dren. Unfortunately there was
an estrangement between the King and Queen later as she was accused of
having murdered them, and condemned to be burnt to death."

"It only shows what a mistake it is to marry beneath one."

"_This_ marriage ended happily. It was discovered, just in time, that
the children were alive after all."

"Still," said the Queen, "it is _not_ a pleasant thing to have happened
in _any_ family. I should like to hear something about the pedigrees of
my other ladies-in-waiting."

The Court Godmother was quite ready to give her all the information she
could. Princess Flachspinnenlosburg, it appeared, traced her descent
from the incorrigibly lazy daughter of a poor and not over scrupulous
mother; Baroness Belohnte von Haulemaennerschen from similarly humble
folk, whose daughter was servant of all work to seven dwarfs, and
afterwards married the King of one of the petty states before mentioned;
Baroness von Bauerngrosstochterheimer's ancestor was a peasant; Countess
Gaensehirten am Brunnen's ancestress a goose-girl--and so on through the
entire list. Queen Selina then became curious as to the origin of the
gentlemen of her Court, and found that many of their forbears were
sullied by the taint of Trade. The founders of both Prince Tapfer von
Schneiderleinberg's and Count Daumerlingenstamm's houses were tailors;
Baron von Bohnenranken derived his title from a speculator who, after a
remarkably unsuccessful venture in cattle, had made a colossal coup in
beans. As for Prince Hansmeinigel, his pretensions to high descent were
even more questionable--at least, if it was actually the fact, as the
Fairy stated, that the first of his progenitors was not only the son of
a poor father, but also suffered the additional social disadvantage of
being a hedgehog from the waist upwards; added to which he seemed to
have cherished an eccentric passion for playing the bagpipes while
riding on a cock. It is true that, after his marriage with a Princess,
he became a less impossible member of Society--still, as the Queen very
rightly felt, there are some things which can never be altogether lived
down.

"I'm much obliged to you for telling me all this, Court Godmother," she
said, at the end; "_most_ interesting, I'm sure. And so useful to know
who everybody really _is_!"

It was something of a disillusion to find that her Court was so largely
composed of _parvenus_, but, on the other hand, it enabled her to face
her ladie