n! Maybe that another
time thou wilt pay more attention to my words; but the worst has not
come yet. Thou art to be handed over to the malice of my two sisters.
Who knows in what manner they may reek their vengeance? If thou escapest
with thy life, thou wilt be fortunate.

"Prepare, then, for thou hast brought all this on thyself by despising
my counsels. What! is a man like thee to be at the head of the realm?
_Thou_, with thy brutish appetite, thy dense stupidity and deafness to
the voice of wisdom? A pretty example to thy subjects, forsooth! Or
thinkest thou that the strength of thine arm alone will suffice to
govern the kingdom? I tell thee, brainless boor, that whatever your
besotted notion of a king may be, it is a post that is no easy task to
fill, and woe to him who aspires to the title and is not able to
discharge the duties belonging to it.

"Knowest thou not futurity will judge thy action, that thy name is
destined either to honour or disgrace the page of history? That a king
must not only be brave, but wise, just, good, merciful, temperate?"

"Enough, O royal spouse, most august princess," answered Hans. "Enough
for the present; but tell me first how I came here, and next how to get
out again, and for the future I will always listen to thy counsels,
though allow me to observe that it was thy will to make a king of me
rather than mine own; therefore, if thou hast hit upon the wrong man,
methinks the blame is thine. An I had known when I was an humble
woodchopper that to be a king I must bear this splitting headache, lie
in a dungeon full of rats, to be hanged perhaps on the morrow, besides
having to kill so many good hearty fellows just because they happen to
differ a little in opinion from your Royal Highness, I should have said,
'The devil take all the kings and kingdoms in the world; I'll e'en abide
here and chop wood.'"

"Hush!" cried the princess, with asperity, "and offend not our royal
ears with such clownish sentiments. It is but natural that thy rude
nature should rebel against counsel that is intended for thy good. It is
to be hoped, however, that with time thou mayest be brought to a right
view of the great destiny that thou hast to fulfil.

"I confess that had I not been specially commanded in a dream by the
queen of the fairies to take thee and raise thee to the throne, I should
never of myself have chosen so clownish a helpmate."

"Well, for the matter of that," said Hans, "dreams are thin