8 THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER.

“Oh! miserable king that I am! Oh! cruel destiny
that thou art!”

Perhaps, instead of accusing destiny, the king should
have remembered that, as is generally the case with mankind,
he was the author of his own misfortunes; for had he known
how to content himself with black puddings containing a
little less fat than usual, and had he abandoned his ideas of
vengeance, and left Dame Mousey and her family in peace
beneath the hearth-stone, the affliction which he deplored
would not have happened. But we must confess that the
ideas of the royal father of Princess Pirlipata did not tend
at all in that direction.

On the contrary—believing, as all great men do, that
they must necessarily attribute their misfortunes to others—
he threw all the blame upon the skilful mechanic Christian
Elias Drosselmayer. Well convinced, moreover, that, if he
invited him back to court to be hung or beheaded, he would
not accept the invitation, he desired him to come in order to
receive a new order of knighthood which had just been
created for men of letters, artists, and mechanics. Master
Drosselmayer was not exempt from human pride: he thought
that a star would look well upon the breast of his drab sur-
tout coat; and accordingly set off for the king’s court. But
his joy was soon changed into fear; for on the frontiers of