At the palace all was festivity and rejoicing, and the King was giving a great ball in honour of the marriage; for Duldy and the Princess were now married, and sat on two golden thrones, looking wonderfully handsome and happy. Below them on the marble floor all the lords and ladies were dancing the most graceful dances in the world, and the musicians placed up in a high gallery sang and played the most delightful music, while tables covered with nice tarts and cakes and other beautiful things ran down on each side of the hall.
But notwithstanding that Duldy had married the Princess, and was going to be king when Arago died, he felt quite unhappy, as the foam bracelet still clasped his wrist.
“What is the matter, Prince?” asked Elsa, putting her beautiful white arms round his neck; “you look so sad.”
“I’m afraid of Foamina,” said Duldy, showing Elsa his wrist. “Look at the foam bracelet chaining my wrist; I cannot get it off. Look, you can see it quite plainly.”
And indeed they could, a slender ring of white foam which clasped his wrist so tightly that Duldy felt as though it were the hand of the enchantress grasping him, to drag him away from his lovely bride to the depths of her cold pool.
“Is it cold?” asked Elsa.
“Yes, very cold,” replied Duldy disconsolately. “I wish I could take it off.”
“I think I can do that,” said the Princess, laughing. “If it’s cold, it will soon melt away under my warm kisses;” and so saying, she bent down and kissed his wrist three times with her red lips. Much to Duldy’s surprise, at the first kiss the foam bracelet seemed to grow loose, at the second it fell off his wrist and lay on the floor like a white ring, and at the third it vanished with a loud noise.
Duldy was overjoyed that he was now free from the power of the enchantress, and led the Princess out on to the balcony which overlooked the river. It was a beautiful night, and Duldy saw the great white peak of Kel shining against the dark blue sky, and the heaving waters of the river at his feet. Just as he kissed the lips of his Princess, a confused noise sounded from the city below. The river, lashing itself into angry waves, began to rise, and as Duldy and the Princess, full of dismay, retreated to the hall, a crowd of people rushed in and stopped the dancing.
“Sire! sire!” they called out to the King, “the river is rising round the city, and all the fountains are spouting foam! We are lost! we are lost!”