d repair that its walls
were tumbling down in several places, and all around it the ground was
uncared for and littered with rubbish. A man was walking up and down
in front of this building, with his head bowed low; but when he heard
the sound of approaching horses' hoofs he looked up and stared for a
moment in amazement. Then, with a shout of rage, he rushed toward them
and caught Prince Marvel's horse by the bridle.

"How dare you!" he cried; "how dare you enter my forest?"

Marvel jerked his bridle from the man's grasp and said in return:

"Who are you?"

"Me! Who am I? Why, I am the great and powerful Kwytoffle! So
beware! Beware my sorcery!"

They all looked at the man curiously. He was short and very fat, and
had a face like a puff-ball, with little red eyes and scarcely any nose
at all. He wore a black gown with scarlet grasshoppers and june-bugs
embroidered upon the cloth; and his hat was high and peaked, with an
imitation grasshopper of extraordinary size perched upon its point. In
his right hand he carried a small black wand, and around his neck hung
a silver whistle on a silver cord.

Seeing that the strangers were gazing on him so earnestly, Kwytoffle
thought they were frightened; so he said again, in a big voice:

"Beware my vengeance!"

"Beware yourself!" retorted the prince. "For if you do not treat us
more respectfully, I shall have you flogged."

"What! Flog me!" shouted Kwytoffle, furiously. "For this I will turn
every one of you into grasshoppers--unless you at once give me all the
wealth you possess!"

"Poor man!" exclaimed Nerle; "I can see you are longing for that
flogging. Will you have it now?" and he raised his riding-whip above
his head.

Kwytoffle stumbled backward a few paces and blew shrilly upon his
silver whistle. Instantly a number of soldiers came running from the
building, others following quickly after them until fully a hundred
rough-looking warriors, armed with swords and axes, had formed in
battle array, facing the little party of Prince Marvel.

"Arrest these strangers!" commanded Kwytoffle, in a voice like a roar.
"Capture them and bind them securely, and then I will change them all
into grasshoppers!"

"All right," answered the captain of the soldiers; and then he turned
to his men and shouted: "Forward--double-quick--march!"

They came on with drawn swords; at first running, and then gradually
dropping into a walk, as they beheld Nerle, Wul-Takim,