ow anything of that kind. She
appeared suddenly, in all her splendour, and cried:

'Stay, Grumedan; this Princess is under my protection, and the smallest
impertinence will cost you a thousand years of captivity. If you can win
Potentilla's heart by the ordinary methods I cannot oppose you, but I
warn you that I will not put up with any of your usual tricks.'

This declaration was not at all to the Enchanter's taste; but he knew
that there was no help for it, and that he would have to behave well,
and pay the Princess all the delicate attentions he could think of;
though they were not at all the sort of thing he was used to. However,
he decided that to win such a beauty it was quite worth while; and
Melinette, feeling that she could now leave the Princess in safety,
hurried off to tell Prince Narcissus what was going forward. Of course,
at the very mention of the Enchanter as a rival he was furious, and I
don't know what foolish things he would not have done if Melinette had
not been there to calm him down. She represented to him what a powerful
enchanter Grumedan was, and how, if he were provoked, he might avenge
himself upon the Princess, since he was the most unjust and churlish of
all the enchanters, and had often before had to be punished by the Fairy
Queen for some of his ill-deeds. Once he had been imprisoned in a tree,
and was only released when it was blown down by a furious wind; another
time he was condemned to stay under a big stone at the bottom of a
river, until by some chance the stone should be turned over; but nothing
could ever really improve him. The Fairy finally made Narcissus promise
that he would remain invisible when he was with the Princess, since she
felt sure that this would make things easier for all of them. Then began
a struggle between Grumedan and the Prince, the latter under the name
of Melinette, as to which could best delight and divert the Princess and
win her approbation. Prince Narcissus first made friends with all the
birds in Potentilla's little domain, and taught them to sing her name
and her praises, with all their sweetest trills and most touching
melodies, and all day long to tell her how dearly he loved her.
Grumedan, thereupon, declared that there was nothing new about that,
since the birds had sung since the world began, and all lovers had
imagined that they sang for them alone. Therefore he said he would
himself write an opera that should be absolutely a novelty and someth