THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER. 9

the kingdom, guards awaited him. They seized upon him,
and conducted him from station to station, until they reached
the capital.

The king, who was afraid of being won over to mercy,
would not see Master Drosselmayer when the latter arrived
at the palace; but he ordered him to be immediately con-
ducted to the cradle of Pirlipata, with the assurance that if
the princess were not restored by that day month to her
former state of beauty, he would have the mechanic’s head
cut off.

Master Drosselmayer did not pretend to be bolder than
his fellow-men, and had always hoped to die a natural death,

: He was therefore much frightened at
this threat. Nevertheless, trusting a
great deal to his knowledge, which his
own modesty had never prevented him
from being aware of to its full extent,
he acquired courage. Then he set to
work to discover whether the evil
would yield to any remedy, or whether
it were really incurable, as he from the first believed
it to be.

With this object in view,
he skilfully took off the head
of the Princess, and next all
her limbs. He likewise dis-
sected the hands and the feet,
in order to examine, with
more accuracy, not only the
joints and the muscles, but
also the internal formation.
But, alas! the more he work-
ed into the frame of Pirlipata,
the more firmly did he be-
come convinced that as the
princess grew, the uglier she