imes, he
began to understand that they were making fun of him.

'That is not the way for a King to behave,' thought John. 'Old
scoundrel!' and then suddenly he remembered his red cloak.

'Ah, what an idiot I am!' said he. 'Of course I can get in whenever I
like with the help of this.'

That evening he was in front of the palace, wrapped in his red cloak.

On the first story one window was lighted, and John saw on the curtains
the shadow of the Princess.

'I wish myself in the room of the Princess Ludovine,' said he, and in a
second he was there.

The King's daughter was sitting before a table counting the money that
she emptied from the inexhaustible purse.

'Eight hundred and fifty, nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty--'

'A thousand,' finished John. 'Good evening everybody!'

The Princess jumped and gave a little cry. 'You here! What business have
you to do it? Leave at once, or I shall call--'

'I have come,' said the Kinglet, 'to remind you of your promise. The
day after to-morrow is Easter Day, and it is high time to think of our
marriage.'

Ludovine burst out into a fit of laughter. 'Our marriage! Have you
really been foolish enough to believe that the daughter of the King of
the Low Countries would ever marry the son of a boatman?'

'Then give me back the purse,' said John.

'Never,' said the Princess, and put it calmly in her pocket.

'As you like,' said the little soldier. 'He laughs best who laughs the
last;' and he took the Princess in his arms. 'I wish,' he cried, 'that
we were at the ends of the earth;' and in one second he was there, still
clasping the Princess tightly in his arms.

'Ouf,' said John, laying her gently at the foot of a tree. 'I never
took such a long journey before. What do you say, madam?' The Princess
understood that it was no time for jesting, and did not answer. Besides
she was still feeling giddy from her rapid flight, and had not yet
collected her senses.

VI

The King of the Low Countries was not a very scrupulous person, and
his daughter took after him. This was why she had been changed into a
serpent. It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little
soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the
meeting-place three times running. The cunning Princess then laid her
plans accordingly.

The wine that she had given to John in the castle of the goblins, the
bouquet of immortelles, and the scarf, all had the power of produ