she told him that the
Princes Melchior and Otto had harried her lands and burnt her palace,
and were even now fighting with each other for the golden avenue.

"Then," said Caspar, pulling his rusty sword from under a heap of
faggots, "I will go down and win it from them; for I see my hour
coming at last."

But the Princess said, "Foolish man, it is here! And as for the
golden avenue, that too is here, or all that was ever worth your
winning." And thereupon she drew aside her cloak, shaking the snow
from it; and when the folds parted and the firelight fell on her
bosom, he saw a breastplate gleaming--a single plate of gold--and in
the centre of it the imprint of a horse's hoof.

"So these two, Cavalier--or so the story reached me--lived content in
their silly hut, nor ever thought it worth their while to descend to
the plain and lose what they had found. . . . But you were good
enough just now to inquire concerning my own poor adventures."

"Billy Priske," said I, "has given me some account of them up to your
parting from my father--at Calenzana, was it not?"

"At Calenzana." Mr. Fett sighed assent. "Ah! Cavalier, it has been
a stony road we have travelled from Calenzana. _Infandum jubes
renovare dolorem_ . . . but Badcock must bear the blame."

Badcock with his flute made trees--

Has it ever struck you sir, that Orpheus possibly found the gift of
Apollo a confounded nuisance; that he must have longed at times to
get rid of his attendant beasts and compose in private? Even so it
was with Badcock.

"That infernal _mufro_ chivvied us up the road to Calvi and into the
very arms of a Genoese picket. The soldiers arrested us--there was
no need to arrest the _mufro_, for he trotted at our heels--and
marched us to the citadel, into the presence of the commandant.
To the commandant (acting, as I thought, upon a happy inspiration) I
at once offered the beast in exchange for our liberty. I was met
with the reply that, as between rarities, he would make no invidious
distinctions, but preferred to keep the three of us; and moreover
that the _mufro_ (which had already put a sergeant and two private
soldiers out of action) appeared amenable only to the strains of Mr.
Badcock's flute. . . . And this was a fact, Cavalier. At first, and
excusably, I had supposed the brute's behaviour to express aversion;
until, observing that he waited for the conclusion of a piece before
butting at Mr. Badcock's stomach, I disco