The Brownies and Prince Florimel; Or, Brownieland, Fairyland, and Demonland — Edition Insights

This was indeed so. Prince Florimel could see things no one else could. Furthermore he could see them at night. Some wise old soothsayer declared that he was gifted with supernatural powers.

One other gift had his ex-fairy godmother presented to him, a bow and quiver of arrows which she averred were priceless.

"I charge you," she said most impressively to the king, "never to let your dear son have the bow and arrows unless there comes to him some moment of great danger. Then let him place one of these arrows to the bow, and shoot it where he will. The result will be miraculous."

After she had gone back to the old-ex-fairy-ladies' home the king was strongly tempted to shoot one of the arrows from the bow just to see what would happen. With great difficulty he repressed his curiosity, and placed the bow and arrows in the family safe whose combinations was known only to himself.

So time passed happily, and one year added its joys to those of others, until there came the sad day when Florimel lost his dear mother. There was much sorrow throughout the entire kingdom, for the queen was a gentle, gracious one whose kind words and good deeds had endeared her to the hearts of all. So great was her loss to the king that he did not survive her long. Ere he joined her he called his brother, the duke, to his bed, and said to him:

"You are my only kin outside of Florimel, so to your keeping I entrust him. He is such a little chap you must be very careful of him. After I am gone he will be king, and I am sure he will rule well and wisely. He is a true king at heart if not of stature. Promise me to be his councilor and guide, and to incline him ever to the side of mercy, charity, and goodness."

The false duke promised with great earnestness, but all the while he was thinking of many wicked things.

With Florimel removed he would ascend to the throne himself. Yet so well did he hide his guilty feelings that his brother had no suspicion of any perfidy or wrong-doing, and passed away in the peace befitting the righteous king he was.

After the king's death the duke through one pretext or another delayed the coronation of the new. He incited his nephew to feats and deeds of great danger and daring with the evil hope that some terrible accident would befall him. But in all the risks and hazards that he took, and none was too great, it almost seemed that Prince Florimel bore a charmed life.

Like other young people he had his dreams, and saw much that was unreal, but with all these there had come lasting impressions.

When the duke failed to accomplish his evil designs, he determined upon even more desperate methods in his game.

The people were beginning to chafe at the delay in the coronation, and were clamoring for a new ruler. So the cabinet met to decide this most important matter, and the duke presided over the council.

"This is a most embarrassing situation," he said. "Ordinarily we would place the only son of our late king on the throne without question and amid great rejoicing. But we are confronted by a most perplexing question. Prince Florimel is what might be termed a freak. The point is, could he represent his kingdom with the proper dignity?"

"Prince Florimel may be a freak as you say," remarked a member of the cabinet, "but at the same time I have never seen a handsomer, manlier young fellow. His symmetry is perfect, and he is all that is chivalrous and brave. He is the stuff true kings are made of. The only thing against him is his size."

"That I fear is an objection which cannot be overcome," said the wily duke. "Can we, a race of big men and women, be governed by a pygmy king--a hop-o'-my-thumb? We would be the laughing stock of other kingdoms. Think, when the rulers of all these met, and ours came among them, of the mortification we would feel that we did not have a full-grown man to represent us. His insignificance would make this country insignificant to others. Those who did not know us, and judged us by him, would look upon us as a country of dwarfs."

"But Florimel is the late king's son, and heir to the throne," said another member of the cabinet. "Who else could reign in his stead?"

"I am the next of kin," said the duke.

"Yes, if it were not for Florimel you would be the logical king."