While the princess was being thus entertained, the king and the prince were taking counsel as to how they could find the King of the Peacocks, supposing such a person did really exist. In pursuit of the plan which they formed a portrait was painted of the Princess Rosette, and so cunningly wrought was this picture that only speech seemed wanting to make it live. Then they said to their sister: 'Since you will marry none but the King of the Peacocks, we are setting forth together in quest of him through the wide world. If we find him we shall be well rewarded. Wait for our return, and take care of our kingdom while we are away.' Rosette thanked them for the trouble they were taking, and promised to govern the kingdom well. She declared that while they were away her only pleasures would be to admire the beautiful peacock and make Frillikin dance. Their adieux were said with many tears. Behold, then, the royal pair upon their travels, asking of all whom they met: 'Do you know the King of the Peacocks?' The reply from all was 'No, we do not.' Then the travellers would pass on and go further, journeying in this way so far, far away that no one had ever been so far before. At last they reached the kingdom of the Cockchafers, and the latter in their myriads made so loud a buzzing that the king thought he would go deaf. He asked one who seemed more intelligent than the rest if he knew whereabouts the King of the Peacocks was to be found. 'Sire,' said the cockchafer, 'his kingdom is thirty thousand leagues away; you have taken the longest road to get there.' 'How do you know that?' asked the king. 'Because we know you well,' replied the cockchafer; 'every year we spend two or three months in your garden!' The king and his brother embraced the cockchafer warmly, and struck up a great friendship. Arm in arm they all went off to dinner, over which the visitors expressed their astonishment at the remarkable features of this country, where the smallest leaf from a tree was worth a gold piece. Presently they set off for their destination, and as they now knew the road they were not long in reaching it. They observed that all the trees were full of peacocks; indeed the place held so many of them that their screaming as they talked could be heard two leagues away. 'If the King of the Peacocks is himself a peacock,' said the king to his brother, 'how can our sister dream of marrying him? It would be folly to sanction it. A nice set of relatives she would present to us--a lot of little peacocks for nephews!' The prince was equally uneasy in his mind. 'It was an unfortunate notion to come into her head,' he declared; 'I cannot imagine how she ever came to think that such a person as the King of the Peacocks existed.'