But why are you vexed?' asked the king. 'Surely the princess is
beautiful enough to please anyone?'

'She is certainly very handsome,' replied the equerry, 'but to be really
happy in love something more than beauty is required. To tell the truth,
sire,' he added, 'her expression seems to me hard.'

'That is pride and dignity,' said the king, 'and nothing can be more
becoming.'

'Pride or hardness, as you will,' said the equerry; 'but to my mind the
choice of so many fierce creatures for her amusements seems to tell of
a fierce nature, and I also think there is something suspicious in the
care taken to prevent her speaking.'

The equerry's remarks were full of good sense; but as opposition is only
apt to increase love in the hearts of men, and especially of kings who
hate being contradicted, this king begged, the very next day, for the
hand of the Princess Mutinosa. It was granted him on two conditions.

The first was that the wedding should take place the very next day; and
the second, that he should not speak to the princess till she was
his wife; to all of which the king agreed, in spite of his equerry's
objections, so that the first word he heard his bride utter was the
'Yes' she spoke at their marriage.

Once married, however, she no longer placed any check on herself, and
her ladies-in-waiting came in for plenty of rude speeches----even the
king did not escape scolding; but as he was a good-tempered man, and
very much in love, he bore it patiently. A few days after the wedding
the newly married pair set out for their kingdom without leaving many
regrets behind.

The good equerry's fears proved only too true, as the king found out
to his cost. The young queen made her self most disagreeable to all her
court, her spite and bad temper knew no bounds, and before the end of a
month she was known far and wide as a regular vixen.

One day, when riding out, she met a poor old woman walking along
the road, who made a curtsy and was going on, when the queen had her
stopped, and cried: 'You are a very impertinent person; don't you know
that I am the queen? And how dare you not make me a deeper curtsy?'

'Madam,' said the old woman, 'I have never learnt how to measure
curtsies; but I had no wish to fail in proper respect.'

'What!' screamed the queen; 'she dares to answer! Tie her to my horse's
tail and I'll just carry her at once to the best dancing-master in the
town to learn how to curtsy.'

The old woman shrie