of Crim Tartary's letter, that he allows his eggs to get cold, and leaves his august muffins untasted. "What! that wicked, brave, delightful Prince Bulbo!" cries Princess Angelica; "so handsome, so accomplished, so witty, the conqueror of Rimbombamento, where he slew ten thousand giants!" "Who told you of him, my dear ?" asks His Majesty. "Poor Giglio?" says Mamma, pouring out the tea. "Bother Giglio!" cries Angelica, tossing up her head, which rustled with a thousand curl-papers. 66 "I wish," growls the King-"I wish Giglio was "Was better? Yes, dear, he is better," says the Queen. Angelica's little maid, Betsinda, told me so when she came to my room this morning with my early tea." "You are always drinking tea," said the monarch, with a scowl. "It is better than drinking port or brandy-and-water,” replies Her Majesty. "Well, well, my dear, I only said you were fond of drinking tea," said the King of Paflagonia, with an effort as if to command his temper. "Angelica! I hope you have plenty of new dresses; your milliners' bills are long enough. My dear Queen, you must see and have some parties. I prefer dinners, but of course you will be for balls. Your everlasting blue velvet quite tires me: and, my love, I should like you to have a new necklace. Order one. Not more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand pounds." "And Giglio, dear?" says the Queen ? "GIGLIO MAY GO TO THE "Oh, sir," screams Her Majesty. "Your own nephew! our late King's only son." "Giglio may go to the tailor's, and order the bills to be sent in to Glumboso to pay. Confound him! I mean bless his dear heart. He need want for nothing; give him a couple of guineas for pocket-money, my dear; and you may as well order yourself bracelets, while you are about the necklace, Mrs. V." Her Majesty, or Mrs. V., as the monarch facetiously called her (for even Royalty will have its sport, and this august family were very much attached), embraced her husband, and, twining her arm round her daughter's waist, they quitted the breakfast-room in order to make all things ready for the princely stranger. When they were gone, the smile that had lighted up the eyes of the husband and father fled-the pride of the King fled -the MAN was alone. Had I the pen of a G. P. R. James, I would describe Valoroso's torments in the choicest language; in which I would also depict his flashing eye, his distended nostril his dressing-gown, pocket-handkerchief, and boots. But I need not say I have not the pen of that novelist; suffice it to say, Valoroso was alone. He rushed to the cupboard, seizing from the table one of the many egg-cups with which his princely board was served for the matin meal, drew out a bottle of right Nantz or Cognac, filled and emptied the cup several times, and laid it down with a hoarse "Ha, ha, ha! now Valoroso is a man again." 66 "But oh!" he went on (still sipping, I am sorry to say), ere I was a king, I needed not this intoxicating draught; once I detested the hot brandy wine, and quaffed no other fount but nature's rill. It dashes not more quickly o'er the rocks, than I did, as, with blunderbuss in hand, I brushed away the early morning dew, and shot the partridge, snipe, or antlered deer! Ah! well may England's dramatist remark, Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown!' Why did I steal my nephew's, my young Giglio's? Steal! said I? No, no, no, not steal, not steal. Let me withdraw that odious expression. I took, and on my manly head I set, the Royal crown of Paflagonia; I took, and with my Royal arm I wield, the sceptral rod of Paflagonia; I took, and in my outstretched hand I hold, the Royal orb of Paflagonia! Could a poor boy, a snivelling drivelling boy-was in his nurse's arms but yesterday, and cried for sugar-plums and puled for pap-bear up the awful weight of crown, orb, sceptre ? gird on the sword my Royal fathers wore, and meet in fight the tough Crimean foe?" And then the monarch went on to argue in his own mind (though we need not say that blank verse is not argument) that what he had got it was his duty to keep, and that, if at one time he had entertained ideas of a certain restitution, which shall be nameless, the prospect by a certain marriage of uniting two crowns and two nations which had been engaged in bloody and expensive wars, as the Paflagonians and the Crimeans had been, put the idea of Giglio's restoration to the throne out of the question nay, were his own brother, King Savio, alive, he would certainly will away the crown from his own son in order to bring about such a desirable union. Thus do we fancy Thus easily do we deceive ourselves! what we wish is right! The King took courage, read the papers, finished his muffins and eggs, and rang the bell for his Prime Minister. The Queen, after thinking whether she should go up and see Giglio, who had been sick, thought "Not now. Business first; pleasure afterwards. I will go and see dear Giglio this afternoon; and now I will drive to the jeweller's, to look for the necklace and bracelets." The Princess went up into her own room, and made Betsinda, her maid, bring out all her dresses; and as for Giglio, they forgot him as much as I forget what I had for dinner last Tuesday twelvemonth. II. HOW KING VALOROSO GOT THE CROWN, AND PRINCE GIGLIO WENT PAFLA WITHOUT. AFLAGONIA, ten or twenty thousand years ago, appears to have been one of those kingdoms where the laws of succession were not settled; for when King Savio died, leaving his brother Regent of the kingdom, and guardian of Savio's orphan infant, this unfaithful regent took no sort of regard of the late monarch's will; had himself proclaimed sovereign of Paflagonia under the title of King Valoroso XXIV., had a most splendid coronation, and ordered all the nobles of the kingdom to pay him homage. So long as Valoroso gave them plenty of balls at Court, plenty of money and lucrative places, the Paflagonian nobility did not care who was king; and, as for the people, in those early times they were equally indifferent. The Prince Giglio, by reason of his tender age at his Royal father's death, did not feel the loss of his crown and empire. As long as he had plenty of toys and sweetmeats, a holiday five times a week, and a horse and gun to go out shooting when he grew a little older, and, above all, the company of his darling cousin, the King's only child, poor Giglio was perfectly contented; nor did he envy his uncle the Royal robes and sceptre, the great hot uncomfortable throne of state, and the enormous cumbersome crown in which that monarch appeared from morning till night. King Valoroso's portrait has been left to us; and I think you will agree with me that he must have been sometimes rather tired of his velvet, and his diamonds, and his ermine, and his grandeur. I shouldn't like to sit in that stifling robe, with such a thing as that on my head. No doubt, the Queen must have been lovely in her youth; for though she grew rather stout in after life, yet her features, as shown in her portrait, are certainly pleasing. If she was fond of flattery, scandal, cards, and fine clothes, let us deal gently with her infirmities, which, after all, may be no greater than our own. She was kind to her nephew; and if she had |