PRINCE RICARDO. 185

 

Yellow. He knew that this showed the neigh-
bourhood of Jaunia, or Daunia, the country
of the Yellow Dwarf. He therefore drew bridle,
placed his rose-coloured spectacles on his
nose, and put spurs to his horse, for the yellow
light of Jaunia makes people melancholy and
cowardly. As he pricked on, his horse stumbled
and nearly came on its nose. The prince
noticed that a steel chain had been drawn across
the road.

‘“‘What caitiff has dared!” he exclaimed,
when his hat was knocked off by a well-aimed
orange from a neighbouring orange-tree, and a
vulgar voice squeaked :

* Hi, Blinkers!”

There was the Yellow Dwarf, an odious little
figure, sitting sucking an orange in the tree,
swinging his wooden shoes, and grinning all
over his wrinkled face.

“Well, young Blinkers!” said the Dwarf,
““what are you doing on my grounds? You’re
a prince, by your look. Yah! down with kings !
I’m a man of the people!”’

““You’re a dwarf of the worst description,
that’s what you are,” said Ricardo; ‘‘and let
me catch you, and I’ll flog the life out of you
with my riding-whip !”

The very face of the Dwarf, even seen
through rose-coloured spectacles, made him
nearly ill:

*“Yes, when youcancatch me,” said the Dwarf;

13