ooked strangely
old-fashioned, with their antique furniture, but as there was a good
library he was pleased, for he was very fond of reading, and he soon got
permission to have as many books as he liked. But when he looked at them
he found that they were written in a forgotten language, and he could
not understand a single word, though he amused himself with trying.

King Grumpy was so convinced that Prince Curlicue would soon get tired
of being in prison, and so consent to marry the Princess Cabbage-Stalk,
that he sent ambassadors to her father proposing that she should come
and be married to his son, who would make her perfectly happy.

The King was delighted to receive so good an offer for his unlucky
daughter, though, to tell the truth, he found it impossible to admire
the Prince's portrait which had been sent to him. However, he had it
placed in as favourable a light as possible, and sent for the Princess,
but the moment she caught sight of it she looked the other way and
began to cry. The King, who was very much annoyed to see how greatly
she disliked it, took a mirror, and holding it up before the unhappy
Princess, said:

'I see you do not think the Prince handsome, but look at yourself, and
see if you have any right to complain about that.'

'Sire,' she answered, 'I do not wish to complain, only I beg of you
do not make me marry at all. I had rather be the unhappy Princess
Cabbage-Stalk all my life than inflict the sight of my ugliness on
anyone else.'

But the King would not listen to her, and sent her away with the
ambassadors.

In the meantime the Prince was kept safely locked up in his tower, and,
that he might be as dull as possible, King Grumpy ordered that no one
should speak to him, and that they should give him next to nothing
to eat. But all the Princess guards were so fond of him that they did
everything they dared, in spite of the King, to make the time pass
pleasantly.

One day, as the Prince was walking up and down the great gallery,
thinking how miserable it was to be so ugly, and to be forced to marry
an equally frightful Princess, he looked up suddenly and noticed that
the painted windows were particularly bright and beautiful, and for the
sake of doing something that would change his sad thoughts he began to
examine them attentively. He found that the pictures seemed to be scenes
from the life of a man who appeared in every window, and the Prince,
fancying that he saw in this man some