are lined with soldiers;
and I know not how you have escaped them. _Here_, under my roof, you
are safe for the moment; but a prolonged stay--excuse my
inhospitality--could not but strain the harmonious relations which
prevail between the Government of Pantouflia and that which I have the
honour to represent."

"We don't want to fight; and no more, I think, do you," said the prince,
smiling.

"Then how does your royal highness mean to treat the proclamations?"

"Why, by winning these ten thousand purses. I can tell you L1,000,000
is worth having," said the prince. "I 'll deliver up the said prince,
alive, at Falkenstein this very night; also the horns and tail of the
said Firedrake. But I don't want to marry my Cousin Molly."

"May I remind your royal highness that Falkenstein is three hundred
miles away? Moreover, my head butler, Benson, disappeared from the house
before dinner, and I fear he went to warn Captain Kopzoffski that you
are _here!_"

"That is nothing," said the prince; "but, my dear Lord Kelso, may I
not have the pleasure of presenting Lady Rosalind with a little gift, a
Philippine which I lost to her last night, merely the head and tail of a
Firedrake which I stalked this morning?"

The ambassador was so astonished that he ran straight upstairs,
forgetting his manners, and crying:

"Linda! Linda! come down at once; here's a surprise for you!"

Lady Rosalind came sweeping down, with a smile on her kind face. _She_
guessed what it was, though the prince had said nothing about it at
dinner.

"Lead the way, your royal highness!" cried the ambassador; and the
prince offering Lady Rosalind his arm, went out into the hall, where he
saw neither his carpet nor the horns and tail of the Firedrake!

He turned quite pale, and said:

"Will you kindly ask the servants where the little Persian prayer-rug
and the parcel which I brought with me have been placed?"

Lord Kelso rang the bell, and in came all the servants, with William,
the under-butler, at their head.

"William," said his lordship, "where have you put his royal highness's
parcel and his carpet?"

"Please, your lordship," said William, "we think Benson have took them
away with him."

"And where is Benson?"

"We don't know, your lordship. We think he have been come for!"

"Come for--by whom?"

William stammered, and seemed at a loss for a reply.

"Quick! answer! what do you know about it?"

William said at last, rather as if he were m