glass
was made so that, by looking through it, you could see anybody or
anything you wished, however far away. Prigio's first idea was to look
at his lady. "But she does not expect to be looked at," he thought; "and
I _won't!_" On the other hand, he determined to look at the Firedrake;
for, of course, he had no delicacy about spying on _him_, the brute.

The prince clapped the glass to his eye, stared out of window, and
there, sure enough, he saw the Firedrake. He was floating about in a
sea of molten lava, on the top of a volcano. There he was, swimming and
diving for pleasure, tossing up the flaming waves, and blowing fountains
of fire out of his nostrils, like a whale spouting!

[Illustration: Page 44]

The prince did not like the looks of him.

"With all my cap of darkness, and my shoes of swiftness, and my sword of
sharpness, I never could get near that beast," he said; "and if I _did_
stalk him, I could not hurt him. Poor little Alphonso! poor Enrico! what
plucky fellows they were! I fancied that there was no such thing as a
Firedrake: he's not in the Natural History books; and I thought the boys
were only making fun, and would be back soon, safe and sound. How horrid
being too clever makes one! And now, what _am_ I to do?"

What was he to do, indeed? And what would you have done? Bring the horns
and tail he must, or perish in the adventure. Otherwise, how could he
meet his lady?--why, she would think him a mere braggart.

The prince sat down, and thought and thought; and the day went on, and
it was now high noon.

At last he jumped up and rushed into the library, a room where nobody
ever went except himself and the queen. There he turned the books upside
down, in his haste, till he found an old one, by a French gentleman,
Monsieur Cyrano de Bergerac. It was an account of a voyage to the
moon, in which there is a great deal of information about matters not
generally known; for few travellers have been to the moon. In that book,
Prince Prigio fancied he would find something he half remembered, and
that would be of use to him. And he _did!_ So you see that cleverness,
and minding your book, have some advantages, after all. For here the
prince learned that there is a very rare beast called a Remora, which is
at least as cold as the Firedrake is hot!

"Now," thought he, "_if I can only make these two fight_, why the Remora
may kill the Firedrake, or take the heat out of him, at least, so that I
may have a ch