I
ONCE upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived at Avesnes one of his lords, who was the finest man--by which Imean the fattest--in the whole country of Flanders.He ate four meals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and the only thing he ever did was to shoot at small birds with his bow and arrow.
Still, with all his practice he shot very badly, he was so fat and heavy, and as he grew daily fatter, he was at last obliged to give up walking, and be dragged about in a wheel-chair, and the people made fun of him, and gave him the name of my Lord Tubby.
Now, the only trouble that Lord Tubby had was about his son, whom he loved very much, although they were not in the least alike, for the young Prince was as thin as a cuckoo.And what vexed him more than all was, that though the young ladies throughout all his lands did their best to make the Prince fall in love with them, he would have nothing to say to any of them, and told his father he did not wish to marry.
Instead of chatting with them in the dusk, he wandered about the woods, whispering to the moon.No wonder the young ladies thought him very odd, but they liked him all the better for that;and as he had received at his birth the name of Desire, they all called him d'Amour Desire.
`What is the matter with you?' his father often said to him.
`You have everything you can possibly wish for: a good bed, good food, and tuns full of beer.The only thing you want, in order to become as fat as a pig, is a wife that can bring you broad, rich lands.So marry, and you will be perfectly happy.'
`I ask nothing better than to marry,' replied Desire, `but I have never seen a woman that pleases me.All the girls here are pink and white, and I am tired to death of their eternal lilie and roses.
`My faith!' cried Tubby; `do you want to marry a negress, and give me grandchildren as ugly as monkeys and as stupid as owls?'
`No, father, nothing of the sort.But there must be women somewhere in the world who are neither pink nor white, and I tell you, once for all, that I will never marry until I have found one exactly to my taste.'
II
Some time afterwards, it happened that the Prior of the Abbey of Saint Amand sent to the Lord of Avesnes a basket of oranges, with a beautifully-written letter saying that these golden fruit, then unknown in Flanders, came straight from a land where the sun always shone.
That evening Tubby and his son ate the golden apples at supper, and thought them delicious.
Next morning as the day dawned, Desire went down to the stable and saddled his pretty white horse.Then he went, all dressed for a journey, to the bedside of Tubby, and found him smoking his first pipe.
`Father,' he said gravely, `I have come to bid you farewell.
Last night I dreamed that I was walking in a wood, where the trees were covered with golden apples.I gathered one of them, and when I opened it there came out a lovely princess with a golden skin.That is the wife I want, and I am going to look for her.'
The Lord of Avesnes was so much astonished that he let his pipe fall to the ground; then he became so diverted at the notion of his son marrying a yellow woman, and a woman shut up inside an orange, that he burst into fits of laughter.
Desire waited to bid him good-bye until he was quiet again;but as his father went on laughing and showed no signs of stopping, the young man took his hand, kissed it tenderly, opened the door, and in the twinkling of an eye was as at the bottom of the staircase.
He jumped lightly on his horse, and was a mile from home before Tubby had ceased laughing.
`A yellow wife! He must be mad! fit for a strait waistcoat!'
cried the good man, when he was able to speak.`Here! quick!
bring him back to me.'
The servants mounted their horses and rode after the Prince;but as they did not know which road he had taken, they went all ways except the right one, and instead of bringing him back they returned themselves when it grew dark, with their horses worn out and covered with dust.
III
When Desire thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to go.He travelled in this way for many weeks, passing by villages, towns, mountains, valleys, and plains, but always pushing south, where every day the sun seemed hotter and more brilliant.
At last one day at sunset Desire felt the sun so warm, that he thought he must now be near the place of his dream.He was at that moment close to the corner of a wood where stood a little hut, before the door of which his horse stopped of his own accord.An old man with a white beard was sitting on the doorstep enjoying the fresh air.The Prince got down from his horse and asked leave to rest.
`Come in, my young friend,' said the old man; `my house is not large, but it is big enough to hold a stranger.'
The traveller entered, and his host put before him a simple meal.
When his hunger was satisfied the old man said to him:
`If I do not mistake, you come from far.May I ask where you are going?'
`I will tell you,' answered Desire, `though most likely you will laugh at me.I dreamed that in the land of the sun there was a wood full of orange trees, and that in one of the oranges I should find a beautiful princess who is to be my wife.It is she I am seeking.'
`Why should I laugh?' asked the old man.`Madness in youth is true wisdom.Go, young man, follow your dream, and if you do not find the happiness that you seek, at any rate you will have had the happiness of seeking it.'
IV
The next day the Prince arose early and took leave of his host.
`The wood that you saw in your dream is not far from here,'
said the old man.`It is in the depth of the forest, and this road will lead you there.You will come to a vast park surrounded by high walls.In the middle of the park is a castle, where dwells a horrible witch who allows no living being to enter the doors.
Behind the castle is the orange grove.Follow the wall till you come to a heavy iron gate.Don't try to press it open, but oil the hinges with this,' and the old man gave him a small bottle.