in a gesture of impatience. The blood gushed forth and fell
into a plate of cream that had just been handed to him, where it made
a curious mixture of white and red. Either by chance or by the
punishment of Heaven, the prince was instantly seized with the maddest
caprice that could be imagined.

"Sir," said he to his father, "if I do not soon find a woman as white
and red as this cream dyed with my blood, I am lost. This wonder must
exist somewhere. I love her; I am dying for her; I must have her; I
will have her. To a resolute heart nothing is impossible. If you would
have me live, let me go in search of her, or before to-morrow I shall
be dead of loneliness."

The poor King of the Vermilion Towers was thunderstruck at this folly.
It seemed to him that his palace was crumbling over his head; he
turned red and pale by turns, stammered, wept, and finally cried, in
a voice broken with sobs:

"Oh, my child, the staff of my old age, my heart's blood, the life of
my soul, what an idea have you taken into your head! Have you lost
your reason? Yesterday you almost made me die of sorrow by refusing to
marry; to-day you are about to drive me from the world by another
piece of folly. Whither would you go, unhappy boy? Why leave your
home, where you have been born and bred? Do you know to what danger
and suffering the traveler exposes himself? Drive away these perilous
fancies, and stay with me, my child, if you would not deprive me of
life and destroy your kingdom and house at one blow."

All these words, and others equally wise, had no more effect than an
official harangue. Carlino, his eye fixed and his brow bent, listened
to nothing but his passion. All that was said to him went in at one
ear and out at the other; it was eloquence cast to the winds.

When the old king, worn out with prayers and tears, perceived that it
was easier to melt a leaden weathercock on its steeple than a spoiled
child in pursuit of his whim, he heaved a deep sigh and determined to
let Carlino go; and giving him counsels to which he scarcely listened,
several bags filled with guineas, which were rather better received
than the counsels, and two trusty servants, the good king clasped his
rebellious son to his heart and bade him adieu, then mounted to the
top of the great tower to follow the ungrateful boy with his eyes as
far as he could see. When Carlino at last disappeared in the distance,
the poor monarch thought that his heart was breaking. He