that
day week. But no sooner had he said this than the prince brought them
out of his wallet, and displayed them in open Court. This ended the
case; and Benson, after being entertained with sherry and sandwiches
in the steward's room, was sent back to his master, And I regret to
say that his temper was not at all improved by his failure to better
himself. On the contrary, he was unusually cross and disagreeable
for several days; but we must, perhaps, make some allowance for his
disappointment.

But if Benson was irritated, and suffered from the remarks of his
fellow-servants, I do not think we can envy Prince Prigio. Here he was,
restored to his position indeed, but by no means to _the royal favour_.
For the king disliked him as much as ever, and was as angry as ever
about the deaths of Enrico and Alphonso. Nay, he was even _more_ angry;
and, perhaps, not without reason. He called up Prigio before the whole
Court, and thereon the courtiers cheered like anything, but the king
cried:

"Silence! McDougal, drag the first man that shouts to the serpent-house
in the zoological gardens, and lock him up with the rattlesnakes!"

After that the courtiers were very quiet.

"Prince," said the king, as Prigio bowed before the throne, "you are
restored to your position, because I cannot break my promise. But your
base and malevolent nature is even more conspicuously manifest in your
selfish success than in your previous dastardly contempt of duty. Why,
confound you!" cried the king, dropping the high style in which he had
been speaking, and becoming the _father_, not the monarch,--"why, if you
_could_ kill the Firedrake, did you let your poor little brothers go and
be b--b--b--broiled? Eh! what do you say, you sneak? 'You didn't believe
there _were_ any Firedrakes?' That just comes of your eternal conceit
and arrogance! If you were clever enough to kill the creature--and I
admit that--you were clever enough to know that what everybody said must
be true. 'You have not generally found it so?' Well, you _have_ this
time, and let it be a lesson to you; not that there is much comfort
in that, for it is not likely you will ever have such another
chance"--exactly the idea that had occurred to Benson.

Here the king wept, among the tears of the lord chief justice, the
poet laureate (who had been awfully frightened when he heard of the
rattlesnakes), the maids of honour, the chaplain royal, and everyone
but Colonel McDougal, a Scottish