" The Prince was surprised, but when he saw Longue Epine
words fail to express what he felt.
She was so tall that it was alarming, and the garments of the Princess
hardly came to her knees. She was frightfully thin, and her nose,
which was more hooked than a parrot's beak, shone like a danger
signal. Then her teeth were black and uneven, and, in fact, she was as
ugly as Desiree was beautiful.
At first the Prince could not speak a word, he simply gazed at her
in amazement. Then he said, turning to his father, "We have been
deceived, that portrait was painted to mislead us. It will be the
death of me."
"What do I hear, they have deceived you," fiercely exclaimed Longue
Epine.
"It is not to be wondered at," remarked the King, "that your father
kept such a treasure shut up for fifteen years."
Then he and the Prince turned towards the town, and the false Princess
and the Lady in Waiting, without any ceremony, were mounted each
behind a soldier and taken to be shut up in a castle.
[Illustration: _Painted by Jennie Harbour_
THE WHITE FAWN]
Soon after his terrible disappointment, Prince Guerrier, unable to
bear any longer the life at court, secretly departed from the palace
with his faithful friend Becafigue, leaving a letter for his father
saying he would return to him as soon as his mind was in a happier
state, and begging him meanwhile to keep the ugly Princess prisoner,
and think of some revenge upon the deceitful king, her father.
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