ty of Palermo
a little prince who was thought, not only by his parents but by everyone
who saw him, to be the handsomest child in the whole world. When he was
four years old, his mother, the queen, made up her mind that it was time
to take him away from his nurses, so she chose out two ladies of the
court who had been friends of her own youth, and to them she entrusted
her little son. He was to be taught to read and write, and to talk
Greek, the language of his mother's country, and Latin, which all
princes ought to know, while the Great Chamberlain would see that he
learned to ride and shoot, and, when he grew bigger, how to wield a
sword.

For a while everything went on as well as the king and queen could wish.
Prince William was quick, and, besides, he could not bear to be beaten
in anything he tried to do, whether it was making out the sense of a
roll of parchment written in strange black letters, which was his
reading-book, or mastering a pony which wanted to kick him off. And the
people of Palermo looked on, and whispered to each other:

'Ah! what a king he will make!'

But soon a terrible end came to all these hopes!

William's father, king Embrons, had a brother who would have been the
heir to the throne but for the little prince. He was a wicked man, and
hated his nephew, but when the boy was born he was away at the wars, and
did not return till five years later. Then he lost no time in making
friends with the two ladies who took care of William, and slowly managed
to gain their confidence. By-and-by he worked upon them with his
promises and gifts, till they became as wicked as he was, and even
agreed to kill not only the child, but the king his father.

Now adjoining the palace at Palermo was a large park, planted with
flowering trees and filled with wild beasts. The royal family loved to
roam about the park, and often held jousts and sports on the green
grass, while William played with his dogs or picked flowers.

One day--it was a festival--the whole court went into the park at noon,
after they had finished dining, and the queen and her ladies busied
themselves with embroidering a quilt for the royal bed, while the king
and his courtiers shot at a mark. Suddenly there leapt from a bush a
huge grey wolf with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out. Before
anyone had time to recover from his surprise, the great beast had caught
up the child, and was bounding with him through the park, and over the
wal