"Many years had passed; the two magicians had quarrelled, as it will happen with learned men,--and the more learned the oftener,--and they only imparted to each other their most important discoveries from the iron force of custom--You have not forgotten, Pepusch, that I myself am one of these magicians--Well, I was not a little surprised at a communication from my colleague, which contained the most wonderful, and at the same time the happiest, intelligence of the princess that could be imagined. The matter was thus:--by means of a scientific friend in Samarcand, my colleague had obtained the loveliest and rarest tulips, and as perfectly fresh as if they had been just cut from the stalk. His chief object was the microscopic examination of the interior portions, and, in fact, of the petal. It was with this view that he was dissecting a beautiful tulip, and discovered in the cup a strange little kernel that struck him prodigiously; but how great was his astonishment when, on applying his glass, he perceived that the little kernel was nothing else than the Princess Gamaheh, who, pillowed in the petal of the tulip, seemed to slumber softly and calmly.
"However great the distance that separated me from my colleague, yet I set off immediately, and hastened to him. He had in the meantime put off all operations, to allow me the pleasure of a sight first; and perhaps, too, from the fear of spoiling something if he acted entirely from himself. I soon convinced myself of the perfect correctness of my colleague's observations; and, like him, firmly believed that it was possible to snatch the princess from her sleep, and give her again her original form. The sublime spirit, dwelling within us, soon let us find the proper method; but as you, friend Pepusch, know very little,--in fact nothing at all,--of our art, it would be quite superfluous to describe to you the different operations which we went through to attain our object. It is sufficient if I tell you that by the dexterous use of various glasses--for the most part prepared by myself--we succeeded not only in drawing the princess uninjured from the flower, but in forwarding her growth, so that she soon attained her natural dimensions. Now, indeed, life was wanting; and this depended on the last and most difficult operations. We reflected her image by means of one of the best solar microscopes, and loosened it dexterously from the white wall, without the least injury. As soon as the shadow floated freely, it shot like lightning into the glass, which broke into a thousand shivers. The princess stood before us full of life and freshness. We shouted for joy; but so much the greater was our horror, on perceiving that the circulation of the blood stopped precisely there where the Leech-Prince had fastened himself. She was just on the point of swooning, when we perceived on the very spot behind the left ear a little black dot, that quickly appeared and as quickly disappeared. Immediately the stagnation of the blood ceased, the princess revived, and our work had succeeded.
"Each of us,--that is, I and my colleague,--knew full well how invaluable was the possession of the princess, and each struggled for it, imagining that he had more right to it than the other. My colleague affirmed that the tulip, in which he had found the princess, was his property; and that he had made the first discovery, which he had imparted to me; and that I could only be deemed an assistant, who had no right to demand, as a reward of his labour, the work itself at which he had assisted. I, on the other hand, brought forward my invention of the last and most difficult process, which had restored the princess to life, and in the execution of which my colleague had only helped; so that, if he had any claims of propriety upon the embryo in the flower-petal, yet the living person belonged to me. On this ground we quarrelled for many hours, till, having screamed ourselves hoarse, we at last came to a compromise. My colleague consigned the princess to me, in return for which I gave him an important glass, and this very glass is the cause of our present determined hostility. He affirms that I have treacherously purloined it--an impudent falsehood--and although I really know that the glass was lost in the transferring, yet I can declare, upon my honour and conscience, that I am not the cause of it, nor have I any idea how it could have happened. In fact, the glass is so small, that a grain of sand is about ten times larger. See, friend Pepusch; now I have told you all in confidence, and now you know that Dörtje Elverdink is no other than the revivified Princess Gamaheh, and must perceive that to such a high mysterious alliance a plain young man like you can have no----."
"Stop!" interrupted George Pepusch, with a smile that was something satanic:--"stop! one confidence is worth another, and, therefore, I, on my side, will confide to you that I knew all that you have been telling me much earlier and much better than you did. I cannot laugh enough at your bigotry and your foolish pretensions. Know,--what you might have known long ago if your knowledge had not been confined to glass-grinding,--that I myself am the thistle, Zeherit, who stood where the princess had laid her head, and of whom you have thought fit to be silent through your whole history."
"Pepusch!" cried the flea-tamer, "are you in your senses? The thistle, Zeherit, blooms in the distant Indies, in the beautiful valley, closed in by lofty rocks, where at times the wisest magi of the earth are wont to assemble: Lindhorst, the keeper of the records, can best inform you about it. And you, whom I have seen running about half starved with study and hunger, you pretend to be the thistle, Zeherit?"
"What a wise man you are, Leuwenhock!" said Pepusch, laughing: "Well, think of my person what you will, but do not be absurd enough to deny that, in the moment of the thistle Zeherit's feeling the sweet breath of Gamaheh, he bloomed in glowing love and passion; and that, when he touched the temples of the sleeping princess, she too dreamt sweetly of love. Too late the Thistle perceived the Leech-Prince, whom he else had killed with his thorns in a moment; but yet, with the help of the root, Mandragora, he would have succeeded in recalling the princess to life, if the stupid genius, Thetel, had not interfered with his awkward remedies. It is true that, in his passion, the genius put his hand into the saltbox, which he is used to carry at his girdle when he travels, like Pantagruel, and flung a good handful at the Leech-Prince; but it is quite false that he killed him in so doing. All the salt fell into the marsh; not a single grain hit the prince, whom the thistle, Zeherit, slew with his thorns; and, having thus avenged the murder of Gamaheh, devoted himself to death. It is the genius only,--who interfered in matters not concerning him,--that is the cause of the princess lying so long in the sleep of flowers; the Thistle awoke much earlier; for the death of both was but the same sleep, from which they revived, although in other forms. You will have completed the measure of your gross blunders, if you suppose that the Princess Gamaheh was formed exactly as Dörtje Elverdink now is, and that it is you who restored her to life. It happened to you, my good Leuwenhock, as it did to the awkward servant in the remarkable story of the Three Pomegranates; he freed two maidens from the fruit, without having first assured himself of the means of keeping them in life, and in consequence saw them perish miserably before his eyes. Not you, but he, who has escaped from you, whose loss you so deeply feel and lament;--he it was who completed the work, which you began so awkwardly."
"Ha!" cried the flea-tamer, quite beside himself--"ha! 'twas so I suspected!--But you, Pepusch, you, to whom I have shown so much kindness, you are my worst enemy: I see it well now. Instead of advising me, instead of assisting me in my misfortunes, you amuse me with all manner of nonsensical stories."
"Nonsense yourself!" cried Pepusch, quite indignant: "you'll rue your folly too late, you dreaming charlatan! I go to seek Dörtje Elverdink--but that you may no longer mislead honest people----"
He grasped at the screw which set all the microscopic machinery in motion----
"Take my life at the same time!" roared the flea-tamer; but at the instant all crashed together, and he fell senseless to the ground.--