandmother had told him when he was a child, but none of them helped him now.245He 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.246‘Here goes for the plums,’ he said to himself, ‘all is fair in war.’247He climbed the tree and began to eat steadily.248But he had hardly swallowed two plums when, to his horror, he felt as if something was growing on his forehead.249He put up his hand and found that he had two horns!250He leapt down from the tree and rushed to a stream that flowed close by.251Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not have disgraced the head of a goat.252Then his courage failed him.253‘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.254What a pretty figure I should cut if I went back into the world!’255But 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.256No sooner had he swallowed two than the horns disappeared.257The little soldier was enchanted, though greatly surprised, and came to the conclusion that it was no good to despair too quickly.258When he had done eating an idea suddenly occurred to him.259‘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.260She has the eyes of a deer already; let her have the horns of one.261If 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.262A horned maiden is by no means lovely to look at.’263So he plaited a basket out of the long willows, and placed in it carefully both sorts of plums.264Then 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.265But he feared nothing, except that his plums should decay, and this never happened.266At 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.267So, at the end of a year and a day, he arrived at the capital of the kingdom.268VIII269The 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.270He 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!’271‘How much are they?’ said the Princess.272‘Fifty crowns each.’273‘Fifty crowns!274But what is there so very precious about them?275Do they give one wit, or will they increase one’s beauty?’276‘They could not increase what is perfect already, fair Princess, but still they might add something.’277Rolling 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.278Such a neatly turned compliment flattered Ludovine.279‘What will they add?’ she smilingly asked.280‘You will see, fair Princess, when you taste them.281It will be a surprise for you.’282Ludovine’s curiosity was roused.283She drew out the purse and shook out as many little heaps of fifty crowns as there were plums in the basket.284The 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.285His plums all sold, he shut up shop, took off his disguise, changed his inn, and kept quiet, waiting to see what would happen.286No 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.287Imagine with what surprise and horror she felt all of a sudden that something was growing out of her forehead.288She flew to her mirror and uttered a piercing cry.289‘Horns! so that was what he promised me!checked by a teacher290Let someone find the plum-seller at once and bring him to me!291Let his nose and ears be cut off!292Let him be flayed alive, or burnt at a slow fire and his ashes scattered to the winds!293Oh, I shall die of shame and despair!’294Her 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.295The 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.296So 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.297But 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.298But 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.299IX300The 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.1 2 3 4← previousThe Golden Blackbirdnext →The Magic Swan↑ back to The Green Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/22/page/3/