heartily tired of his daughter's frivolous, heartless conduct, in encouraging the attentions of so many worthy gentlemen only to reject them with contempt when they proposed for her hand, had given her very clearly to understand that the time had arrived for her to choose which of the princes she would accept as her husband; that great princesses, such as herself, had other duties than those belonging to the estate of a mere private lady to perform in life; that it was the earnest wish of the people that she should marry early, and that the king, too, greatly desired her prompt establishment; and that the most difficult creature to please in the whole world might surely find one among the seventy-eight suitors to whom she could contentedly at least give her hand. The king also added, that if her choice was not made within the next four-and-twenty hours, he should order the common brander of the royal cattle to brand the tip of her elegant little nose with a small red cross, like as one brands mules, sheep, and such obstinate-minded animals. Whether the king meant to carry this frightful threat into execution or not, in the event of the princess still proving contumacious, is of course doubtful; probably not. It had, however, the effect that it was intended to produce; the princess was frightened out of her silly obstinacy. She answered, what everybody knew before, namely, that the king's will being law, and the tip of her nose very dear to her, she would immediately give all her attention to the selection of a future spouse. In fact, she might almost say she had already selected him, but that being, as the king had said himself, a very great princess indeed, she conceived it but just that certain privileges should of right be hers; and that she would even consent to defer her own choice to that of the king, if he would permit her to exact the fulfilment of one little condition only, from any one or any number of princes who might be willing to repeat their offer of marriage, before becoming his wife. To this the king, in an unguarded moment, consented. The prince was chosen, and, also in an unguarded moment, gladly consented to submit to the one little condition, and agreed not to claim the hand of his promised bride until he had fulfilled it; would her Royal Highness name the condition? Whereupon the princess smiled very sweetly indeed upon the king and the prince, and named it. The condition was this: 'That the prince should present her as a betrothal gift with two leaves of any kind he chose, exactly and entirely alike in every minute particular.' At first view this condition appeared so ridiculously simple, that the prince and the king looked at one another in mute astonishment, asking themselves if they could believe their own ears, or if the wayward princess |