176 PRINCE RICARDO.

 

wound had been! For this was the famous
Weapon Salve which you may read about in
Sir Kenelm Digby, and which the Lady of
Branxholme used, in The Lay of-the Last
Minstrel. But the secret of making it has long
been lost, except in Pantouflia.

“You are the best girl in the world, Jaque-
line,” said Ricardo. ‘‘ You may give me akiss
if you like; and I won’t call you ‘Jack,’ or
laugh at you for reading books, any more.
There’s something in books after all.”

The princess did not take advantage of Dick’s
permission, but advised him to lie down and
try to sleep.

“IT say, though,”’ he said, ‘‘ what about my
father ?”’

‘“* The king need never be told anything about
it,” said Jaqueline, ‘“‘need he?”

‘*Oh, that won’t do! I tell my father every-
thing; but then, I never had anything like this
to tell him before. Don’t you think, Jaqueline,
you might break it to him? He’s very fond of
you. Just tell him what I told you; it’s every
word of it true, and he ought to know. He
might see something about it in the Mercure de
France.”

This was the newspaper of the period.

“7 don’t think it will get into the papers,”
said Jaqueline, smiling. ‘‘ Nobody could tell,
except the king and the princes, and they have
reasons for keeping it to themselves.”