princess was very prudent, and was perfectly aware that young ladies should never receive gifts from bachelors; so she declined accepting the beautiful diamonds and the other valuable articles, and only retained, in order not to affront the king, a quarter of a pound of English pins.[1]
When the ambassador reached the capital city of the king, where he was so impatiently awaited, everybody was afflicted that he did not bring back with him the Fair with Golden Hair, and the king began to cry like a child. They endeavoured to console him, but without the least success.
There was a youth at court who was as beautiful as the sun, and had the finest figure in the kingdom. On account of his graceful manners and his intelligence he was called Avenant. Everybody loved him, except the envious, who were vexed that the king conferred favours upon him and daily confided to him his affairs.
Avenant was in company with some persons who were talking of the return of the ambassador, and saying he had done no good. "If the king had sent me to the Fair with Golden Hair," said he to them carelessly, "I am certain she would have returned with me." These mischief-makers went immediately to the king, and said, "Sire, you know not what Avenant asserts,—That if you had sent him to the Fair with Golden Hair he would have brought her back with him. Observe his malice! He pretends that he is handsomer than you, and that she would have been so fond of him that she would have followed him anywhere."
At this the king flew into a rage—a rage so terrible, that he was quite beside himself. "Ha, ha!" he cried, "this pretty minion laughs at my misfortune, and values himself above me! Go!—fling him into the great tower, and let him starve to death!"
The royal guards hastened in search of Avenant, who had quite forgotten what he had said. They dragged him to prison, inflicting a thousand injuries upon him. The poor youth had only a little straw to lie upon, and would soon have perished but for a tiny spring that trickled through the foundations of the tower, and of which he drank a few drops
- ↑ A proof of the estimation in which English pins were held before 1700. Pins were formerly in such great demand for new year's gifts in Paris, that on New Year's day, and "the eve thereof," extra shops were specially licensed for their sale.
