the monarch left all the affairs of his kingdom. All Valoroso
wanted was plenty of money, plenty of hunting, plenty of

flattery, and as little trouble as possible. As long as he had
his sport, this monarch cared little how his people paid for it:

he engaged in some wars, and of course the Paflagonian newspapers
announced that he had gained prodigious victories: he had

statues erected to himself in every city of the empire; and of
course his pictures placed everywhere, and in all the

print-shops: he was Valoroso the Magnanimous, Valoroso the
Victorious, Valoroso the Great, and so forth;--for even in these

early times courtiers and people knew how to flatter.
This royal pair had one only child, the Princess Angelica, who,

you may be sure, was a paragon in the courtiers' eyes, in her
parents', and in her own. It was said she had the longest hair,

the largest eyes, the slimmest waist, the smallest foot, and the
most lovely complexion of any young lady in the Paflagonian

dominions. Her accomplishments were announced to be even
superior to her beauty; and governesses used to shame their idle

pupils by telling them what Princess Angelica could do. She
could play the most difficult pieces of music at sight. She

could answer any one of Mangnall's Questions. She knew every
date in the history of Paflagonia, and every other country. She

knew French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek,
Latin, Cappadocian, Samothracian, Aegean, and Crim Tartar. In a

word, she was a most accomplished young creature; and her
governess and lady-in-waiting was the severe Countess Gruffanuff.

Would you not fancy, from this picture, that Gruffanuff must have
been a person of highest birth? She looks so haughty that I

should have thought her a princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess at the very least, with a
pedigree reaching as far back as the Deluge. But this lady was

no better born than many other ladies who give themselves airs;
and all sensible people laughed at her absurd pretensions. The

fact is, she had been maid-servant to the Queen when Her Majesty
was only Princess, and her husband had been head footman; but

after his death or DISAPPEARANCE, of which you shall hear
presently, this Mrs. Gruffanuff, by flattering, toadying, and

wheedling her royal mistress, became a favourite with the Queen
(who was rather a weak woman), and Her Majesty gave her a title,

and made her nurserygoverness to the Princess.
And now I must tell you about the Princess's learning and

accomplishments, for which she had such a wonderful character.
Clever Angelica certainly was, but as IDLE as POSSIBLE. Play at

sight, indeed! she could play one or two pieces, and pretend that
she had never seen them before; she could answer half a dozen

Mangnall's Questions; but then you must take care to ask the
RIGHT ones. As for her languages, she had masters in plenty, but

I doubt whether she knew more than a few phrases in each, for all
her presence; and as for her embroidery and her drawing, she

showed beautiful specimens, it is true, but WHO DID THEM?
This obliges me to tell the truth, and to do so I must go back

ever so far, and tell you about the FAIRY BLACKSTICK.
III. TELLS WHO THE FAIRY BLACKSTICK WAS, AND WHO WERE EVER SO

MANY GRAND PERSONAGES BESIDES
Between the kingdoms of Paflagonia and Crim Tartary, there lived

a mysteriouspersonage, who was known in those countries as the
Fairy Blackstick, from the ebony wand or crutch which she

carried; on which she rode to the moon sometimes, or upon other
excursions of business or pleasure, and with which she performed

her wonders.
When she was young, and had been first taught the art of

conjuring by the necromancer, her father, she was always
practicing her skill, whizzing about from one kingdom to another

upon her black stick, and conferring her fairy favours upon this
Prince or that. She had scores of royal godchildren; turned

numberless wicked people into beasts, birds, millstones, clocks,
pumps, boot jacks, umbrellas, or other absurd shapes; and, in a

word, was one of the most active and officious of the whole
College of fairies.

But after two or three thousand years of this sport, I suppose
Blackstick grew tired of it. Or perhaps she thought, 'What good

am I doing by sending this Princess to sleep for a hundred years?
by fixing a black pudding on to that booby's nose? by causing

diamonds and pearls to drop from one little girl's mouth, and
vipers and toads from another's? I begin to think I do as much

harm as good by my performances. I might as well shut my
incantations up, and allow things to take their natural course.

'There were my two young goddaughters, King Savio's wife, and
Duke Padella's wife, I gave them each a present, which was to

render them charming in the eyes of their husbands, and secure
the affection of those gentlemen as long as they lived. What

good did my Rose and my Ring do these two women? None on earth.
From having all their whims indulged by their husbands, they

became capricious, lazy, ill-humoured, absurdly vain, and leered
and languished, and fancied themselves irresistibly beautiful,

when they were really quite old and hideous, the ridiculous
creatures! They used actually to patronise me when I went to pay

them a visit--ME, the Fairy Blackstick, who knows all the wisdom
of the necromancers, and could have turned them into baboons, and

all their diamonds into strings of onions, by a single wave of my
rod!' So she locked up her books in her cupboard, declined

further magical performances, and scarcely used her wand at all
except as a cane to walk about with.

So when Duke Padella's lady had a little son (the Duke was at
that time only one of the principal noblemen in Crim Tartary),

Blackstick, although invited to the christening, would not so
much as attend; but merely sent her compliments and a silver

papboat for the baby, which was really not worth a couple of
guineas. About the same time the Queen of Paflagonia presented

His Majesty with a son and heir; and guns were fired, the capital
illuminated, and no end of feasts ordained to celebrate the young

Prince's birth. It was thought the fairy, who was asked to be
his godmother, would at least have presented him with an

invisible jacket, a flying horse, a Fortunatus's purse, or some
other valuable token of her favour; but instead, Blackstick went

up to the cradle of the child Giglio, when everybody was admiring
him and complimenting his royal papa and mamma, and said, 'My

poor child, the best thing I can send you is a little
MISFORTUNE'; and this was all she would utter, to the disgust of

Giglio's parents, who died very soon after, when Giglio's uncle
took the throne, as we read in Chapter I.

In like manner, when CAVOLFIORE, King of Crim Tartary, had a
christening of his only child, ROSALBA, the Fairy Blackstick, who

had been invited, was not more gracious than in Prince Giglio's
case. Whilst everybody was expatiating over the beauty of the

darling child, and congratulating its parents, the Fairy
Blackstick looked very sadly at the baby and its mother, and

said, 'My good woman (for the Fairy was very familiar, and no
more minded a Queen than a washerwoman)--my good woman, these

people who are following you will be the first to turn against
you; and as for this little lady, the best thing I can wish her

is a LITTLE MISFORTUNE.' So she touched Rosalba with her black
wand, looked severely at the courtiers, motioned the Queen an

adieu with her hand, and sailed slowly up into the air out of the
window.

When she was gone, the Court people, who had been awed and silent
in her presence, began to speak. 'What an odious Fairy she is