d him, and made him angry. His ring began to prick him
so often that his little finger was continually bleeding. He disliked
this, as was natural; and soon began to consider whether it would not
be easier to throw the ring away altogether than to be constantly
annoyed by it. It was such a queer thing for a king to have always a
spot of blood on his finger! At last, unable to put up with it any
more, he took his ring off, and hid it where he would never see it;
and believed himself the happiest of men, for he could now do exactly
what he liked. He did it, and became every day more and more
miserable.

One day he saw a young girl, so beautiful that, being always
accustomed to have his own way, he immediately determined to espouse
her. He never doubted that she would be only too glad to be made a
queen, for she was very poor. But Zelia--that was her name--answered,
to his great astonishment, that she would rather not marry him.

"Do I displease you?" asked the prince, into whose mind it had never
entered that he could displease anybody.

"Not at all, my prince," said the honest peasant-maiden. "You are very
handsome, very charming; but you are not like your father the Good
King. I will not be your queen, for you would make me miserable."

At these words the prince's love seemed all to turn to hatred: he gave
orders to his guards to convey Zelia to a prison near the palace; and
then took counsel with his foster brother, the one of all his ill
companions who most incited him to do wrong.

"Sir," said this man, "if I were in your majesty's place, I would
never vex myself about a poor silly girl. Feed her on bread and water
till she comes to her senses; and if she still refuses you, let her
die in torment, as a warning to your other subjects should they
venture to dispute your will. You will be disgraced should you suffer
yourself to be conquered by a simple girl."

"But," said Prince Cherry, "shall I not be disgraced if I harm a
creature so perfectly innocent?"

"No one is innocent who disputes your majesty's authority," said the
courtier, bowing; "and it is better to commit an injustice than allow
it to be supposed you can ever be contradicted with impunity."

This touched Cherry on his weak point--his good impulses faded; he
resolved once more to ask Zelia if she would marry him, and, if she
again refused, to sell her as a slave. Arrived at the cell in which
she was confined, what was his astonishment to find her g