have satisfaction," replied the King; "he promised us a beautiful Princess; he has sent us a skeleton, a mummy that frightens us. I am no longer surprised that he has kept this lovely treasure hidden for fifteen years, that he might entrap some dupe. The chance has fallen upon us, but revenge is not impossible." "What outrages!" cried the mock Princess; "am I not unfortunate to have come here upon the word of such people? See how very wrong it is to be flattered in one's picture; yet does it not happen every day? If for such absurdities princes sent back their affianced brides, few would marry."
The King and the Prince, transported with rage, did not deign to answer her; they each remounted their litters, and without further ceremony, one of the body-guards placed the Princess behind him, and the lady-in-waiting was similarly treated; they carried them into the city by order of the King; they were shut up in the Castle of the Three Points.
Prince Guerrier was so overwhelmed by the shock he had just received, that his affliction could not find vent, though it filled his heart almost to bursting. When he was able to give utterance to it, what did he not say of his cruel destiny! He was still in love, and the object of his passion was only a picture! His hopes no longer existed; all the charming ideas he had indulged in of the Princess Désirée had been destroyed; he would rather have died than have married the person whom he now believed to be that Princess; in short, no despair had ever equalled his. He could no longer endure the court, and he determined to leave it secretly as soon as his health would permit him, and seek out some solitary place wherein to pass the remainder of his sad life.
He only communicated his plan to the faithful Becafigue; he felt persuaded that he would follow him anywhere, and he preferred talking with him oftener than with any one of the shameful trick they had played him. He scarcely felt better before he departed, and left upon the table in his cabinet a long letter for the King, assuring him that the moment his mind was more at ease he would return to him; but he entreated him in the meantime to think of their mutual revenge, and still to detain the ugly princess a prisoner.
It is easy to imagine the King's grief when he received this
