dine: the Prince and the Admiral imitated their sovereign. The bees sang with redoubled vigour as the company danced, and made very merry, and all those who came in the King's train advanced, and saluted the Queen and the Princess her sister. As to the wife of the Admiral they treated her with less ceremony, which annoyed her excessively, for she was the elder sister of Brunette and Blondine, and had made the least brilliant match of the three.
The King sent his grand Equerry to inform the Queen, his mother, of what had taken place, and to order out his most magnificent coaches to fetch Blondine and her two sisters. The Queen-Mother was the most cruel and passionate woman in the world. When she heard that her son had married without consulting her, and moreover a girl of obscure birth, and that the Prince, his brother, had done the same thing, she flew into such a rage that she frightened the whole Court. She asked the Grand Equerry what motive could possibly have induced the King to make so degrading a match. He answered, the hope of becoming the father of two boys and a girl who should be born with long curly hair, stars on their foreheads, and gold chains round their necks, and that the idea of such wonderful things had enchanted him. The Queen-Mother smiled contemptuously at the credulity of her son, and made several offensive observations upon it, which sufficiently evinced the fury she was in.
The coaches had already arrived at the little country house. The King invited his mother-in-law to follow him, and promised that she should be treated with the greatest distinction; but she reflected that the Court was like a sea in constant motion, and said, "Sire, I have had too much experience of the world to quit the quiet retreat it has cost me such trouble to obtain." "What!" said the King, "will you continue to keep an eating-house?" "No," she replied; "you will allow me something to live on." "At least permit me," added the King, "to give you an establishment and officers to attend on you." "I thank you, Sire," said the Princess: "while I live by myself I shall have no enemies to trouble me; but if I had a train of domestics I fear I might find some amongst them." The King admired the sense and discretion of a woman who thought and spoke like a philosopher.
While he was pressing his mother-in-law to accompany
