screaming as they talked could be heard two leagues away.

'If the King of the Peacocks is himself a peacock,' said the king to his
brother, 'how can our sister dream of marrying him? It would be folly to
sanction it. A nice set of relatives she would present to us--a lot of
little peacocks for nephews!' The prince was equally uneasy in his mind.
'It was an unfortunate notion to come into her head,' he declared; 'I
cannot imagine how she ever came to think that such a person as the King
of the Peacocks existed.'

When they reached the city they found it peopled with men and women, but
the latter all wore garments fashioned out of peacocks' feathers; and
from the profusion in which these objects were everywhere to be seen it
was plain that they were regarded with an intense admiration. They
encountered the King of the Peacocks, who was out for a drive in a
splendid little chariot of gold, studded with diamonds, drawn by a dozen
galloping peacocks.

The King of the Peacocks, fair of complexion, with a crown of peacocks'
feathers surmounting his long and curly yellow locks, was so extremely
handsome that the king and prince were delighted with his appearance. He
guessed from their clothes, so different from those of the natives,
that they were strangers; but to make sure he caused his carriage to
stop and summoned them to him.

The king and the prince advanced to meet him, and bowed low. 'We have
come from far away, Sire,' they said, 'in order to show you a portrait.'
With these words they drew from the pack which they carried the
magnificent portrait of Rosette.

'I do not believe,' said the King of the Peacocks, when he had looked
long and well at it, 'that the world holds so beautiful a maiden.'

'She is a hundred times more beautiful than that,' said the king.

'You are joking,' said the King of the Peacocks.

'Sire,' said the prince, 'this is my brother, who is a monarch like
yourself: men call him King. For myself, I am known as Prince. This
portrait shows our sister, the Princess Rosette. We are here to ask if
you are willing to marry her. She has good sense as well as good looks,
and we will give her for dowry a bushel of golden crowns.'

'Why, certainly,' said the King of the Peacocks, 'I will marry her with
all my heart. I promise she shall want for nothing, and I will love her
truly. But I would have you know that she must be as beautiful as her
picture, and that if she falls short of it by the least l