PRINCE PRIGIO. 73

 

whom I recognised as. your butler. He. in-
formed us that he had just killed the beast,
and showed us the horns and tail, sure
enough; there they are! The tail is like the
iron handle of a pump, but the horns are .
genuine. A pair were thrown up by a volcano,
in my great-grandfather’s time, Giglio I.*
Excellent coffee this, of yours!”

The ambassador bowed.

“Well, we asked him where he killed the
Firedrake, and he said in a garden near Gluck-
stein. Then he began to speak about the
reward, and the ‘ perkisits,’ as he called them,
which it seems he had read about in my procla-
mation. Rather a neat thing; drew it up
myself,” added his majesty.

“Very much to the point,” said the ambas-
sador, wondering what the king was coming to.

“Glad you like it,” said the king, much
pleased. ‘‘ Well, where wasI? Oh, yes; your
man said he had killed the creature in a garden,
quite near Gluckstein. I didn’t much like
the whole affair: he is an alien, you see; and
then there was my niece, Molinda—poor girl,
she was certain to give trouble. Her heart is
buried, if I may say so, with poor Alphonso.
But the queen is a very remarkable woman
—very remarkable——”

*The History of this Prince may be read in a treatise
called The Rose and the Ring, by M. A. TrrMarsH. London,
1855.