The lord searched the chamber in every corner, for his first object was
to make himself master of the person of the princess, but failing in
finding her, he next began to unbuckle Hans' armour, and examined every
plate as he stripped him of it in his careful search for the tiny
princess. He grew more puzzled than ever at not finding her, and ordered
the other lordlings to search the house. This they did for an hour or
more without success, when, fearing that Hans might awaken from his
trance, he ordered a litter to be brought, upon which he securely bound
our champion. The helpless knight was then borne upon the shoulders of four strong
men, and carried to the common prison, where he was fettered hand and
foot, and left in a dungeon, deep, damp and chilly, being in a state of
unconsciousness all the while. The princess, however, though invisible,
followed her husband. If she had chosen, she could have rendered him
also invisible, and spirited him away out of harm's reach, but she would
not. "No," she said to herself, "let him reap the fruits of his folly. He
will learn better by experience than by my precepts. I will not come
forward to help him until the last." Now, when Hans was left alone in his cell--that is to say, alone save
the invisible presence of his spouse--it was already getting late. The
effect of the potion was to last for five hours, during the whole of
which time--and who knew how much longer--the princess was doomed to
breathe the damp air of a dungeon and to wallow in the filth therein,
shivering with cold; without a fire, without her supper, and frightened
to death lest the large rats that infested the prison should make their
supper off her or her husband; but she recollected the wand. The first thing she wanted was a light, for it was pitch dark, not
merely because it was night but because the dungeon was underground. Feeling a stone at her foot, she touched it with her wand, and it became
a candle, so brilliant as to light up the whole cell perfectly; but what
should she do for a fire? There was no fireplace or stove, no place
where the smoke might escape. "With this wand, I shall want for nothing," she said, and touching the
wall of the prison, that part of it was instantly converted into a
magnificent fireplace, with a chimney and a most comfortable fire. She proceeded to warm herself, but soon she felt there lacked something. She was hungry, so she touched the ground, and instantly there arose a
little table spread with a white tablecloth, and a little chair just big
enough for herself. Still, there was nothing on the table as yet, save
empty plates, with knives and forks, but at that moment she noticed a
great rat gnawing her husband's toe. She hastened to drive it away, and
in doing so touched it with her wand, when it became a roast hare. Then, touching a stone, it became a loaf of bread. A piece of bottle
glass that she found on the dungeon floor became a bottle of wine; and
finding there were no vegetables, she changed a blue-bottle fly into a
dish of spinach; a spider into some turnips, and a handful of earth
from the floor into some salt, after which she proceeded to carve. Having partaken sufficiently of the first course, she changed the
remains of the hare into an apple tart, and the vegetables into
different sorts of fruit. Thus she obtained all she required. Having finished her supper, the princess waved her wand, and the supper
table, with everything on it, chair and all, disappeared through the
floor; then, seating herself by the fire, she waited for her spouse to
awake. In about three hours her worse half opened his eyes, and stretching his
gigantic limbs, gazed about him in stupefied astonishment. "Where am I?" he asked, with a yawn. "Where thou deservest to be," answered the princess, with severity,
drawing herself up to her full height. "A pretty position, I ween, for
the queen's consort--drugged and cast into prison! Maybe that another
time thou wilt pay more attention to my words; but the worst has not
come yet. Thou art to be handed over to the malice of my two sisters. Who knows in what manner they may reek their vengeance? If thou escapest
with thy life, thou wilt be fortunate. "Prepare, then, for thou hast brought all this on thyself by despising
my counsels. What! is a man like thee to be at the head of the realm? _Thou_, with thy brutish appetite, thy dense stupidity and deafness to
the voice of wisdom? A pretty example to thy subjects, forsooth! Or
thinkest thou that the strength of thine arm alone will suffice to
govern the kingdom? I tell thee, brainless boor, that whatever your
besotted notion of a king may be, it is a post that is no easy task to
fill, and woe to him who aspires to the title and is not able to
discharge the duties belonging to it. "Knowest thou not futurity will judge thy action, that thy name is
destined either to honour or disgrace the page of history? That a king
must not only be brave, but wise, just, good, merciful, temperate?" "Enough, O royal spouse, most august princess," answered Hans. "Enough
for the present; but tell me first how I came here, and next how to get
out again, and for the future I will always listen to thy counsels,
though allow me to observe that it was thy will to make a king of me
rather than mine own; therefore, if thou hast hit upon the wrong man,
methinks the blame is thine. An I had known when I was an humble
woodchopper that to be a king I must bear this splitting headache, lie
in a dungeon full of rats, to be hanged perhaps on the morrow, besides
having to kill so many good hearty fellows just because they happen to
differ a little in opinion from your Royal Highness, I should have said,
'The devil take all the kings and kingdoms in the world; I'll e'en abide
here and chop wood.'" "Hush!" cried the princess, with asperity, "and offend not our royal
ears with such clownish sentiments. It is but natural that thy rude
nature should rebel against counsel that is intended for thy good. It is
to be hoped, however, that with time thou mayest be brought to a right
view of the great destiny that thou hast to fulfil. "I confess that had I not been specially commanded in a dream by the
queen of the fairies to take thee and raise thee to the throne, I should
never of myself have chosen so clownish a helpmate." "Well, for the matter of that," said Hans, "dreams are things that I
don't often trouble my head about, as I never had one come true in my
life. Many is the time I've dreamed I had my pocket full of gold, and
waking in the morning, devil a groat have I found within it; but maybe
it is not so with you princesses, who are a different sort of grain to
us poor beggars; and perhaps fairies appear to you in dreams and tell
the truth; but whether that is or is not, I know not, being no scholar."