Part 6 (2/2)
A huge crab had fastened himself to her nose, and not easily could she be freed from this unwelcome ornament! At last they tore away the crab, but the tip of the Countess's nose was gone, and she wore a scar always, even to the end of her unhappy days.
This was the Mermaid's punishment for her cruel harm to Gerda's garden.
But Gerda and Cedric lived happily ever after in the beautiful villa which the Lord Mayor built for them on the edge of their wonder-garden beside the sea. And sometimes the Mermaid herself came there to visit them, and to bring them some new precious thing from the watery world where she dwelt.
IX. THE KING'S COAT OF ARMS
The Red King could not disguise his pleasure in the tale of the Wonder-Garden, though he grumbled when he found there was to be no fighting in it. When Harold had finished reading the story, Red Rex patted him on the head and said gruffly,--
”Good, my boy! You do, indeed, read a tale as well as one would wish.
But tell me, now; in what part of Kisington is the place where this Gerda had her Wonder-Garden? Is it far from here?”
”Nay, not far from here,” said Harold. ”About a mile from our library, by the sea, stands the villa where Gerda and the Lord Mayor's son lived happily ever after. I could show Your Majesty the place, if you were not unfortunately at war with our city.”
”I would fain see that place,” said Red Rex thoughtfully. ”I have a fancy that Gerda, indeed, came from my land. I have heard a legend that one of my great-great-grandfather's own sisters was stolen by the gypsies, and carried away to a far country. It might well be that she ran away from those gypsies, and escaped to this Kingdom, and that it was she whom the Lord Mayor found living lonely by the sea.”
”It might well be so!” said Harold. ”Oh, Your Majesty! How exciting!
Then the Lady Anyse, who lives now at that villa, may be your own far-off cousin.”
”She may be, indeed,” mused the Red King. ”What like is she, Harold?”
”She is tall, and handsome, and has red hair like Your Majesty,” said Harold. ”I have seen her often when I went to visit the Garden.”
”The Garden?” exclaimed Red Rex. ”Does the Wonder-Garden, then, still exist?”
”Not quite the same as in the day of Gerda and Cedric,” answered Harold, ”but yet a wonder-garden. It is called 'The Aquarium' now, and is one of the public gardens of Kisington, given to the town by the will of Cedric and Gerda. The Lady Anyse has it under her care.”
”Verily, I should like to visit it and see both its wonders and my long-lost cousin,” muttered the Red King.
”What a pity that you are making war upon our city!” exclaimed Harold.
”There are so many fine things that cannot be while there is war.”
”Yet war must be,” answered Red Rex. ”And I must be at it straightway.”
He rose and flourished his sword with a determined air.
”But at least you will spare the east of Kisington, where the Wonder-Garden lay, and not fire gums or arrows in that direction?”
suggested Harold, pointing eastward. The Red King followed the direction of his finger.
”Yes, that I will promise,” said Red Rex, after a moment's hesitation.
”I promise that; lest otherwise I might injure my own blood royal.
Because I am King I must not forget that!” He swelled his chest proudly.
”_n.o.blesse oblige_!” murmured Harold. ”It was the motto of the Lion Pa.s.sant.”
”I know that motto well; and what of a lion pa.s.sant?” inquired Red Rex.
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