[Illustration:  “A great thunderstorm scattered them in every direction.”]

They had not gone far when a brilliant procession came towards them, amongst whom was the sick Prince in a litter, and to those in advance Longue Epine announced that she was the Princess Desiree, with her Lady in Waiting, but that a jealous Fairy had sent a thunderstorm which had destroyed her carriage and scattered her other attendants.  When the Prince was told of this, he could not refrain from saying to the messengers:  “Now acknowledge, is she not truly a miracle of beauty, a Princess beyond compare?”

No one replied at first, and then one of the boldest said,

“Sir, you will see; apparently the fatigue of the journey has somewhat changed her.”  The Prince was surprised, but when he saw Longue Epine words fail to express what he felt.

She was so tall that it was alarming, and the garments of the Princess hardly came to her knees.  She was frightfully thin, and her nose, which was more hooked than a parrot’s beak, shone like a danger signal.  Then her teeth were black and uneven, and, in fact, she was as ugly as Desiree was beautiful.

At first the Prince could not speak a word, he simply gazed at her in amazement.  Then he said, turning to his father, “We have been deceived, that portrait was painted to mislead us.  It will be the death of me.”

“What do I hear, they have deceived you,” fiercely exclaimed Longue Epine.

“It is not to be wondered at,” remarked the King, “that your father kept such a treasure shut up for fifteen years.”

Then he and the Prince turned towards the town, and the false Princess and the Lady in Waiting, without any ceremony, were mounted each behind a soldier and taken to be shut up in a castle.

[Illustration:  Painted by Jennie Harbour the white fawn]

Soon after his terrible disappointment, Prince Guerrier, unable to bear any longer the life at court, secretly departed from the palace with his faithful friend Becafigue, leaving a letter for his father saying he would return to him as soon as his mind was in a happier state, and begging him meanwhile to keep the ugly Princess prisoner, and think of some revenge upon the deceitful king, her father.

After three or four days’ journeying, the wanderers found themselves in a thick forest.  Quite wearied out, the Prince threw himself upon the ground, while Becafigue went on further in search of fruit wherewith to refresh his royal master.

It is a long time since we left the White Fawn, that is to say the charming Princess.

Very desolately she wept when in a stream she saw her figure reflected, and when night came she was in great fear, for she heard wild beasts about her, and sometimes forgetting she was a fawn she would try to climb a tree.  But with morning dawn she felt a little safer, and the sun appeared a marvellous sight to her from which she could hardly turn her eyes.  But now the Fairy Tulip, who had always loved the Princess guided Giroflee’s feet in her direction, and when the White Fawn saw her faithful Maid of Honour her delight was boundless.