with them, bound hand and foot, such a shepherd pair as that of which
they received a full description.

And now Agnes was worse off than before. For to her other miseries was
added the fear of what would befall her when it was discovered that the
persons of whom they were in quest, and whom she was certain they must
find, were her own father and mother.

By this time the king and queen were so tired of seeing lost children,
genuine or pretended--for they cared for no child any longer than there
seemed a chance of its turning out their child--that with this new
hope, which, however poor and vague at first, soon began to grow upon
such imaginations as they had, they commanded the proclamation to be
taken down from the palace gates, and directed the various sentries to
admit no child whatever, lost or found, be the reason or pretence what
it might, until further orders.

"I'm sick of children!" said the king to his secretary, as he finished
dictating the direction.

XI.

After Prince was gone, the princess, by degrees, fell back into some of
her bad old ways, from which only the presence of the dog, not her own
betterment, had kept her. She never grew nearly so selfish again, but
she began to let her angry old self lift up its head once more, until
by and by she grew so bad that the shepherdess declared she should not
stop in the house a day longer, for she was quite unendurable.

"It is all very well for you, husband," she said, "for you haven't her
all day about you, and only see the best of her. But if you had her in
work instead of play hours, you would like her no better than I do. And
then it's not her ugly passions only, but when she's in one of her
tantrums, it's impossible to get any work out of her. At such times
she's just as obstinate as--as--as"--

She was going to say "as Agnes," but the feelings of a mother overcame
her, and she could not utter the words.

"In fact," she said instead, "she makes my life miserable."

The shepherd felt he had no right to tell his wife she must submit to
have her life made miserable, and therefore, although he was really
much attached to Rosamond, he would not interfere; and the shepherdess
told her she must look out for another place.

The princess was, however, this much better than before, even in
respect of her passions, that they were not quite so bad, and after one
was over, she was really ashamed of it. But not once, ever since the
departure of Pri