are, and is daily becoming rarer.

V

A TERRIBLE EVENT

The next morning the court gazette announced that the queen had been
seized with a raging fit of madness on the very night of her wedding,
and that there was little hope of saving her. There was scarcely a
courtier, indeed, that had not observed the princess's restless air on
the evening before, and no one was surprised at her malady. All pitied
the king, who received with a gloomy and constrained mien the
expressions of affection which were lavished on him. He was doubtless
weighed down with grief, but this grief appeared very much lightened
after the visit of the countess.

The good lady was very sad, and had a great desire to see her poor
child, but she was so old, and found herself so weak and sensitive,
that she entreated the king to spare her a heartrending spectacle. She
threw herself into the arms of Charming, who tenderly embraced her,
and withdrew, saying that she placed all her hope and trust in the
love of the king and the talent of the chief physician of the court.

She had scarcely left the room when the physician whispered a few
words in Charming's ear which called to his face a smile quickly
repressed. The countess pacified, there was nothing more to fear; the
vengeance was sure.

Doctor Wieduwillst was a great physician. Born in the country of
Dreams, he had early quitted his native land to seek his fortune in
the kingdom of Wild Oats. He was too able a man not to find it. In the
five years that he had spent in the celebrated University of
Lugenmaulberg, the medical theory had changed twenty-five times, and,
thanks to this solid education, the doctor had a firmness of principle
which nothing could shake. He had the frankness and bluntness of a
soldier, it was said; he swore at times, even with ladies, a rudeness
which left him at liberty always to be of the same mind with the
stronger, and to demand a fee for having no opinion. The queen had
fallen into his incorruptible hands.

She had been imprisoned for three days, and the town was already
beginning to talk of something else, when one morning Rachimburg
abruptly entered the king's apartments with a distracted air, and
threw himself trembling at his feet.

"Sire," said he, "I bring you my head. The queen has disappeared."

"What do you tell me!" exclaimed the king, turning pale. "The thing is
impossible; the dungeon is barred on all sides."

"Yes," said the jailer, "the thing is im