he world!'

But she went on ordering them all about, and for no fault at all would
give slaps and pinches to everyone she could reach.

As the procession was so long it advanced but slowly, and the nurse's
daughter sat up in her carriage trying to look like a Queen. But the
peacocks, who were sitting upon every tree waiting to salute her, and
who had made up their minds to cry, 'Long live our beautiful Queen!'
when they caught sight of the false bride could not help crying instead:

'Oh! how ugly she is!'

Which offended her so much that she said to the guards:

'Make haste and kill all these insolent peacocks who have dared to
insult me.'

But the peacocks only flew away, laughing at her.

The rogue of a boatman, who noticed all this, said softly to the nurse:

'This is a bad business for us, gossip; your daughter ought to have been
prettier.'

But she answered:

'Be quiet, stupid, or you will spoil everything.'

Now they told the King that the Princess was approaching.

'Well,' said he, 'did her brothers tell me truly? Is she prettier than
her portrait?'

'Sire,' they answered, 'if she were as pretty that would do very well.'

'That's true,' said the King; 'I for one shall be quite satisfied if she
is. Let us go and meet her.' For they knew by the uproar that she had
arrived, but they could not tell what all the shouting was about. The
King thought he could hear the words:

'How ugly she is! How ugly she is!' and he fancied they must refer to
some dwarf the Princess was bringing with her. It never occurred to him
that they could apply to the bride herself.

The Princess Rosette's portrait was carried at the head of the
procession, and after it walked the King surrounded by his courtiers. He
was all impatience to see the lovely Princess, but when he caught sight
of the nurse's daughter he was furiously angry, and would not advance
another step. For she was really ugly enough to have frightened anybody.

'What!' he cried, 'have the two rascals who are my prisoners dared to
play me such a trick as this? Do they propose that I shall marry this
hideous creature? Let her be shut up in my great tower, with her nurse
and those who brought her here; and as for them, I will have their heads
cut off.'

Meanwhile the King and the Prince, who knew that their sister must have
arrived, had made themselves smart, and sat expecting every minute to
be summoned to greet her. So when the gaoler came with soldiers, a