So she was delighted when she heard this , almost as much delighted as she was afraid that he might fail in the most difficult adventure . For it was one thing to egg on a Remora to kill a Firedrake , and quite another to find the princes if they were alive , and restore them if they were dead ! But the prince said he had his plan , and he stayed that night at the ambassador 's . Next morning he rose very early , before anyone else was up , that he might not have to say `` Good-bye '' to Lady Rosalind . Then he flew in a moment to the old lonely castle , where nobody went for fear of ghosts , ever since the Court retired to Falkenstein . How still it was , how deserted ; not a sign of life , and yet the prince was looking everywhere for some living thing . He hunted the castle through in vain , and then went out to the stable-yard ; but all the dogs , of course , had been taken away , and the farmers had offered homes to the poultry . At last , stretched at full length in a sunny place , the prince found a very old , half-blind , miserable cat . The poor creature was lean , and its fur had fallen off in patches ; it could no longer catch birds , nor even mice , and there was nobody to give it milk . But cats do not look far into the future ; and this old black cat -- Frank was his name -- had got a breakfast somehow , and was happy in the sun . The prince stood and looked at him pityingly , and he thought that even a sick old cat was , in some ways , happier than most men . -LSB- Illustration : Page 91 -RSB- `` Well , '' said the prince at last , `` he could not live long anyway , and it must be done . He will feel nothing . '' Then he drew the sword of sharpness , and with one turn of his wrist cut the cat 's head clean off . It did not at once change into a beautiful young lady , as perhaps you expect ; no , that was improbable , and , as the prince was in love already , would have been vastly inconvenient . The dead cat lay there , like any common cat . Then the prince built up a heap of straw , with wood on it ; and there he laid poor puss , and set fire to the pile . Very soon there was nothing of old black Frank left but ashes ! Then the prince ran upstairs to the fairy cupboard , his heart beating loudly with excitement , The sun was shining through the arrow-shot window ; all the yellow motes were dancing in its rays . The light fell on the strange heaps of fairy things -- talismans and spells .
The prince hunted about here and there , and at last he discovered six ancient water-vessels of black leather , each with a silver plate XXXXX it , and on the plate letters engraved .
For as at before into like on than through to