Page 158 - Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cherie

said the Queen-Mother angrily. "Here are
pleasant marmosets indeed with their rarities!
truly the very name is enough to prove that
nothing could be more ridiculous. Fye, fye. I
do not choose that these petty strangers,
apparently the dregs of the people, should
have the power of abusing your credulity. The
whole of this is but an affair of juggling with

sacks and cups, and but for you they would
never have had the honour of sitting at my
table."
Belle-Etoile and her brothers, hearing this
offensive language, knew not what to imagine;
their faces flushed with confusion and despair
at being thus insulted before all this grand

Court. But the King, telling his mother that
this proceeding was an outrage to him, begged
the beautiful children not to feel hurt at it,
and held out his hand in token of friendship.
Belle-Etoile took a glass basin, and poured all
the dancing water into it; immediately they
perceived the water was agitated, it skipped
about to and fro, heaving like an angry little
sea; it varied its colour, and made the basin

move the length of the King's table; then
suddenly it spurted out and sprinkled the chief
______
158