THE PICKWICK CLUB. 387
" Hero we have a striking example of one of the manifold advantages of civilisation and refinement. If the Prince had lived in later days, ho might at once have married the ohject of his father's choice, and then set himself seriously to work, to relieve himself of the burden which rested heavily upon him. He might have endeavoured to break her heart by a systematic course of insult and neglect ; or, if the spirit of her sex, and a proud consciousness of her many wrongs had upheld her under this ill treatment, he miffht have sought to take her life, and so get rid of her effectually. But neither mode of relief suggested itself to Prince Bladud — so he solicited a private audience, and told his father.
- ' It is an old prerogative of kings to govern everything but their
passions. King Lud flew into a frightful rage, tossed his crown up to the ceiling, and caught it again — for in those days kings kept their crowns on their heads, and not in the Tower — stamped the ground, rapped his forehead, wondered why his own flesh and blood rebelled against him, and, finally, calling in his guards, ordered the Prince away to instant confinement in a lofty turret — a course of treatment which the kings of old very generally pursued towards their sons when their matrimonial inclinations did not happen to point to the same quar- ter as their own.
" When Prince Bladud had been shut up in the lofty turret for the greater part of a year, with no better prospect before his bodily eyes than a stone wall, or before his mental vision than prolonged imprison- ment, he naturally began to ruminate on a plan of escape, which after months of preparation he managed to accomplish ; considerately leaving his dinner knife in the heart of his gaoler, lest the poor fellow (who had a family) should be considered privy to his flight, and punished accordingly by the infuriated king.
The monarch was frantic at the loss of his son. He knew not on whom to vent his grief and wrath, until fortunately bethinking himself of the Lord Chamberlain who had brought him home, he struck off his pension and his head together.
- ' Meanwhile, the young Prince effectually disguised, wandered on
foot through his father's dominions, cheered and supported in all his hardships by sweet thoughts of the Athenian maid, who was the inno- cent cause of his weary trials. One day he stopped to rest in a country village ; and seeing that there were gay dances going forward on the green, and gay faces passing to and fro, ventured to inquire of a reveller who stood near him, the reason for this rejoicing.
'* * Know you not, O stranger,' was the reply, * of the recent procla- mation of our gracious king ? *
" * Proclamation ! No. What proclamation ? ' rejoined the Prince — for he had travelled along the bye and little-frequented ways, and knew nothing of what had passed upon the public roads, such as they were.
" • Why, ' replied the peasant, * the foreign lady that our Prince wished to wed, is married to a foreign noble of her own country; and the king proclaims the fact, and a great public festival besides ; for now
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