‘Get out of my sight, obstinate Prince. Become a Cricket!’
And instantly the handsome Prince Peerless became a poor little black Cricket, whose only idea would have been to find himself a cosy cranny behind some blazing hearth, if he had not luckily remembered the Fairy Douceline’s injunction to seek the Golden Branch.
So he hastened to depart from the fatal castle, and sought shelter in a hollow tree, where he found a forlorn looking little Grasshopper crouching in a corner, too miserable to sing.
Without in the least expecting an answer, the Prince asked it:
‘And where may you be going, Gammer Grasshopper?’
‘Where are you going yourself, Gaffer Cricket?’ replied the Grasshopper.
‘What! can you speak?’ said he.
‘Why should I not speak as well as you? Isn’t a Grasshopper as good as a Cricket?’ said she.
‘I can talk because I was a Prince,’ said the Cricket.
‘And for that very same reason I ought to be able to talk more than you, for I was a Princess,’ replied the Grasshopper.