cocks was very impatient to see his dear Rosette; but when he did
see her--well, he very nearly died on the spot. He flew into a violent
rage, he tore his clothes, he would not go near her, he felt quite
afraid of her. "What!" he cried, "have those two villains I have in
prison had the boldness and impudence to make a laughing-stock of me,
and to propose my marrying such a fright as that? They shall both be
killed; and let that insolent woman, and the nurse, and the man who is
with them, be immediately carried to the dungeon of my great tower, and
there kept." While this was going on, the King and his brother, who knew
that his sister was expected, had put on their bravest apparel ready to
receive her; but instead of seeing their prison door open and being set
at liberty, as they had hoped, the gaoler came with a body of soldiers
and made them go down into a dark cellar, full of horrible reptiles, and
where the water was up to their necks; no one was ever more surprised or
distressed than they were. "Alas!" they said to one another, "this is
indeed a melancholy marriage feast for us! What can have happened that
we should be so ill-treated?" They did not know what in the world to
think, except that they were to be killed, and they were very sorrowful
about this. Three days passed, and no news reached them of any kind. At
the end of that time, the King of the Peacocks came, and began calling
out insulting things to them through a hole in the wall. "You called
yourselves King and Prince, that I might fall into your trap, and engage
myself to marry your sister; but you are nothing better than two
beggars, who are not worth the water you drink. I am going to bring you
before the judges, who will soon pass their verdict upon you; the rope
to hang you with is already being made." "King of the Peacocks," replied
the King, angrily, "do not act too rashly in this matter, or you may
repent it. I am a King as well as you, and I have a fine kingdom, and
rich clothing, and crowns, to say nothing of good gold pieces. You must
be joking to talk like this of hanging us; have we stolen anything from
you?"

When the King heard him speak so boldly, he did not know what to think,
and he felt half inclined to let them and their sister go without
putting them to death; but his chief adviser, who was an arrant
flatterer, dissuaded him from this, telling him that if he did not
revenge the insult that had been put upon him, all the world would ma