with as little consideration as a
dairymaid.

'Oh! take a day or two if you like,' said the Enchanter; 'but in the
meantime, I am going to send for your daughter. Perhaps you will be able
to induce her to be reasonable.'

So saying, he drew out his favourite whistle, and blew one ear-piercing
note--whereupon the great lion, who had been dozing in the sunny
courtyard, come bounding in on his soft, heavy feet. 'Orion,' said the
Enchanter, 'go and fetch me the Princess, and bring her here at once. Be
gentle now!'

At these words Orion went off at a great pace, and was soon at the other
end of the King's gardens. Scattering the guards right and left, he
cleared the wall at a bound, and seizing the sleeping Princess, he threw
her on to his back, where he kept her by holding her robe in his teeth.
Then he trotted gently back, and in less than five minutes stood in the
great hall before the astonished King and Queen.

The Enchanter held his club close to the Princess's charming little
nose, whereupon she woke up and shrieked with terror at finding herself
in a strange place with the detested Grumedan. Frivola, who had stood
by, stiff with displeasure at the sight of the lovely Princess, now
stepped forward, and with much pretended concern proposed to carry off
Potentilla to her own apartments that she might enjoy the quiet she
seemed to need. Really her one idea was to let the Princess be seen by
as few people as possible; so, throwing a veil over her head, she led
her away and locked her up securely. All this time Prince Narcissus,
gloomy and despairing, was kept a prisoner by Melinette in her castle in
the air, and in spite of all the splendour by which he was surrounded,
and all the pleasures which he might have enjoyed, his one thought was
to get back to Potentilla. The Fairy, however, left him there, promising
to do her very best for him, and commanding all her swallows and
butterflies to wait upon him and do his bidding. One day, as he paced
sadly to and fro, he thought he heard a voice he knew calling to him,
and sure enough there was the faithful Philomel, Potentilla's favourite,
who told him all that had passed, and how the sleeping Princess had been
carried off by the Lion to the great grief of all her four-footed and
feathered subjects, and how, not knowing what to do, he had wandered
about until he heard the swallows telling one another of the Prince who
was in their airy castle and had come to see if it could