Violet Jacob > Stories told by the miller

78 STORIES TOLD BY THE MILLER
would have taken her hand, she drew back, her
lip curling.
“ Your Majesty does me an honour for which
I have no desire,” she said; “ and if I have
brought you to the meeting-place only to refuse
your hand, you will pardon it the more readily
as you yourself like ceremony so little.”
So saying, she turned and left everyone
standing speechless.
When the company had dispersed, the
Princess declared that she would set out next
morning for the city. There was nothing left
for the King to do but to depart by the way he
had come, and, furious and mortified, he returned
to his own camp to throw off his velvet and
resume his leather and steel; he meant to go at
once. His heart was hot within him, for the
one look he had had at the Princess was enough
to set it in a flame. She was so beautiful that
he had never seen her like, and even through
his anger there was a sharp stab of regret for
what he had lost. Heartless as she seemed,
and ill as she had treated him, he would have
given the world for her. While his men and
horses were getting ready, he went out into
the night, and turned his steps to a little thicket