The Queen was so transfixed with dismay, that she stood motionless, watching the receding body of the Prince, till the soles of his feet caught her despairing eyes.
“There! ‘tis done now,” cried the Lady Abracadabra. “He makes a very compact ball, and will travel well!”
The Queen, in her despair, now rushed to the door leading into the flower-garden; but she was too late.
The Fairy had reached the extremity of the terrace, kicking before her something that seemed like a ball of rope; but which ball was, in fact, the convoluted form of Prince Eigenwillig.
In another moment, the lady Abracadabra and the Hope of the Katzekopfs had bounded over the parapet, and were lost to view; and Queen Ninnilinda fell, for the first time in her life, into a real swoon.
CHAPTER V.
The Heirs on their Travels.
“O see ye not yon narrow road,
So thick beset with thorns and briers?
That is the path of righteousness,
Though after it but few inquires.