At last the king had the good
fortune to catch Minon sleeping, when tramp, tramp! he trod on the
tail with all his force.
Minon woke up, mewed horribly, and immediately changed from a cat into
a large, fierce-looking man, who regarded the king with flashing eyes.
"You must marry the princess," cried he, "because you have broken the
enchantment in which I held her; but I will be revenged on you. You
shall have a son with a nose as long as--that;" he made in the air a
curve of half a foot; "yet he shall believe it is just like all other
noses, and shall be always unfortunate till he has found out it is
not. And if you ever tell anybody of this threat of mine, you shall
die on the spot." So saying, the magician disappeared.
The king, who was at first much terrified, soon began to laugh at this
adventure. "My son might have a worse misfortune than too long a
nose," thought he. "At least it will hinder him neither in seeing nor
hearing. I will go and find the princess, and marry her at once."
He did so, but he only lived a few months after, and died before his
little son was born, so that nobody knew anything about the secret of
the nose.
The little prince was so much wished for, that when he came into the
world they agreed to call him Prince Wish. He had beautiful blue eyes
and a sweet little mouth, but his nose was so big that it covered half
his face.
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