The Green Fairy Book

A >> Andrew Lang, Ed. >> The Green Fairy Book

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The young man did as the little hare bade him, and he went to his
father's castle and enquired if they were not in want of a stable-
boy.

'Yes,' replied his father, 'very much indeed. But it is not an
easy place. There is a little horse in the stable which will not
let anyone go near it, and it has already kicked to death several
people who have tried to groom it.'

'I will undertake to groom it,' said the youth. 'I never saw the
horse I was afraid of yet.' The little horse allowed itself to be
rubbed down without a toss of its head and without a kick.

'Good gracious!' exclaimed the master; 'how is it that he lets you
touch him, when no one else can go near him?'

'Perhaps he knows me,' answered the stable-boy.

Two or three days later the master said to him: 'The Porcelain
Maiden is here: but, though she is as lovely as the dawn, she is
so wicked that she scratches everyone that approaches her. Try if
she will accept your services.'

When the youth entered the room where she was, the Golden
Blackbird broke forth into a joyful song, and the Porcelain Maiden
sang too, and jumped for joy.

'Good gracious!' cried the master. 'The Porcelain Maiden and the
Golden Blackbird know you too?'

'Yes,' replied the youth, 'and the Porcelain Maiden can tell you
the whole truth, if she only will.'

Then she told all that had happened, and how she had consented to
follow the young man who had captured the Golden Blackbird.

'Yes,' added the youth, 'I delivered my brothers, who were kept
prisoners in an inn, and, as a reward, they threw me into a lake.
So I disguised myself and came here, in order to prove the truth
to you.'

So the old lord embraced his son, and promised that he should
inherit all his possessions, and he put to death the two elder
ones, who had deceived him and had tried to slay their own
brother.

The young man married the Porcelain Maiden, and had a splendid
wedding-feast.

Sebillot.

THE LITTLE SOLDIER

I

Once upon a time there was a little soldier who had just come back
from the war. He was a brave little fellow, but he had lost
neither arms nor legs in battle. Still, the fighting was ended and
the army disbanded, so he had to return to the village where he
was born.

Now the soldier's name was really John, but for some reason or
other his friends always called him the Kinglet; why, no one ever
knew, but so it was.

As he had no father or mother to welcome him home, he did not
hurry himself, but went quietly along, his knapsack on his back
and his sword by his side, when suddenly one evening he was seized
with a wish to light his pipe. He felt for his match-box to strike
a light, but to his great disgust he found he had lost it.

He had only gone about a stone's throw after making this discovery
when he noticed a light shining through the trees. He went towards
it, and perceived before him an old castle, with the door standing
open.

The little soldier entered the courtyard, and, peeping through a
window, saw a large fire blazing at the end of a low hall. He put
his pipe in his pocket and knocked gently, saying politely:

'Would you give me a light?'

But he got no answer.

After waiting for a moment John knocked again, this time more
loudly. There was still no reply.

He raised the latch and entered; the hall was empty.

The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the
tongs, and was stooping down to look for a nice red hot coal with
which to light his pipe, when clic! something went, like a spring
giving way, and in the very midst of the flames an enormous
serpent reared itself up close to his face.

And what was more strange still, this serpent had the head of a
woman.

At such an unexpected sight many men would have turned and run for
their lives; but the little soldier, though he was so small, had a
true soldier's heart. He only made one step backwards, and grasped
the hilt of his sword.

'Don't unsheath it,' said the serpent. 'I have been waiting for
you, as it is you who must deliver me.'

'Who are you?'

'My name is Ludovine, and I am the daughter of the King of the Low
Countries. Deliver me, and I will marry you and make you happy for
ever after.'

Now, some people might not have liked the notion of being made
happy by a serpent with the head of a woman, but the Kinglet had
no such fears. And, besides, he felt the fascination of Ludovine's
eyes, which looked at him as a snake looks at a little bird. They
were beautiful green eyes, not round like those of a cat, but long
and almond-shaped, and they shone with a strange light, and the
golden hair which floated round them seemed all the brighter for
their lustre. The face had the beauty of an angel, though the body
was only that of a serpent.

'What must I do?' asked the Kinglet.

'Open that door. You will find yourself in a gallery with a room
at the end just like this. Cross that, and you will see a closet,
out of which you must take a tunic, and bring it back to me.'

The little soldier boldly prepared to do as he was told. He
crossed the gallery in safety, but when he reached the room he saw
by the light of the stars eight hands on a level with his face,
which threatened to strike him. And, turn his eyes which way he
would, he could discover no bodies belonging to them.

He lowered his head and rushed forward amidst a storm of blows,
which he returned with his fists. When he got to the closet, he
opened it, took down the tunic, and brought it to the first room.

'Here it is,' he panted, rather out of breath.

'Clic!' once more the flames parted. Ludovine was a woman down to
her waist. She took the tunic and put it on.

It was a magnificent tunic of orange velvet, embroidered in
pearls, but the pearls were not so white as her own neck.

'That is not all,' she said. 'Go to the gallery, take the
staircase which is on the left, and in the second room on the
first story you will find another closet with my skirt. Bring this
to me.'

The Kinglet did as he was told, but in entering the room he saw,
instead of merely hands, eight arms, each holding an enormous
stick. He instantly unsheathed his sword and cut his way through
with such vigour that he hardly received a scratch.

He brought back the skirt, which was made of silk as blue as the
skies of Spain.

'Here it is,' said John, as the serpent appeared. She was now a
woman as far as her knees.

'I only want my shoes and stockings now,' she said. 'Go and get
them from the closet which is on the second story.'

The little soldier departed, and found himself in the presence of
eight goblins armed with hammers, and flames darting from their
eyes. This time he stopped short at the threshold. 'My sword is no
use,' he thought to himself; 'these wretches will break it like
glass, and if I can't think of anything else, I am a dead man.' At
this moment his eyes fell on the door, which was made of oak,
thick and heavy. He wrenched it off its hinges and held it over
his head, and then went straight at the goblins, whom he crushed
beneath it. After that he took the shoes and stockings out of the
closet and brought them to Ludovine, who, directly she had put
them on, became a woman all over.

When she was quite dressed in her white silk stockings and little
blue slippers dotted over with carbuncles, she said to her
deliverer, 'Now you must go away, and never come back here,
whatever happens. Here is a purse with two hundred ducats. Sleep
to-night at the inn which is at the edge of the wood, and awake
early in the morning: for at nine o'clock I shall pass the door,
and shall take you up in my carriage.' 'Why shouldn't we go now?'
asked the little soldier. 'Because the time has not yet come,'
said the Princess. 'But first you may drink my health in this
glass of wine,' and as she spoke she filled a crystal goblet with
a liquid that looked like melted gold.

John drank, then lit his pipe and went out.

II

When he arrived at the inn he ordered supper, but no sooner had he
sat down to eat it than he felt that he was going sound asleep.

'I must be more tired than I thought,' he said to himself, and,
after telling them to be sure to wake him next morning at eight
o'clock, he went to bed.

All night long he slept like a dead man. At eight o'clock they
came to wake him, and at half-past, and a quarter of an hour
later, but it was no use; and at last they decided to leave him in
peace.

The clocks were striking twelve when John awoke. He sprang out of
bed, and, scarcely waiting to dress himself, hastened to ask if
anyone had been to inquire for him.

'There came a lovely princess,' replied the landlady, 'in a coach
of gold. She left you this bouquet, and a message to say that she
would pass this way to-morrow morning at eight o'clock.'

The little soldier cursed his sleep, but tried to console himself
by looking at his bouquet, which was of immortelles.

'It is the flower of remembrance,' thought he, forgetting that it
is also the flower of the dead.

When the night came, he slept with one eye open, and jumped up
twenty times an hour. When the birds began to sing he could lie
still no longer, and climbed out of his window into the branches
of one of the great lime-trees that stood before the door. There
he sat, dreamily gazing at his bouquet till he ended by going fast
asleep.

Once asleep, nothing was able to wake him; neither the brightness
of the sun, nor the songs of the birds, nor the noise of
Ludovine's golden coach, nor the cries of the landlady who sought
him in every place she could think of.

As the clock struck twelve he woke, and his heart sank as he came
down out of his tree and saw them laying the table for dinner.

'Did the Princess come?' he asked.

'Yes, indeed, she did. She left this flower-coloured scarf for
you; said she would pass by to-morrow at seven o'clock, but it
would be the last time.'

'I must have been bewitched,' thought the little soldier. Then he
took the scarf, which had a strange kind of scent, and tied it
round his left arm, thinking all the while that the best way to
keep awake was not to go to bed at all. So he paid his bill, and
bought a horse with the money that remained, and when the evening
came he mounted his horse and stood in front of the inn door,
determined to stay there all night.

Every now and then he stooped to smell the sweet perfume of the
scarf round his arm; and gradually he smelt it so often that at
last his head sank on to the horse's neck, and he and his horse
snored in company.

When the Princess arrived, they shook him, and beat him, and
screamed at him, but it was all no good. Neither man nor horse
woke till the coach was seen vanishing away in the distance.

Then John put spurs to his horse, calling with all his might
'Stop! stop!' But the coach drove on as before, and though the
little soldier rode after it for a day and a night, he never got
one step nearer.

Thus they left many villages and towns behind them, till they came
to the sea itself. Here John thought that at last the coach must
stop, but, wonder of wonders! it went straight on, and rolled over
the water as easily as it had done over the land. John's horse,
which had carried him so well, sank down from fatigue, and the
little soldier sat sadly on the shore, watching the coach which
was fast disappearing on the horizon.

III

However, he soon plucked up his spirits again, and walked along
the beach to try and find a boat in which he could sail after the
Princess. But no boat was there, and at last, tired and hungry, he
sat down to rest on the steps of a fisherman's hut.

In the hut was a young girl who was mending a net. She invited
John to come in, and set before him some wine and fried fish, and
John ate and drank and felt comforted, and he told his adventures
to the little fisher-girl. But though she was very pretty, with a
skin as white as a gull's breast, for which her neighbours gave
her the name of the Seagull, he did not think about her at all,
for he was dreaming of the green eyes of the Princess.

When he had finished his tale, she was filled with pity and said:

'Last week, when I was fishing, my net suddenly grew very heavy,
and when I drew it in I found a great copper vase, fastened with
lead. I brought it home and placed it on the fire. When the lead
had melted a little, I opened the vase with my knife and drew out
a mantle of red cloth and a purse containing fifty crowns. That is
the mantle, covering my bed, and I have kept the money for my
marriage-portion. But take it and go to the nearest seaport, where
you will find a ship sailing for the Low Countries, and when you
become King you will bring me back my fifty crowns.'

And the Kinglet answered: 'When I am King of the Low Countries, I
will make you lady-in-waiting to the Queen, for you are as good as
you are beautiful. So farewell,' said he, and as the Seagull went
back to her fishing he rolled himself in the mantle and threw
himself down on a heap of dried grass, thinking of the strange
things that had befallen him, till he suddenly exclaimed:

'Oh, how I wish I was in the capital of the Low Countries!'

IV

In one moment the little soldier found himself standing before a
splendid palace. He rubbed his eyes and pinched himself, and when
he was quite sure he was not dreaming he said to a man who was
smoking his pipe before the door, 'Where am I?'

'Where are you? Can't you see? Before the King's palace, of
course.'

'What King?'

'Why the King of the Low Countries!' replied the man, laughing and
supposing that he was mad.

Was there ever anything so strange? But as John was an honest
fellow, he was troubled at the thought that the Seagull would
think he had stolen her mantle and purse. And he began to wonder
how he could restore them to her the soonest. Then he remembered
that the mantle had some hidden charm that enabled the bearer to
transport himself at will from place to place, and in order to
make sure of this he wished himself in the best inn of the town.
In an instant he was there.

Enchanted with this discovery, he ordered supper, and as it was
too late to visit the King that night he went to bed.

The next day, when he got up, he saw that all the houses were
wreathed with flowers and covered with flags, and all the church
bells were ringing. The little soldier inquired the meaning of all
this noise, and was told that the Princess Ludovine, the King's
beautiful daughter, had been found, and was about to make her
triumphal entry. 'That will just suit me,' thought the Kinglet; 'I
will stand at the door and see if she knows me.'

He had scarcely time to dress himself when the golden coach of
Ludovine went by. She had a crown of gold upon her head, and the
King and Queen sat by her side. By accident her eyes fell upon the
little soldier, and she grew pale and turned away her head.

'Didn't she know me?' the little soldier asked himself, 'or was
she angry because I missed our meetings?' and he followed the
crowd till he got to the palace. When the royal party entered he
told the guards that it was he who had delivered the Princess, and
wished to speak to the King. But the more he talked the more they
believed him mad and refused to let him pass.

The little soldier was furious. He felt that he needed his pipe to
calm him, and he entered a tavern and ordered a pint of beer. 'It
is this miserable soldier's helmet,' said he to himself 'If I had
only money enough I could look as splendid as the lords of the
Court; but what is the good of thinking of that when I have only
the remains of the Seagull's fifty crowns?'

He took out his purse to see what was left, and he found that
there were still fifty crowns.

'The Seagull must have miscounted,' thought he, and he paid for
his beer. Then he counted his money again, and there were still
fifty crowns. He took away five and counted a third time, but
there were still fifty. He emptied the purse altogether and then
shut it; when he opened it the fifty crowns were still there!

Then a plan came into his head, and he determined to go at once to
the Court tailor and coachbuilder.

He ordered the tailor to make him a mantle and vest of blue velvet
embroidered with pearls, and the coachbuilder to make him a golden
coach like the coach of the Princess Ludovine. If the tailor and
the coachbuilder were quick he promised to pay them double.

A few days later the little soldier was driven through the city in
his coach drawn by six white horses, and with four lacqueys richly
dressed standing behind. Inside sat John, clad in blue velvet,
with a bouquet of immortelles in his hand and a scarf bound round
his arm. He drove twice round the city, throwing money to the
right and left, and the third time, as he passed under the palace
windows, he saw Ludovine lift a corner of the curtain and peep
out.

V

The next day no one talked of anything but the rich lord who had
distributed money as he drove along. The talk even reached the
Court, and the Queen, who was very curious, had a great desire to
see the wonderful Prince.

'Very well,' said the King; 'let him be asked to come and play
cards with me.'

This time the Kinglet was not late for his appointment.

The King sent for the cards and they sat down to play. They had
six games, and John always lost. The stake was fifty crowns, and
each time he emptied his purse, which was full the next instant.

The sixth time the King exclaimed, 'It is amazing!'

The Queen cried, 'It is astonishing!'

The Princess said, 'It is bewildering!'

'Not so bewildering,' replied the little soldier, 'as your change
into a serpent.'

'Hush!' interrupted the King, who did not like the subject.

'I only spoke of it,' said John, 'because you see in me the man
who delivered the Princess from the goblins and whom she promised
to marry.'

'Is that true?' asked the King of the Princess.

'Quite true,' answered Ludovine. 'But I told my deliverer to be
ready to go with me when I passed by with my coach. I passed three
times, but he slept so soundly that no one could wake him.'

'What is your name?' said the King, 'and who are you?'

'My name is John. I am a soldier, and my father is a boatman.'

'You are not a fit husband for my daughter. Still, if you will
give us your purse, you shall have her for your wife.'

'My purse does not belong to me, and I cannot give it away.'

'But you can lend it to me till our wedding-day,' said the
Princess with one of those glances the little soldier never could
resist.

'And when will that be?'

'At Easter,' said the monarch.

'Or in a blue moon!' murmured the Princess; but the Kinglet did
not hear her and let her take his purse.

Next evening he presented himself at the palace to play picquet
with the King and to make his court to the Princess. But he was
told that the King had gone into the country to receive his rents.
He returned the following day, and had the same answer. Then he
asked to see the Queen, but she had a headache. When this had
happened five or six times, he began to understand that they were
making fun of him.

'That is not the way for a King to behave,' thought John. 'Old
scoundrel!' and then suddenly he remembered his red cloak.

'Ah, what an idiot I am!' said he. 'Of course I can get in
whenever I like with the help of this.'

That evening he was in front of the palace, wrapped in his red
cloak.

On the first story one window was lighted, and John saw on the
curtains the shadow of the Princess.

'I wish myself in the room of the Princess Ludovine,' said he, and
in a second he was there.

The King's daughter was sitting before a table counting the money
that she emptied from the inexhaustible purse.

'Eight hundred and fifty, nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty--'

'A thousand,' finished John. 'Good evening everybody!'

The Princess jumped and gave a little cry. 'You here! What
business have you to do it? Leave at once, or I shall call--'

'I have come,' said the Kinglet, 'to remind you of your promise.
The day after to-morrow is Easter Day, and it is high time to
think of our marriage.'

Ludovine burst out into a fit of laughter. 'Our marriage! Have you
really been foolish enough to believe that the daughter of the
King of the Low Countries would ever marry the son of a boatman?'

'Then give me back the purse,' said John.

'Never,' said the Princess, and put it calmly in her pocket.

'As you like,' said the little soldier. 'He laughs best who laughs
the last;' and he took the Princess in his arms. 'I wish,' he
cried, 'that we were at the ends of the earth;' and in one second
he was there, still clasping the Princess tightly in his arms.

'Ouf,' said John, laying her gently at the foot of a tree. 'I
never took such a long journey before. What do you say, madam?'
The Princess understood that it was no time for jesting, and did
not answer. Besides she was still feeling giddy from her rapid
flight, and had not yet collected her senses.

VI

The King of the Low Countries was not a very scrupulous person,
and his daughter took after him. This was why she had been changed
into a serpent. It had been prophesied that she should be
delivered by a little soldier, and that she must marry him, unless
he failed to appear at the meeting-place three times running. The
cunning Princess then laid her plans accordingly.

The wine that she had given to John in the castle of the goblins,
the bouquet of immortelles, and the scarf, all had the power of
producing sleep like death. And we know how they had acted on
John.

However, even in this critical moment, Ludovine did not lose her
head.

'I thought you were simply a street vagabond,' said she, in her
most coaxing voice; 'and I find you are more powerful than any
king. Here is your purse. Have you got my scarf and my bouquet?'

'Here they are,' said the Kinglet, delighted with this change of
tone, and he drew them from his bosom. Ludovine fastened one in
his buttonhole and the other round his arm. 'Now,' she said, 'you
are my lord and master, and I will marry you at your good
pleasure.'

'You are kinder than I thought,' said John; 'and you shall never
be unhappy, for I love you.'

'Then, my little husband, tell me how you managed to carry me so
quickly to the ends of the world.'

The little soldier scratched his head. 'Does she really mean to
marry me,' he thought to himself, 'or is she only trying to
deceive me again?'

But Ludovine repeated, 'Won't you tell me?' in such a tender voice
he did not know how to resist her.

'After all,' he said to himself, 'what does it matter telling her
the secret, as long as I don't give her the cloak.'

And he told her the virtue of the red mantle.

'Oh dear, how tired I am!' sighed Ludovine. 'Don't you think we
had better take a nap? And then we can talk over our plans.'

She stretched herself on the grass, and the Kinglet did the same.
He laid his head on his left arm, round which the scarf was tied,
and was soon fast asleep.

Ludovine was watching him out of one eye, and no sooner did she
hear him snore than she unfastened the mantle, drew it gently from
under him and wrapped it round her, took the purse from his
pocket, and put it in hers, and said: 'I wish I was back in my own
room.' In another moment she was there.

VII

Who felt foolish but John, when he awoke, twenty-four hours after,
and found himself without purse, without mantle, and without
Princess? He tore his hair, he beat his breast, he trampled on the
bouquet, and tore the scarf of the traitress to atoms.

Besides this he was very hungry, and he had nothing to eat.

He thought of all the wonderful things his grandmother had told
him when he was a child, but none of them helped him now. He was
in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under
which he had been sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit
as yellow as gold.

'Here goes for the plums,' he said to himself, 'all is fair in
war.'

He climbed the tree and began to eat steadily. But he had hardly
swallowed two plums when, to his horror, he felt as if something
was growing on his forehead. He put up his hand and found that he
had two horns!

He leapt down from the tree and rushed to a stream that flowed
close by. Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns,
that would not have disgraced the head of a goat.

Then his courage failed him.

'As if it was not enough,' said he, 'that a woman should trick me,
but the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns.
What a pretty figure I should cut if I went back into the world!'

But as he was still hungry, and the mischief was done, he climbed
boldly up another tree, and plucked two plums of a lovely green
colour. No sooner had he swallowed two than the horns disappeared.
The little soldier was enchanted, though greatly surprised, and
came to the conclusion that it was no good to despair too quickly.
When he had done eating an idea suddenly occurred to him.

'Perhaps,' thought he, 'these pretty little plums may help me to
recover my purse, my cloak, and my heart from the hands of this
wicked Princess. She has the eyes of a deer already; let her have
the horns of one. If I can manage to set her up with a pair, I
will bet any money that I shall cease to want her for my wife. A
horned maiden is by no means lovely to look at.' So he plaited a
basket out of the long willows, and placed in it carefully both
sorts of plums. Then he walked bravely on for many days, having no
food but the berries by the wayside, and was in great danger from
wild beasts and savage men. But he feared nothing, except that his
plums should decay, and this never happened.

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