At this moment, the Queen and the Princess, returning from their ride, heard with joy the result of the combat; and riding up to the victor, the Queen declared that she would gladly join with her royal husband in giving their daughter to so brave a man.

The Absolute Fool stood for a moment in silent thought; then, addressing the King, he said: 

“Was Your Majesty’s father a king?”

“He was,” was the answer.

“Was his father of royal blood?”

“No; he was not,” replied the King.  “My grandfather was a man of the people; but his pre-eminent virtue, his great ability as a statesman, and the dignity and nobility of his character made him the unanimous choice of the nation as its sovereign.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” said the Absolute Fool; “for it makes it necessary for me to decline the kind offer of your daughter in marriage.  If I marry a princess at all, she must be one who can trace back her lineage through a long line of royal ancestors.”  And as he spoke, his breast swelled with manly pride.

For a moment, the King was dumb with rage.  Then loudly he shouted:  “Ho, guards!  Annihilate him!  Avenge this insult!”

At these words, the sword of every by-stander leaped from its scabbard; but, before any one could take a step forward, the Princess seized the Absolute Fool by his long and flowing locks, and put spurs to her horse.  The young man yelled with pain, and shouted to her to let go; but she held firmly to his hair, and as he was extraordinarily active and fleet of foot, he kept pace with the galloping horse.  A great crowd of people started in pursuit, but as none of them were mounted, they were soon left behind.

“Let go my hair!  Let go my hair!” shouted the Absolute Fool, as he bounded along.  “You don’t know how it hurts.  Let go!  Let go!”

But the Princess never relinquished her hold until they were out of the King’s domain.

“A little more,” cried the indignant youth, when she let him go, “and you would have pulled out a handful of my hair.”

“A little less,” said the Princess, contemptuously, “and you would have been cut to pieces; for you have not sense enough to take care of yourself.  I am sorry I listened to you, and left the inn to which the Gryphoness took me.  It would have been far better to wait there for her as she told me to do.”

“Yes,” said the Absolute Fool; “it would have been much better.”

“Now,” said the Princess, “we will go back there, and see if she has returned.”

“If we can find it,” said the other, “which I very much doubt.”

There were several roads at this point and, of course, they took the wrong one.  As they went on, the Absolute Fool complained bitterly that he had left his horse behind him, and was obliged to walk.  Sometimes he stopped, and said he would go back after it; but this the Princess sternly forbade.

* * * * *