The parents of Princess Moonflower were both dead, and the kingdom was being governed by the sister of the deceased king until the Princess should come of age and take the management of affairs, which she was to do at the age of seventeen. But, if before her seventeenth birthday she were to die, the kingdom was to go to her aunt. Now the Princess’s aunt was very ambitious and proud, and could not look upon the idea of giving it up to her niece without dismay. “What!” she exclaimed, “is this little wretch to supplant me? Am I, with all my wisdom, to be set aside with ignominy for a little fool who has no recommendation but her paltry beauty?” And she began to think of every means in her power by which she could get rid of the Princess.
So she determined that she must never be allowed to see her seventeenth birthday, and at last made up her mind to kill her, though she disliked the job, and put off doing it from day to day.
Now, there lived in that country a very wicked Prince called Blackwig, with whom the cruel old woman consulted. “Tell me, my good Blackwig,” said she, “how I am to get rid of this tiresome Moonflower? Bethink thyself, and I will give thee a box of pearls, a pair of puce-coloured silk hose, and a dancing ape. And, moreover, if thy counsel please me, thou shalt also have an excellent recipe for a pâté of spiced dolphin’s liver, which was given me by my sister, who learned cooking in Paris.”
“Madam,” replied Blackwig, who was fond of good living, “I desire nothing but to please you; but, as you are so liberal in your offers, I will be the same with my advice. Listen to me. Give me the hand of your niece in marriage, and you shall not be troubled with her long, for I know of a poison which I will put into her soup and which will cause her to expire without anyone’s knowing the reason—and all I will ask for this is two thousand ducats!”
“That is a large sum,” said the Princess’s aunt, who was very economical.
“Well, well, since you make me presents at the same time, I will take one thousand five hundred and twenty-five ducats, but nothing less.”
The Princess’s aunt, who was glad to be able to charge someone else with the death of her niece, consented, and went straight to Moonflower’s room, to make known to her that she must prepare for her coming marriage. She found her sitting at the window, watering her flowers. She looked more lovely than the three Graces. She wore a dress of mauve velvet embroidered with bunches of amaryllis in pearls and diamonds, and her long hair fell in showers upon the ground.
“Little darling,” began the old woman, “I have to-day had a proposal for your hand in marriage.”
“And from whom, Madam?” inquired Moonflower.
“The Prince Blackwig,” said her aunt: “he loves you to distraction, and will make an excellent husband.”