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<h2> XII. HOW BETSINDA FLED, AND WHAT BECAME OF HER </h2>
<p>Betsinda wandered on and on, till she passed through the town gates, and
so on the great Crim Tartary road, the very way on which Giglio too was
going. ‘Ah!’ thought she, as the diligence passed her, of which the
conductor was blowing a delightful tune on his horn, ‘how I should like to
be on that coach!’ But the coach and the jingling horses were very soon
gone. She little knew who was in it, though very likely she was thinking
of him all the time.</p>
<p>Then came an empty cart, returning from market; and the driver being a
kind man, and seeing such a very pretty girl trudging along the road with
bare feet, most good-naturedly gave her a seat. He said he lived on the
confines of the forest, where his old father was a woodman, and, if she
liked, he would take her so far on her road. All roads were the same to
little Betsinda, so she very thankfully took this one.</p>
<p>And the carter put a cloth round her bare feet, and gave her some bread
and cold bacon, and was very kind to her. For all that she was very cold
and melancholy. When after travelling on and on, evening came, and all the
black pines were bending with snow, and there, at last, was the
comfortable light beaming in the woodman’s windows; and so they arrived,
and went into his cottage. He was an old man, and had a number of
children, who were just at supper, with nice hot bread-and-milk, when
their elder brother arrived with the cart. And they jumped and clapped
their hands; for they were good children; and he had brought them toys
from the town. And when they saw the pretty stranger, they ran to her, and
brought her to the fire, and rubbed her poor little feet, and brought her
bread and milk.</p>
<p>‘Look, father!’ they said to the old woodman, ‘look at this poor girl, and
see what pretty cold feet she has. They are as white as our milk! And look
and see what an odd cloak she has, just like the bit of velvet that hangs
up in our cupboard, and which you found that day the little cubs were
killed by King Padella, in the forest! And look, why, bless us all! she
has got round her neck just such another little shoe as that you brought
home, and have shown us so often—a little blue velvet shoe!’</p>
<p>‘What,’ said the old woodman, ‘what is all this about a shoe and a cloak?’</p>
<p>And Betsinda explained that she had been left, when quite a little child,
at the town with this cloak and this shoe. And the persons who had taken
care of her had—had been angry with her, for no fault, she hoped, of
her own. And they had sent her away with her old clothes—and here,
in fact, she was. She remembered having been in a forest—and perhaps
it was a dream—it was so very odd and strange—having lived in
a cave with lions there; and, before that, having lived in a very, very
fine house, as fine as the King’s, in the town.</p>
<p>When the woodman heard this, he was so astonished, it was quite curious to
see how astonished he was. He went to his cupboard, and took out of a
stocking a five-shilling piece of King Cavolfiore, and vowed it was
exactly like the young woman. And then he produced the shoe and piece of
velvet which he had kept so long, and compared them with the things which
Betsinda wore. In Betsinda’s little shoe was written, ‘Hopkins, maker to
the Royal Family’; so in the other shoe was written, ‘Hopkins, maker to
the Royal Family.’ In the inside of Betsinda’s piece of cloak was
embroidered, ‘PRIN ROSAL’; in the other piece of cloak was embroidered
‘CESS BA. NO. 246.’ So that when put together you read, ‘PRINCESS ROSALBA.
NO. 246.’</p>
<p>On seeing this, the dear old woodman fell down on his knee, saying, ‘O my
Princess, O my gracious royal lady, O my rightful Queen of Crim Tartary,—I
hail thee—I acknowledge thee—I do thee homage!’ And in token
of his fealty, he rubbed his venerable nose three times on the ground, and
put the Princess’s foot on his head.</p>
<p>‘Why,’ said she, ‘my good woodman, you must be a nobleman of my royal
father’s Court!’ For in her lowly retreat, and under the name of Betsinda,
HER MAJESTY, ROSALBA, Queen of Crim Tartary, had read of the customs of
all foreign courts and nations.</p>
<p>‘Marry, indeed, am I, my gracious liege—the poor Lord Spinachi once—the
humble woodman these fifteen years syne. Ever since the tyrant Padella
(may ruin overtake the treacherous knave!) dismissed me from my post of
First Lord.’</p>
<p>‘First Lord of the Toothpick and Joint Keeper of the Snuffbox? I mind me!
Thou heldest these posts under our royal Sire. They are restored to thee,
Lord Spinachi! I make thee knight of the second class of our Order of the
Pumpkin (the first class being reserved for crowned heads alone). Rise,
Marquis of Spinachi!’ And with indescribable majesty, the Queen, who had
no sword handy, waved the pewter spoon with which she had been taking her
bread-and-milk, over the bald head of the old nobleman, whose tears
absolutely made a puddle on the ground, and whose dear children went to
bed that night Lords and Ladies Bartolomeo, Ubaldo, Catarina, and Ottavia
degli Spinachi!</p>
<p>The acquaintance HER MAJESTY showed with the history, and noble families
of her empire, was wonderful. ‘The House of Broccoli should remain
faithful to us,’ she said; ‘they were ever welcome at our Court. Have the
Articiocchi, as was their wont, turned to the Rising Sun? The family of
Sauerkraut must sure be with us—they were ever welcome in the halls
of King Cavolfiore.’ And so she went on enumerating quite a list of the
nobility and gentry of Crim Tartary, so admirably had Her Majesty profited
by her studies while in exile.</p>
<p>The old Marquis of Spinachi said he could answer for them all; that the
whole country groaned under Padella’s tyranny, and longed to return to its
rightful sovereign; and late as it was, he sent his children, who knew the
forest well, to summon this nobleman and that; and when his eldest son,
who had been rubbing the horse down and giving him his supper, came into
the house for his own, the Marquis told him to put his boots on, and a
saddle on the mare, and ride hither and thither to such and such people.</p>
<p>When the young man heard who his companion in the cart had been, he too
knelt down and put her royal foot on his head; he too bedewed the ground
with his tears; he was frantically in love with her, as everybody now was
who saw her: so were the young Lords Bartolomeo and Ubaldo, who punched
each other’s little heads out of jealousy; and so, when they came from
east and west at the summons of the Marquis degli Spinachi, were the Crim
Tartar Lords who still remained faithful to the House of Cavolfiore. They
were such very old gentlemen for the most part that Her Majesty never
suspected their absurd passion, and went among them quite unaware of the
havoc her beauty was causing, until an old blind Lord who had joined her
party told her what the truth was; after which, for fear of making the
people too much in love with her, she always wore a veil. She went about
privately, from one nobleman’s castle to another; and they visited among
themselves again, and had meetings, and composed proclamations and
counter-proclamations, and distributed all the best places of the kingdom
amongst one another, and selected who of the opposition party should be
executed when the Queen came to her own. And so in about a year they were
ready to move.</p>
<p>The party of Fidelity was in truth composed of very feeble old fogies for
the most part; they went about the country waving their old swords and
flags, and calling ‘God save the Queen!’ and King Padella happening to be
absent upon an invasion, they had their own way for a little, and to be
sure the people were very enthusiastic whenever they saw the Queen;
otherwise the vulgar took matters very quietly, for they said, as far as
they could recollect, they were pretty well as much taxed in Cavolfiore’s
time, as now in Padella’s.</p>
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