Delphi Works of Ford Madox Ford (Illustrated) (24 page)

So she leant on the wall and waited; but even though the dawn was near it seemed long in coming.

But presently over the mountains in the east a yellow light stole, changing the silence of darkness for the clamorous speech of light, and the river flowing placidly in front was turned to liquid gold with the yellow of the dawn, and a sense of yellow- fringed gray mist was on everything, and forms erstwhile veiled discovered themselves.

‘Why, wherever am I?’ said Ernalie, rubbing her eyes in astonishment. ‘I seem to have been here before! Yes, there’s the fountain and the rosebushes, and — why, this must be the terrace of my father’s Palace! Just where I was when the eagle carried me off. I wonder if the swans are still here,’ and she walked to the other side of the terrace and looked over the marble parapet into the water.

‘Yes, there they are.’ And on the marble steps that led down to the water the swans were asleep, each on one leg, with its neck coiled up on its back, and head under its wing. On hearing the footsteps of the Princess one of them looked lazily up as if it had been waked too soon, and then it shook its head, yawned, put down its other leg and waddled slowly to the water, into which it jumped with a splash that woke the others up; and they followed dreamily, being unused to the chill of the water so early.

A cock crowed, and his challenge was answered from far and near, and woke up the sparrows, who came down to the fountain for a shower-bath in the sparkling spray. They were followed by the pigeons, who, after cooing a little, stretched their wings and circled away on their morning flight. So, by degrees, the world awoke as the day took a firmer grasp on the land and the light grew stronger.

‘I wish they’d open the doors and let me get in,’ the Princess said. But as yet there seemed no sign of any one waking up.

‘Ah, well,’ she said resignedly, ‘I’ve waited six years to come home — I suppose I can wait a few more hours.’

So she quietly walked to the rosebushes and plucked one or two of the great red damask roses, and chafing the petals off between her hands, threw the handfuls of them at the swans, who hissed and snapped as the mass of red leaves fell over them. It was some time since they had been subjected to such treatment; however, they seemed to get used to it again pretty easily.

Thus the Princess managed to while away about half an hour, and then she noticed smoke coming out of one of the chimneys.

‘They must be up in the kitchen,’ she thought. ‘I’ll just go and knock at the door and get let in.’

Accordingly she went and knocked softly at the door, and an angry voice shouted out:

‘Come in, do! and don’t stand knocking there. I’ve got the King’s boots to black, and his eggs and bacon to cook, and I’ve only got three hours to do it in. I haven’t got time.’

So the Princess lifted the latch and walked in.

‘Is the King up, cook?’ she asked. ‘No, he’s not! lazy old man as he is,’ said the cook, looking up angrily. ‘But where are you? Come out from behind that door.’

‘Oh! I had forgotten,’ said the Princess.

She meant, of course, she had forgotten about the feather, but the cook didn’t know that.

‘You’d forgotten, had you?’ she exclaimed. ‘I’ll teach you to forget if I catch you!’

‘But you won’t, my dear cook,’ said the Princess sweetly.

‘You’ll catch it if you don’t look out!’ howled the cook, as she rose from the floor where she had been cleaning the boots, and in doing so she knocked over an enormous pot of liquid blacking.

‘That’s your doing!’ she cried, as she made a dash at the door.

But the Princess evaded her easily, and she ran outside fully expecting to find the invisible questioner there. But the Princess meanwhile walked through the kitchen and up the backstairs to her own room.

The room was just as she had left it when she went away, except that the bed seemed to have grown rather small for her, or rather she had grown too large for the bed.

However, she went in, and locking the door, laid herself down on the bed, and soon dropped off to sleep; for, as you may imagine, she was rather tired, for she had not slept for nearly two days — that is, ever since she had first reached the moon.

It did not seem that she had slept three minutes before she was awakened by a tremendous noise below-stairs.

‘I wonder what that is,’ she said.

‘I think I’ll get up and see.’

And she went to the wash-hand stand to wash the sea-water off her face, but the soap, from long want of use, had cracked in all directions, and she had to content herself with the water that was in the jug. Then she brushed her hair, which was full of salt, and after that tried to brush the salt off her dress; for the seawater had dried on it, and had left it shining all over with the salt. Before she had quite finished, however, the noise that had waked her sounded again. It seemed as if some one were running downstairs very hard.

So the Princess took her hat off, not wishing to be invisible any more, for a time at least, and then, opening the door, she walked quietly downstairs.

There seemed to be no one about, and except that a terrible hurly-burly proceeded from the whereabouts of the kitchen, one would never have told that any one in the whole house was awake.

However, just then the clock in the hall struck eight, and a page came rushing downstairs.

‘Breakfast! breakfast!’ he shouted, quite without noticing the Princess, and he almost passed her before he saw her; but she stopped him.

‘Where is the King?’ she said.

‘The King is in his counting — that is, I mean the breakfast-room. But you can’t see him.’

‘ — But I must,’ said the Princess.

‘Well, of course, if you must—’

The Princess interrupted him.

‘Don’t you know who I am?’ she said.

‘No, I don’t; and I don’t want to,’ said the page. ‘Perhaps you’re the person who brings home the washing, or the kitchen-maid. If you are, I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes. The King is so jolly wild about his eggs and bacon being late that—’

But the Princess didn’t wait to hear any more; she walked straight towards the door of the breakfast-room. At the door two guards were stationed; but as they were old and crusted — that is, trusted — they remembered the Princess, and only saluted with their swords, wishing her ‘good-morning’ — for they were far too well bred to express surprise or joy at sight of her. One of them opened the door for her, and said in a loud voice:

‘The Princess, your Majesty.’

The King was seated in a chair with his back to the door, and did not seem to hear what the man said. He only nodded, and did not look up from the papers he was reading.

So the Princess stole quietly up behind him, and put her fingers over his eyes — she always was rather irreverent.

‘Guess who I am,’ she said to the struggling monarch.

‘I won’t,’ he spluttered, for he was rather enraged.

‘Think a minute, papa,’ she said encouragingly.

‘I never should have thought of being assaulted in such a way,’ said the King, who had given up struggling, finding it no use.

So the Princess drew her hands away, and kissed him on the top of his bald head.

The King darted away out of the chair as soon as he was released, and that so violently that he fell right on to the floor in a sitting posture.

‘Why, who the—’ he was beginning; but his eye happening to fall on Ernalie, he ejaculated:

‘Good gracious! How did you come here?’

‘I walked downstairs from my room to bid you good-morning, papa, and you recoiled when I touched you as if I were a snake, instead of your loving daughter. But wouldn’t you like me to help you up? It must be rather uncomfortable sitting there.’

‘Yes, I think it would be as well,’ the King said, after reflecting a moment. ‘I shouldn’t like any one to see me in such a posture — it’s rather undignified for a king.’

So the Princess bent over and began to help him up; but it was a labour of some time, for the King was rather stiff, and just as she had got him half up a page entered and announced the breakfast. It was the same page that had met the Princess on the staircase, and when he saw the Princess assisting the King to rise, he rushed forward, shouting:

‘Help! help! She’s murdering the King.’

And catching the Princess by the arm, he pulled her away so roughly that she had to let go of the King, who recoiled at the shock, and rolled under the table on his back.

Alarmed at the page’s cries for help, a large number of people had rushed in, and he turned to them expecting to be commended for his bravery; but he saw that every one either looked as if he had put his foot in it, or else was trying hard not to laugh. The Princess herself could hardly help laughing at his perplexed face.

‘I think, sir, you were a little too vigorous in your help,’ she said coldly. ‘You may leave us now.’

‘And you can all go,’ said the King from under the table.

The whole lot trooped out, shutting the door, and as soon as they were outside shouts of laughter filled the air for some minutes.

The King meanwhile scrambled out from under the table and got up, this time declining his daughter’s help.

‘It’s always the way,’ he said, as soon as the laughter had died away. ‘Whenever I do anything ridiculous and undignified there’s always a lot of people to see it. Why, only last Thursday — no, last Tuesday, I think — anyhow, it was the day of the last state banquet, my crown tumbled into the soup-tureen, and then I was so nervous that, when I was raising my wine-glass to propose a toast, my hand shook so much that I dropped the wine down the Duchess of Carabas’s neck; and then she fainted, and I helped to carry her out of the room, and as soon as I got outside they all laughed so loud that the chandelier fell into the middle of them. It broke right on a duke’s head, and he never apologised for breaking it. However, I shall get over it now you’ve come back. We really must get into more regular habits. I’ve actually never had more than ten pages to serve my breakfast since you’ve been away, and, by the bye, we’ve not
had
breakfast; and I’ve forgotten altogether to have the bells rung in your honour. Just knock that gong there on the table — it’s cracked, but I can’t afford a new one, and it’s quite good enough for the guards outside to hear.’

So the Princess knocked the gong, and it certainly
was
cracked; it sounded a good deal more like knocking an old pot than a respectable royal gong.

At the sound one of the guards outside entered and saluted.

‘Let the breakfast be brought,’ the King said.

The guard withdrew, and presently the door opened, and a page appeared with the royal coffee-pot on a cushion of cloth of gold. Next came another page with the cream-jug on a similar cushion, and then another with the slop-basin, and another with the sugar, and another with the tongs, until the table was completely furnished. Last of all came, with a loud fanfare of trumpets, four men, staggering under the weight of an enormous silver dish with an equally enormous silver cover. When this was placed on the table, amid another flourish of trumpets, the royal butler entered, and said:

‘Breakfast is served, your Majesty,’ although the King could see it very well himself. But that was the custom.

‘You may remove the cover,’ the King said.

And the butler did so, discovering the breakfast. I say discovering, for the breakfast was so small that it seemed almost lost in the centre of the great dish. The twelve pages had ranged themselves in lines of six on each side of the table, and although they were very well bred, on the whole they could not help smiling, whereupon all simultaneously drew out their handkerchiefs and began to cough, and then they looked at the windows, as if to see where the draught came from.