for nothing
in the world. But the stepmother, shut into the cask and shut out from
life, kept on crying through the bunghole as long as she had breath--

"To him who mischief seeks, shall mischief fall;
There comes an hour that recompenses all."

XXXI

THE THREE CITRONS

Well was it in truth said by the wise man, "Do not say all you know,
nor do all you are able"; for both one and the other bring unknown
danger and unforeseen ruin; as you shall hear of a certain slave (be it
spoken with all reverence for my lady the Princess), who, after doing
all the injury in her power to a poor girl, came off so badly in the
court, that she was the judge of her own crime, and sentenced herself
to the punishment she deserved.

The King of Long-Tower had once a son, who was the apple of his eye,
and on whom he had built all his hopes; and he longed impatiently for
the time when he should find some good match for him. But the Prince
was so averse to marriage and so obstinate that, whenever a wife was
talked of, he shook his head and wished himself a hundred miles off; so
that the poor King, finding his son stubborn and perverse, and
foreseeing that his race would come to an end, was more vexed and
melancholy, cast down and out of spirits, than a merchant whose
correspondent has become bankrupt, or a peasant whose ass has died.
Neither could the tears of his father move the Prince, nor the
entreaties of the courtiers soften him, nor the counsel of wise men
make him change his mind; in vain they set before his eyes the wishes
of his father, the wants of the people, and his own interest,
representing to him that he was the full-stop in the line of the royal
race; for with the obstinacy of Carella and the stubbornness of an old
mule with a skin four fingers thick, he had planted his foot
resolutely, stopped his ears, and closed his heart against all
assaults. But as frequently more comes to pass in an hour than in a
hundred years, and no one can say, Stop here or go there, it happened
that one day, when all were at table, and the Prince was cutting a
piece of new-made cheese, whilst listening to the chit-chat that was
going on, he accidentally cut his finger; and two drops of blood,
falling upon the cheese, made such a beautiful mixture of colours
that--either it was a punishment inflicted by Love, or the will of
Heaven to console the poor father--the whim seized the Prince to find a
woman exactly as white and red as t