So off they set for the Blue Bird’s nest; and, to make a long story short, the Prince stole two of the eggs, and would not give them back, till the Bird promised to tell him all it knew. And the end of it was, that the Bird carried him to the Court of the Queen of Mushroom Land. She was sitting, in her Crown, on a Mushroom, and she looked very funny and mischievous.
Here you see the Prince, with his hat off, kissing the Queen’s hair, and asking for the Princess.
“Oh, she’s quite safe,” said the Queen of Mushroom Land; “but what a funny boy you are. You are not half handsome enough for the Princess Niente.”
The poor Prince blushed. “They call me Prince Comical,” said he; “I know I’m not half good enough!”
“You are good enough for anything,” said the Queen of Mushroom Land; “but you might be prettier.”
Then she touched him with her wand, and he became as handsome a Prince as ever was seen, in a beautiful red silk doublet, slashed with white, and a long gold-coloured robe.
“Now you will do for my Princess Niente,” said the Queen of Mushroom Land. “Blue Bird” (and she whispered in the Bird’s ear), “take him away to the Princess Niente.”
So they flew, and they flew, all day and all night, and next day they came to a green bower, all full of Fairies, and Butterflies, and funny little people. And there, with all her long yellow hair round her, there sat the Princess Niente. And the Prince Charming laid his Crown at her feet, and knelt on one knee, and asked the Princess to be his love and his lady. And she did not refuse him, so they were married in the Church of the Elves, and the Glowworm sent his torches, and all the bells of all the flowers made a merry peal. And soon they were to travel home, to the King and the Queen.
Here’s the Water Fairy’s Court,
Nymphs and Nixies making sport!
CHAPTER III.
LOST AND FOUND
NOW the Prince had found the Princess, and you might think that they had nothing to do but go home again. The father and mother of the Princess were wearying very much to hear about her. Every day they climbed to the bartizan of the Castle, and looked across the plain, hoping to see dust on the road, and some brave Prince riding back with their daughter. But she never came, and their hair grew grey with sorrow and time. The parents of the other Princes, too, who were all asleep under the Mushroom, were alarmed about their sons, and feared that they had all been taken prisoners, or perhaps eaten up by some Giant. But Princess Niente and Prince Charming were lingering in the enchanted land, too happy to leave the flowers, the brooks, and the Fairies.
The faithful Black Beetle often whispered to the Prince that it was time to turn homewards, but the Prince paid no more attention to his ally than if he had been an Ear-wig. So there, in the Valley Magical, the Prince and Princess might be wandering to this day but for a very sad accident. The night they were married, the Princess had said to the Prince, “Now you may call me Niente, or any pet name you like; but never call me by my own name.”
“But I don’t know it,” said the Prince. “Do tell me what it is?”
“Never,” said the Princess; “you must never seek to know it.”
“Why not?” said the Prince.
“Something dreadful will happen,” said the Princess, “if ever you find out my name, and call me by it.”
And she looked quite as if she could be very angry.
Now ever after this, the Prince kept wondering what his wife’s real name could be, till he made himself quite unhappy.
“Is it Margaret?” he would say, when he thought the Princess was off her guard; or, “is it Joan?” “Is it Dorothy?” “It can’t be Sybil, can it?”
But she would never tell him.
Now, one morning, the Princess awoke very early, but she felt so happy that she could not sleep. She lay awake and listened to the Birds singing, and then she watched a Fairy-boy teasing a Bird, which sang (so the boy said) out of tune, and another Fairy-baby riding on a Fly.
At last the Princess, who thought the Prince was sound asleep, began to croon softly a little song she had made about him and her. She had never told him about the song, partly because she was shy, and partly for another reason. So she crooned and hummed to herself,
Oh, hand in hand with Gwendoline,
While yet our locks are gold,
He’ll fare among the forests green,
And through the gardens old;
And when, like leaves that lose their green,
Our gold has turned to grey,
Then, hand in hand with Gwendoline,
He’ll fade and pass away!
“Oh, Gwendoline is your name, is it?” said the Prince, who had been wide awake, and listening to her song. And he began to laugh at having found out her secret, and tried to kiss her.
But the Princess turned very, very cold, and white like marble, so that the Prince began to shiver, and he sat down on a fallen Mushroom, and hid his face in his hands, and, in a moment, all his beautiful hair vanished, and his splendid clothes, and his gold train, and his Crown. He wore a red cap, and common clothes, and was Prince Comical once more. But the Princess arose, and she vanished swiftly away.