Without a word to anyone the King stole into the Queen's room and hunted about until he found the flask of water. He bathed his face in the water and stood in front of a mirror to watch the change. A few hours later the Queen found him sound asleep. She could not awaken him, and they sent for the court physician; he could not rouse the King. "The King," the physician told the Queen, "is dead." Now this is what had happened. One day when the Princess's maid Honora was cleaning her room she knocked over the flask which contained the precious water, and broke it in a thousand pieces. Honora was terribly frightened. She would not have let the Princess know what had occurred for anything. She remembered seeing a flask in the King's room just like the one she had broken, and she put it in the very spot from which she had knocked the other. Unluckily for the King, the maid took a flask which contained a deadly water which was used to "do away" with criminals. "Woof, woof!" said Frisk in the Queen's ear. "Please have pity on my poor master, good Queen! Remember all he did for you, and how he is suffering for your sake now!" Goldenlocks at once left the room where the King's body lay in state and went to the tower where Charming was confined. She opened his cell and set him free. She put a golden crown on his head, and removed the chains from his wrists and ankles. "King Charming!" said the Queen, "now you and I shall be married, and--live happily ever after!" PRINCE HYACINTH AND THE DEAR LITTLE PRINCESS BY MADAME LEPRINCE DE BEAUMONT Once upon a time there lived a King who was deeply in love with a Princess, but she could not marry anyone, because she was under an enchantment. So the King set out to seek a fairy, and asked what he could do to win the Princess's love. The Fairy said to him: "You know that the Princess has a great cat which she is very fond of. Whoever is clever enough to tread on that cat's tail is the man she is destined to marry." The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult; and he left the Fairy, determined to grind the cat's tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all. You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess; and puss, as usual, marched in before him, arching its back. The King took a long step, and quite thought he had the tail under his foot, but the cat turned round so sharply that he trod only on air. And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full of quick-silver--it was never still for a moment. At last, however, he was lucky enough to come upon puss fast asleep and with its tail conveniently spread out. So the King, without losing a moment, set his foot upon it heavily. With one terrific yell the cat sprang up and instantly changed into a tall man, who, fixing his angry eyes upon the King, said: