le
toad! why don't you love my son, who is far too handsome and too good
for you? Make haste and begin to love him this instant, or you shall be
tarred and feathered.'

Then the poor little Princess, shaking with terror, went down on her
knees, crying:

'Oh, don't tar and feather me, please! It would be so uncomfortable. Let
me have two or three days to make up my mind, and then you shall do as
you like with me.'

The wicked Prince would have liked very much to see her tarred and
feathered, but the King ordered that she should be shut up in a dark
dungeon. It was just at this moment that the Queen and the Fairy arrived
in the flying chariot, and the Queen was dreadfully distressed at the
turn affairs had taken, and said miserably that she was destined to be
unfortunate all her days. But the Fairy bade her take courage.

'I'll pay them out yet,' said she, nodding her head with an air of great
determination.

That very same night, as soon as the wicked King had gone to bed, the
Fairy changed herself into the little mouse, and creeping up on to his
pillow nibbled his ear, so that he squealed out quite loudly and turned
over on his other side; but that was no good, for the little mouse only
set to work and gnawed away at the second ear until it hurt more than
the first one.

Then the King cried 'Murder!' and 'Thieves!' and all his guards ran to
see what was the matter, but they could find nothing and nobody, for
the little mouse had run off to the Prince's room and was serving him
in exactly the same way. All night long she ran from one to the other,
until at last, driven quite frantic by terror and want of sleep, the
King rushed out of the palace crying:

'Help! help! I am pursued by rats.'

The Prince when he heard this got up also, and ran after the King, and
they had not gone far when they both fell into the river and were never
heard of again.

Then the good Fairy ran to tell the Queen, and they went together to the
black dungeon where Delicia was imprisoned. The Fairy touched each door
with her wand, and it sprang open instantly, but they had to go through
forty before they came to the Princess, who was sitting on the floor
looking very dejected. But when the Queen rushed in, and kissed her
twenty times in a minute, and laughed, and cried, and told Delicia all
her history, the Princess was wild with delight. Then the Fairy showed
her all the wonderful dresses and jewels she had brought for her, and
said: