upon
us?' They did not know what in the world to think, except that it was
desired to compass their death, and this reflection filled them with
melancholy.

Three days passed and they heard not a word of anything. At the end of
the third day the King of the Peacocks came and hurled insults at them
through a hole in the wall.

'You called yourselves King and Prince to trap me,' he shouted to them,
'and sought thus to make me promise to wed your sister. But you are
nought but a couple of beggars, not worth the water you drink. You shall
be sent for trial, and the judges will make short work of your case--the
rope to hang you with is being plaited already!'

'Not so fast, King of the Peacocks,' replied the captive monarch,
angrily, 'or you will have cause to repent it! I am a king like
yourself: I rule over a fair land, I have robes and crowns and treasure
in plenty. I pledge my all to the truth of what I say. You must be
joking to talk of hanging us--of what have we robbed you?'

The King of the Peacocks hardly knew what to make of this bold and
confident challenge. He was almost of a mind to spare their lives and
let them take their sister away. But his Chancellor, an arrant
flatterer, egged him on, whispering that if he did not avenge himself,
he would be the laughing-stock of the whole world, and would be looked
upon as a mere twopenny-halfpenny monarch. Thus influenced, he vowed he
would not pardon them, and ordered their trial to take place.

This did not take long, for it was only necessary to compare side by
side the portrait of the true Princess Rosette with the actual person
who had come in her place and claimed identity with her. The prisoners
were forthwith condemned to have their heads cut off as a penalty for
lying, in that they brought the king an ugly little peasant girl after
promising a beautiful princess.

The sentence was read with great ceremony at the prison, but the victims
protested that they had spoken the truth, that their sister was indeed a
princess, and that there was something at the back of all this which
they did not understand. They asked for a respite of seven days, that
they might have an opportunity of establishing their innocence; and
though the King of the Peacock's wrath was such that he had great
difficulty in granting this concession, he agreed to it at length.

Something must now be told of what was happening to poor Princess
Rosette while all these events were taking plac