CHAPTER XIII.
_Surprises_.
The prince said nothing, the ambassador said nothing, Lady Rosalind said never a word till they were in the drawing-room.

It was a lovely warm evening, and the French windows were wide open on the balcony, which looked over the town and away north to the hills.

Below them flowed the clear, green water of the Gluckthal.

And still nobody said a word.
At last the prince spoke: "This is a very strange story, Lord Kelso!" "Very, sir!" said the ambassador.
"But true," added the prince; "at least, there is no reason in the nature of things why it shouldn't be true." "I can hardly believe, sir, that the conduct of Benson, whom I always found a most respectable man, deserved--" "That he should be 'come for,'" said the prince.

"Oh, no; it was a mere accident, and might have happened to any of us who chanced to sit down on my carpet." And then the prince told them, shortly, all about it: how the carpet was one of a number of fairy properties, which had been given him at his christening; and how so long a time had gone by before he discovered them; and how, probably, the carpet had carried the butler where he had said he wanted to go, namely--to the king's Court at Falkenstein.
"It would not matter so much," added the prince, "only I had relied on making my peace with his majesty, my father, by aid of those horns and that tail.