Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 (17 page)

'She certainly sings perfectly; but there is no tenderness, no
heart in her voice.' Poor Sabella! how could there be when her
heart was far away on the Ice Mountains? And it was just the same
with all the other things that she did. As time went on, in spite
of the admiration of the whole Court and the blind fondness of the
King and Queen, it became more and more evident that something was
fatally wrong: for those who love no one cannot long be loved; and
at last the King called a general assembly, and invited the
Fairies to attend, that they might, if possible, find out what was
the matter. After explaining their grief as well as he could, he
ended by begging them to see the Princess for themselves. 'It is
certain,' said he, 'that something is wrong—what it is I don't
know how to tell you, but in some way your work is imperfect.'

They all assured him that, so far as they knew, everything had
been done for the Princess, and they had forgotten nothing that
they could bestow on so good a neighbour as the King had been to
them. After this they went to see Sabella; but they had no sooner
entered her presence than they cried out with one accord:

'Oh! horror!—she has no heart!'

On hearing this frightful announcement, the King and Queen gave a
cry of despair, and entreated the Fairies to find some remedy for
such an unheard-of misfortune. Thereupon the eldest Fairy
consulted her Book of Magic, which she always carried about with
her, hung to her girdle by a thick silver chain, and there she
found out at once that it was Gorgonzola who had stolen the
Princess's heart, and also discovered what the wicked old Fairy
had done with it.

'What shall we do? What shall we do?' cried the King and Queen in
one breath.

'You must certainly suffer much annoyance from seeing and loving
Sabella, who is nothing but a beautiful image,' replied the Fairy,
'and this must go on for a long time; but I think I see that, in
the end, she will once more regain her heart. My advice is that
you shall at once cause her portrait to be sent all over the
world, and promise her hand and all her possessions to the Prince
who is successful in reaching her heart. Her beauty alone is
sufficient to engage all the Princes of the world in the quest.'

This was accordingly done, and Prince Mannikin heard that already
five hundred Princes had perished in the snow and ice, not to
mention their squires and pages, and that more continued to arrive
daily, eager to try their fortune. After some consideration he
determined to present himself at Court; but his arrival made no
stir, as his retinue was as inconsiderable as his stature, and the
splendour of his rivals was great enough to throw even Farda-
Kinbras himself into the shade. However, he paid his respects to
the King very gracefully, and asked permission to kiss the hand of
the Princess in the usual manner; but when he said he was called
'Mannikin,' the King could hardly repress a smile, and the Princes
who stood by openly shouted with laughter.

Turning to the King, Prince Mannikin said with great dignity:

'Pray laugh if it pleases your Majesty, I am glad that it is in my
power to afford you any amusement; but I am not a plaything for
these gentlemen, and I must beg them to dismiss any ideas of that
kind from their minds at once,' and with that he turned upon the
one who had laughed the loudest and proudly challenged him to a
single combat. This Prince, who was called Fadasse, accepted the
challenge very scornfully, mocking at Mannikin, whom he felt sure
had no chance against himself; but the meeting was arranged for
the next day. When Prince Mannikin quitted the King's presence he
was conducted to the audience hall of the Princess Sabella. The
sight of so much beauty and magnificence almost took his breath
away for an instant, but, recovering himself with an effort, he
said:

'Lovely Princess, irresistibly drawn by the beauty of your
portrait, I come from the other end of the world to offer my
services to you. My devotion knows no bounds, but my absurd name
has already involved me in a quarrel with one of your courtiers.
Tomorrow I am to fight this ugly, overgrown Prince, and I beg you
to honour the combat with your presence, and prove to the world
that there is nothing in a name, and that you deign to accept
Mannikin as your knight.'

When it came to this the Princess could not help being amused,
for, though she had no heart, she was not without humour. However,
she answered graciously that she accepted with pleasure, which
encouraged the Prince to entreat further that she would not show
any favour to his adversary.

'Alas!' said she, 'I favour none of these foolish people, who
weary me with their sentiment and their folly. I do very well as I
am, and yet from one year's end to another they talk of nothing
but delivering me from some imaginary affliction. Not a word do I
understand of all their pratings about love, and who knows what
dull things besides, which, I declare to you, I cannot even
remember.'

Mannikin was quick enough to gather from this speech that to amuse
and interest the Princess would be a far surer way of gaining her
favour than to add himself to the list of those who continually
teased her about that mysterious thing called 'love' which she was
so incapable of comprehending. So he began to talk of his rivals,
and found in each of them something to make merry over, in which
diversion the Princess joined him heartily, and so well did he
succeed in his attempt to amuse her that before very long she
declared that of all the people at Court he was the one to whom
she preferred to talk.

The following day, at the time appointed for the combat, when the
King, the Queen, and the Princess had taken their places, and the
whole Court and the whole town were assembled to see the show,
Prince Fadasse rode into the lists magnificently armed and
accoutred, followed by twenty-four squires and a hundred men-at-
arms, each one leading, a splendid horse, while Prince Mannikin
entered from the other side armed only with his spear and followed
by the faithful Mousta. The contrast between the two champions was
so great that there was a shout of laughter from the whole
assembly; but when at the sounding of a trumpet the combatants
rushed upon each other, and Mannikin, eluding the blow aimed at
him, succeeded in thrusting Prince Fadasse from his horse and
pinning him to the sand with his spear, it changed to a murmur of
admiration.

So soon as he had him at his mercy, however, Mannikin, turning to
the Princess, assured her that he had no desire to kill anyone who
called himself her courtier, and then he bade the furious and
humiliated Fadasse rise and thank the Princess to whom he owed his
life. Then, amid the sounding of the trumpets and the shoutings of
the people, he and Mousta retired gravely from the lists.

The King soon sent for him to congratulate him upon his success,
and to offer him a lodging in the Palace, which he joyfully
accepted. While the Princess expressed a wish to have Mousta
brought to her, and, when the Prince sent for him, she was so
delighted with his courtly manners and his marvellous intelligence
that she entreated Mannikin to give him to her for her own. The
Prince consented with alacrity, not only out of politeness, but
because he foresaw that to have a faithful friend always near the
Princess might some day be of great service to him. All these
events made Prince Mannikin a person of much more consequence at
the Court. Very soon after, there arrived upon the frontier the
Ambassador of a very powerful King, who sent to Farda-Kinbras the
following letter, at the same time demanding permission to enter
the capital in state to receive the answer:

'I, Brandatimor, to Farda-Kinbras send greeting. If I had before
this time seen the portrait of your beautiful daughter Sabella I
should not have permitted all these adventurers and petty Princes
to be dancing attendance and getting themselves frozen with the
absurd idea of meriting her hand. For myself I am not afraid of
any rivals, and, now I have declared my intention of marrying your
daughter, no doubt they will at once withdraw their pretensions.
My Ambassador has orders, therefore, to make arrangements for the
Princess to come and be married to me without delay—for I attach
no importance at all to the farrago of nonsense which you have
caused to be published all over the world about this Ice Mountain.
If the Princess really has no heart, be assured that I shall not
concern myself about it, since, if anybody can help her to
discover one, it is myself. My worthy father-in-law, farewell!'

The reading of this letter embarrassed and displeased Farda-
Kinbras and Birbantine immensely, while the Princess was furious
at the insolence of the demand. They all three resolved that its
contents must be kept a profound secret until they could decide
what reply should be sent, but Mousta contrived to send word of
all that had passed to Prince Mannikin. He was naturally alarmed
and indignant, and, after thinking it over a little, he begged an
audience of the Princess, and led the conversation so cunningly up
to the subject that was uppermost in her thoughts, as well as his
own, that she presently told him all about the matter and asked
his advice as to what it would be best to do. This was exactly
what he had not been able to decide for himself; however, he
replied that he should advise her to gain a little time by
promising her answer after the grand entry of the Ambassador, and
this was accordingly done.

The Ambassador did not at all like being put off after that
fashion, but he was obliged to be content, and only said very
arrogantly that so soon as his equipages arrived, as he expected
they would do very shortly, he would give all the people of the
city, and the stranger Princes with whom it was inundated, an idea
of the power and the magnificence of his master. Mannikin, in
despair, resolved that he would for once beg the assistance of the
kind Fairy Genesta. He often thought of her and always with
gratitude, but from the moment of his setting out he had
determined to seek her aid only on the greatest occasions. That
very night, when he had fallen asleep quite worn out with thinking
over all the difficulties of the situation, he dreamed that the
Fairy stood beside him, and said:

'Mannikin, you have done very well so far; continue to please me
and you shall always find good friends when you need them most. As
for this affair with the Ambassador, you can assure Sabella that
she may look forward tranquilly to his triumphal entry, since it
will all turn out well for her in the end.'

The Prince tried to throw himself at her feet to thank her, but
woke to find it was all a dream; nevertheless he took fresh
courage, and went next day to see the Princess, to whom he gave
many mysterious assurances that all would yet be well. He even
went so far as to ask her if she would not be very grateful to
anyone who would rid her of the insolent Brandatimor. To which she
replied that her gratitude would know no bounds. Then he wanted to
know what would be her best wish for the person who was lucky
enough to accomplish it. To which she said that she would wish
them to be as insensible to the folly called 'love' as she was
herself!

This was indeed a crushing speech to make to such a devoted lover
as Prince Mannikin, but he concealed the pain it caused him with
great courage.

And now the Ambassador sent to say that on the very next day he
would come in state to receive his answer, and from the earliest
dawn the inhabitants were astir, to secure the best places for the
grand sight; but the good Fairy Genesta was providing them an
amount of amusement they were far from expecting, for she so
enchanted the eyes of all the spectators that when the
Ambassador's gorgeous procession appeared, the splendid uniforms
seemed to them miserable rags that a beggar would have been
ashamed to wear, the prancing horses appeared as wretched
skeletons hardly able to drag one leg after the other, while their
trappings, which really sparkled with gold and jewels, looked like
old sheepskins that would not have been good enough for a plough
horse. The pages resembled the ugliest sweeps. The trumpets gave
no more sound than whistles made of onion-stalks, or combs wrapped
in paper; while the train of fifty carriages looked no better than
fifty donkey carts. In the last of these sat the Ambassador with
the haughty and scornful air which he considered becoming in the
representative of so powerful a monarch: for this was the crowning
point of the absurdity of the whole procession, that all who took
part in it wore the expression of vanity and self-satisfaction and
pride in their own appearance and all their surroundings which
they believed their splendour amply justified.

The laughter and howls of derision from the whole crowd rose ever
louder and louder as the extraordinary cortege advanced, and at
last reached the ears of the King as he waited in the audience
hall, and before the procession reached the palace he had been
informed of its nature, and, supposing that it must be intended as
an insult, he ordered the gates to be closed. You may imagine the
fury of the Ambassador when, after all his pomp and pride, the
King absolutely and unaccountably refused to receive him. He raved
wildly both against King and people, and the cortege retired in
great confusion, jeered at and pelted with stones and mud by the
enraged crowd. It is needless to say that he left the country as
fast as horses could carry him, but not before he had declared
war, with the most terrible menaces, threatening to devastate the
country with fire and sword.

Some days after this disastrous embassy King Bayard sent couriers
to Prince Mannikin with a most friendly letter, offering his
services in any difficulty, and enquiring with the deepest
interest how he fared.

Mannikin at once replied, relating all that had happened since
they parted, not forgetting to mention the event which had just
involved Farda-Kinbras and Brandatimor in this deadly quarrel, and
he ended by entreating his faithful friend to despatch a few
thousands of his veteran spaniels to his assistance.