At the sight of this, which so forcibly brought back to him her memory, his tears began to flow afresh. He sat down upon the ground, looking at it, and thinking of the late tragedy. Suddenly it occurred to him that the Princess might not indeed be dead, but that she had probably called upon the stream to help her, and had been carried away by it. “Perhaps,” conjectured the unhappy little creature, “she desired its aid without a good reason, and has been overtaken by the flood as a punishment. The voice warned her of it. If so, I must seek her to the very ends of the earth. Perhaps this leaf may be of service to me also, for, though I am not the Princess, I have her happiness as much at heart as if I were.”
He then resolved to go to the King and to tell him the whole story, concealing only the fact of Moonflower’s high birth, which he had solemnly sworn not to reveal without her permission. At that moment he looked out of the window and perceived the King walking about round the fountains and up and down the terraces as one distracted. He tore his hair and even his moustache. It was fortunate that the Queen, his mother, was in bed and could not see him.
Grimaçon went out into the garden, and, with a low bow, presented himself before the afflicted monarch.
“Ah!” cried the King. “My worthy Grimaçon, what a blow is this! Alas! alas! how terrible to think that Moonflower is drowned!”
“Take courage, your Majesty,” replied the dwarf. “I hope that we may yet behold her again.”
And he told the King of the Crystal Mountains the whole story, craving his Majesty’s permission to go in search of his dear mistress.
“Go! go!” exclaimed the King, “most excellent dwarf, and I will go with thee. We will seek her together, though we should traverse the whole universe.”
When the Queen heard that her son was about to depart on a long journey accompanied by the dwarf, she was furiously angry, for she guessed that they were going to look for Moonflower. But she was soon appeased, as she was to have the management of the kingdom during the King’s absence.
The King and Grimaçon started quite alone, the King taking nothing with him but a sword which he had inherited from his grandfather, and which he thought might bring him luck. The hilt was made of a single topaz, and the blade was of such superfine Damascus steel, that when it was forged it was considered the eighth wonder of the world. The dwarf carried with him nothing but the Enchanted Leaf.
“I think, your Majesty,” he observed, “that we shall do well to follow the course of the stream that has taken Moonflower away; and if so, we will have recourse to this.”