her tower
for the kingdom of Prince Warrior until her fifteenth birthday is
past."

The ambassador arrived; his magnificent train took twenty-three days
in going through the gates of the city. He made his harangue to the
king and queen, and much state ceremonial passed between them; then he
begged for the honour of an audience with the princess, and was very
much astonished to find it denied him--still more so, when the king
candidly told him the whole story.

The queen had strictly enjoined the ladies of honour not to tell her
daughter one word of the ambassador's visit, or her intended marriage;
yet somehow the princess already knew it quite well. But she was wise
enough to say nothing about it; and when her mother showed her the
prince's portrait, and asked her if she should like such a gallant
young man for her husband, she replied humbly that she should be
quite satisfied with any choice her parents made for her. So her hand
was promised, but as she still wanted three months of fifteen, the
prince was requested to wait thus long.

He took this delay so much to heart, that he could neither eat nor
sleep; meantime Desiree was little better--she did nothing but look at
the prince's portrait, and was exceedingly irritable with Longthorn
and Gilliflower, her two maids of honour. The other lady--the Black
Princess--was in equally sore plight, for she, too, had fallen in love
with the prince's portrait, and his rejection of her hand offended her
much.

"What," said she to the ambassador, "your master does not find me
handsome enough, or rich enough?"

"Madam," said the ambassador, "as much as a subject dare blame a
sovereign, I blame my prince; had I the first throne in the world, I
should know to whom to offer it."

He said this, because he feared the bastinado, for Ethiopians are warm
haters as well as warm lovers. The Black Princess was softened, and
dismissed him, on which he gladly took himself out of the country.

But the Ethiopian lady was too deeply offended with Prince Warrior to
pardon him so readily. She mounted her ivory car, drawn by six
ostriches which ran at the rate of six leagues an hour, and went to
the palace of her godmother, the Fairy of the Fountain, who had been
so offended by being forgotten at the birth of Desiree. Arrived
there, she unfolded all her annoyances. The fairy consoled her, and
promised to aid her in her revenge.

Meantime Becafico had travelled with all diligence to the ca