seeing
that there was nothing to fear, said to Fanfaronade:

'Let us be quick and run away, for we shall never have a better chance
than this.'

Then she took the King's dagger, which was in a diamond sheath, and the
Queen's neck-handkerchief, and gave her hand to Fanfaronade, who carried
a lantern, and they ran out together into the muddy street and down to
the sea-shore. Here they got into a little boat in which the poor old
boatman was sleeping, and when he woke up and saw the lovely Princess,
with all her diamonds and her spiders'--web scarf, he did not know what
to think, and obeyed her instantly when she commanded him to set
out. They could see neither moon nor stars, but in the Queen's
neck-handkerchief there was a carbuncle which glowed like fifty torches.
Fanfaronade asked the Princess where she would like to go, but she only
answered that she did not care where she went as long as he was with
her.

'But, Princess,' said he, 'I dare not take you back to King Merlin's
court. He would think hanging too good for me.'

'Oh, in that case,' she answered, 'we had better go to Squirrel Island;
it is lonely enough, and too far off for anyone to follow us there.'

So she ordered the old boatman to steer for Squirrel Island.

Meanwhile the day was breaking, and the King and Queen and all the
courtiers began to wake up and rub their eyes, and think it was time
to finish the preparations for the wedding. And the Queen asked for her
neck-handkerchief, that she might look smart. Then there was a scurrying
hither and thither, and a hunting everywhere: they looked into every
place, from the wardrobes to the stoves, and the Queen herself ran about
from the garret to the cellar, but the handkerchief was nowhere to be
found.

By this time the King had missed his dagger, and the search began all
over again. They opened boxes and chests of which the keys had been lost
for a hundred years, and found numbers of curious things, but not the
dagger, and the King tore his beard, and the Queen tore her hair, for
the handkerchief and the dagger were the most valuable things in the
kingdom.

When the King saw that the search was hopeless he said:

'Never mind, let us make haste and get the wedding over before anything
else is lost.' And then he asked where the Princess was. Upon this her
nurse came forward and said:

'Sire, I have been seeking her these two hours, but she is nowhere to
be found.' This was more than the Queen co