he open window. The prince thought he could
do nothing wiser than go and comfort her, so he induced her to sit down
on a chair in the balcony,--for he felt that he was not wanted in the
drawing-room;--and soon they were talking happily about the stars, which
had begun to appear in the summer night.

Meanwhile, the ambassador had induced the king to take a seat; but there
was no use in talking to the queen.

"It would be a miracle," she said to herself, "and miracles do not
happen; therefore this has not happened. Presently, I shall wake up in
my own bed at Falkenstein."

Now, Benson, William, and Thomas brought in the coffee, but the queen
took no notice. When they went away, the rest of the company slipped off
quietly, and the king was left alone with the ambassador; for the queen
could hardly be said to count.

"You want to know all about it, I suppose?" said his majesty in a sulky
voice. "Well, you have a right to it, and I shall tell you. We were just
sitting down to dinner at Falkenstein, rather late,--hours get later
every year, I think--when I heard a row in the premises, and the captain
of the guard, Colonel McDougal, came and told us that a man had arrived
with the horns and tail of the Firedrake, and was claiming the reward.
Her majesty and I rose and went into the outer court, where we
found, sitting on that carpet with a glass of beer in his hand, a
respectable-looking upper servant, whom I recognised as your butler. He
informed us that he had just killed the beast, and showed us the horns
and tail, sure enough; there they are! The tail is like the iron
handle of a pump, but the horns are genuine. A pair were thrown up by
a volcano, in my great-grandfather's time Giglio I.* Excellent coffee
this, of yours!"

* The History of this Prince may be read in a treatise
called _The Rose and the Ring_, by M. A. Titmarsh.
London, 1855.

[Illustration: Page 72]

The ambassador bowed.

"Well, we asked him _where_ he killed the Firedrake, and he said in a
garden near Gluckstein. Then he began to speak about the reward, and the
'perkisits,' as he called them, which it seems he had read about in my
proclamation. Rather a neat thing; drew it up myself," added his
majesty.

"Very much to the point," said the ambassador, wondering what the king
was coming to.

"Glad you like it," said the king, much pleased. "Well, where was I? Oh,
yes; your man said he had killed the creature in a garden, quite n