The lions now began to roar; All-Fair, looking for her cake, was
thrown into the utmost despair to find it gone; and as she was
lamenting her deplorable situation, the Yellow Dwarf presented himself
to her with these words:--"Lovely princess, dry your tears, and hear
what I am going to say. You need not proceed to the Desert Fairy, to
know the reason of your mother's indisposition--it is this: she is
ungenerous enough to repent having promised you, her only daughter, to
me in marriage--"
"How!" interrupted the princess; "my mother promised me to you in
marriage;--you such a fright as you!"
"None of your scoffs," returned the Yellow Dwarf; "I warn you not to
rouse my anger. If you will promise to marry me, I will be the
tenderest and most loving husband in the world; if not, save yourself
from the lions, if you can."
The princess, overcome with terror, gave the promise; but such was the
agony of her mind, that she fell into a swoon, and, when she
recovered, she found herself in her own bed, finely adorned with
ribands, with a ring of a single red hair so fastened round her finger
that it could not be got off.
This adventure had the same effect upon All Fair as the former one had
had upon her mother. She grew melancholy, which was remarked and
wondered at by the whole court. The best way to divert her, they
thought, would be to urge her to marry; which the princess, who was
now become less obstinate on that point than formerly, consented to.
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