ties, his anger turned against her likewise; he shut her
up in her room, and would not hear a word more from her. Instead of
joy and peace, her constant companions now were sorrow and
repentance.

Meanwhile in the Root-kingdom a young and vigorous King was
elected, who shared the hostility of his people against the
insolent intruders, and forthwith declared war upon them. He
resolved by a decisive battle either to annihilate or drive them
away, and to this end he summoned his Allies from all sides to his
aid. Rabbits and moles, lizards and worms, were to invade
Nutcracker's country by an underground attack, and overthrow towns
and villages; locusts, bees, and cockchafers were to fall upon the
enemy from the air; whilst on the ground the Rootmen themselves
should assail the foe with sharp rush-lances and two-edged blades
of grass.

The morning of the fatal battle dawned gloomily; the sky was
covered with black clouds. Clad in their green and brown moss coats
the Rootmen marched toward the Nutfield, so that the enemy did not
observe them until they were close under his fortresses. Suddenly
there burst forth a cannonade and firing from all the loopholes;
but the balls remained sticking in the moss of the assailants, who
answered the terrific discharge with loud laughter. Quickly the
army of the Rootmen pressed onward into the Nutfield: Prince
Nutcracker threw himself upon them with his Body-guard, but was
driven back; whereupon he fled into the palace, and made Harlequin
his Fieldmarshal. With wild leaps of despair Harlequin led the main
army to the field.

But soon a general panic seized upon all. The subterranean Allies
of the enemy had already undermined the ground along which the army
of Puppets were marching, and with it the fortresses, towns, and
villages on the Nutfield; at the same time almost all the buildings
round about tumbled one upon another with a loud crash.
Fieldmarshal Harlequin himself was seized by the leg by a fierce
old Mole, who dragged him down into the earth, in spite of the most
heroic struggles: he was never seen again!

This was the signal for a general and wild flight of Nutcracker's
brilliant army, who fled to the royal palace with the cry of "Save
yourselves as you can!" The palace consisted of strongly-built
wooden saloons, and longest withstood the labours of the
undermining animals. Here Nutcracker had already put the horses to
his State-carriage; then quickly jumping into it with h