PRINCE HYACINTH AND THE DEAR LITTLE PRINCESS Once upon a time there lived a king who was deeply in love with a princess , but she could not marry anyone , because she was under an enchantment . So the King set out to seek a fairy , and asked what he could do to win the Princess 's love . The Fairy said to him : `` You know that the Princess has a great cat which she is very fond of . Whoever is clever enough to tread on that cat 's tail is the man she is destined to marry . '' The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult , and he left the Fairy , determined to grind the cat 's tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all . You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess , and puss , as usual , marched in before him , arching his back . The King took a long step , and quite thought he had the tail under his foot , but the cat turned round so sharply that he only trod on air . And so it went on for eight days , till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full of quicksilver -- it was never still for a moment . At last , however , he was lucky enough to come upon puss fast asleep and with his tail conveniently spread out . So the King , without losing a moment , set his foot upon it heavily . With one terrific yell the cat sprang up and instantly changed into a tall man , who , fixing his angry eyes upon the King , said : `` You shall marry the Princess because you have been able to break the enchantment , but I will have my revenge . You shall have a son , who will never be happy until he finds out that his nose is too long , and if you ever tell anyone what I have just said to you , you shall vanish away instantly , and no one shall ever see you or hear of you again . '' Though the King was horribly afraid of the enchanter , he could not help laughing at this threat . `` If my son has such a long nose as that , '' he said to himself , `` he must always see it or feel it ; at least , if he is not blind or without hands . '' But , as the enchanter had vanished , he did not waste any more time in thinking , but went to seek the Princess , who very soon consented to marry him . But after all , they had not been married very long when the King died , and the Queen had nothing left to care for but her little son , who was called Hyacinth . The little Prince had large blue eyes , the prettiest eyes in the world , and a sweet little mouth , but , alas ! his nose was so enormous that it covered half his face . The Queen was inconsolable when she saw this great nose , but her ladies assured her that it was not really as large as it looked ; that it was a Roman nose , and you had only to open any history to see that every hero has a large nose . The Queen , who was devoted to her baby , was pleased with what they told her , and when she looked at Hyacinth again , his nose certainly did not seem to her quite so large .
The Prince was brought up XXXXX great care ; and , as soon as he could speak , they told him all sorts of dreadful stories about people who had short noses .
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