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LABOULAYE’S FAIRY BOOK
insult which nothing but blood can wash out. He laughs
well that laughs last. Here, Rachimburg!”’
At this terrible name, a jailer with a bushy beard and
threatening mien entered the room, pushed the queen on a
wretched truckle-bed, and shut and double-locked the iron
door.
If Pazza wept, 1t was so quietly that no one heard her.
Tired of the silence, Charming departed, with rage in his
heart, resolving that his rigor should break the pride that
braved him. Vengeance, it is said, is the delight of kings.
Two hours later the countess received a note by a sure
hand acquainting her with the sad fate of her niece. How
this note reached her is known to me, but I will not betray
the secret. If a charitable jailer is found by chance, he
should be treated with consideration; the species is rare, and
is daily becoming rarer.
V
A TERRIBLE EVENT
The next morning the court gazette announced that the
queen had been seized with a raging fit of madness on the
very night of her wedding, and that there was little hope
of saving her. There was scarcely a courtier, indeed, that
had not observed the princess’s restless air on the evening
before, and no one was surprised at her malady. All
pitied the king, who received with a gloomy and constrained
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