hid it in a little book of
verses. And the eldest lady saw her do it. Florizel was condemned to be
executed for having wanted to marry someone so much above him in
station. But when the axe fell on his neck the axe flew to pieces, and
the neck was not hurt at all. So they sent for another axe and tried
again. And again the axe splintered and flew. And when they picked up
the bits of the axe they had all turned to leaves of poetry books.

So they put off the execution till next day.

The gaoler told the snub-nosed page all about it when he took him his
dinner of green water and mouldering crusts.

'Couldn't do the trick!' said the gaoler. 'Two axes broke off short and
the bits turned to rubbish. The executioner says the rascal has a
Charmed Life.'

'Of course he has,' said the ugly page, sniffing at the crusts with his
snub-nose. 'I know all about that, but I shan't tell unless the King
gives me a free pardon and something fit to eat. Roast pork and onion
stuffing, I think. And you can tell him so.'

So the gaoler told the King. And the King gave the snub-nosed page the
pardon and the pork, and then the page said:

'He has a Charmed Life. I heard him tell the Princess so. And what is
more, he gave it to her to keep. And she said she'd hide it in a safe
place!'

Then the King told the eldest lady-in-waiting to watch, and she did
watch, and saw the Princess take Florizel's Charmed Life and hide it in
a bunch of jasmine. So she took the jasmine and gave it to the King, and
he burnt it. But the Princess had not left the Life in the jasmine.

Then they tried to hang Florizel, because, of course, he had an ordinary
life as well as a charmed one, and the King wished him to be without any
life at all.

Thousands of people crowded to see the presumptuous Lift-man hanged, and
the execution lasted the whole morning, and seven brand new ropes were
wasted one after the other, and they all left off being ropes and turned
into long wreaths of jasmine, which broke into bits rather than hang
such a handsome Lift-man.

The King was furious. But he was not too furious to see that the
Princess must have taken the Charmed Life out from the jasmine flowers,
and put it somewhere else, when the eldest lady was not looking.

And it turned out afterwards that the Princess had held Florizel's life
in her hand all the time the execution was going on. The eldest
lady-in-waiting was clever, but she was not so clever as the Princess.