ng's better self had been telling him that he
ought at least to have given Charming a chance to tell his side of the
story before condemning him to die. I do not know. At any rate when he
heard this voice coming out of the dungeon he insisted on going in at
once to see Charming.

"Your Gracious Majesty," said Charming, "I could not believe that it
was really your wish that I be confined in this cell. All my life I
have had no wish but to serve you faithfully."

"Charming!" the King exclaimed, "can this be true! They told me that
you have made fun of me because the Princess Goldenlocks had refused
to marry me."

"I, Your Majesty, mocked you?" Charming was astonished. "That is not
true. It is true, however, that I said that if you would send me to
Goldenlocks I believed I could persuade her to become your wife,
because I know so many good things about you which I would tell her. I
could paint such a lovely picture of you that she could not possibly
help falling in love with your Majesty."

Then the King knew that he had been deceived by his courtiers, and he
felt that he had been very silly to believe them. He took Charming with
him to the palace right away, and, after having the best supper which
the cooks could prepare served for Charming, the King asked him to go
and see whether it was not yet possible to persuade Goldenlocks to
marry him.

Charming did not set off with any such retinue of servants as had
the other ambassador. The King gave him letters to the Princess, and
Charming picked out one present for her--a lovely scarf embroidered
with pearls.

The next morning Charming started out. He had armed himself with a
notebook and pencil. As he rode along he thought much about what he
might say to the Princess that would make her want to marry his King.

One day as he rode along he saw a deer stretching out its neck to reach
the leaves of the tree above it. "What a graceful creature!" thought
Charming. "I will tell Goldenlocks that the King is as graceful as a
deer." Then on the road ahead he saw a great shadow, cast by an eagle
in its flight. "How swift and strong that eagle is," he mused. "I will
tell the Princess that the King is like the eagle in strength and
swiftness and majesty."

Charming got off his horse and sat down by a brook to jot down his
thoughts in his notebook. As he opened his book to write he saw,
struggling in the grass by his side, a golden carp. The fish had jumped
too high when it tr