"No, I haven't seen anything of him," replied the Blue Prince hastily. "But go into my hut, thy supper must be getting quite cold." He hurried his verdant brother into the hut, and gave him some chestnuts out of the oven (it was the best he could do for him), and then rushed outside again, on the plea of seeing if the Serpent was coming. But he seemed to expect him to come from the sky, for, leaning against the trunk of the plane-tree by the river, he resumed his anxious scrutiny of the constellations. Presently there was a gentle whirring in the air, and a white bird became visible, flying rapidly downwards in his direction. Almost at the same instant he felt himself pinioned by a rope to the tree-trunk, and saw the legs of the alighting pigeon neatly prisoned in the Black Prince's fist. "Aha!" croaked the Black Prince triumphantly. "Now we shall see through thy little schemes." He detached the slip of papyrus which dangled from the pigeon's neck. "How darest thou read my letters?" gasped the Blue Prince. "If I dare to rob the mail, I shall certainly not hesitate to read the letters," answered the Black Prince coolly, and went on to enunciate slowly (for the light was bad) the following lines:-- "Heart-sick I watch the old moon's ling'ring death, And long upon my face to feel thy breath; I burn to see its final flicker die, And greet our moon of honey in the sky." "What is all this moonshine?" he concluded in bewilderment. Now the Blue Prince was the soul of candour, and seeing that nothing could now be lost by telling the truth, he answered:-- "This is a letter from a damsel who resideth in the Tower of Telifonia, on the outskirts of the capital; we are engaged. No doubt the language seemeth to thee a little overdone, but wait till thy turn cometh." [Illustration: THE DAMSEL OF THE TOWER.] "And so thou hast employed this pigeon as a carrier between thee and this suburban young person?" cried the Black Prince, feeling vaguely boiling over with rage. "Even so," answered his brother, "but guard thy tongue. The lady of whom thou speakest so disrespectfully is none other than the Princess of Paphlagonia." "Eh? What?" gasped the Black Prince. "She hath resided there since the twelfth moon of last year. The King received her the first time he set out to meet her." "Dost thou dare say the King hath spoken untruth?" "Nay, nay. The King is a wise man. Wise men never mean what they say. The King said she was confined to her room. It is true, for he had confined her in the Tower with her maidens for fear she should fall in love with the wrong Prince, or the reverse, before the rightful heir was discovered. The King said she would not arrive in the city till next year. This also is true. As thou didst rightly observe, the Tower of Telifonia is situated in the suburbs. The King did not bargain for my discovering that a beautiful woman lived in its topmost turret."