 Chapter 17 of Fantasy Fairies and Ghosts. Volume 2 by Various. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Balthazar, concealed in a garret at the village of Hock Jacobshine, received from the referendary Pulcher the following letter. My dear Balthazar, all goes on worse and worse. Our enemy Cenabre has become Minister of Foreign Relations and he has received the highest decoration of the green-spotted tiger. Professor Mosch Turpin, already drunk with joy, has been named by his future son-in-law, Director-General of all the natural phenomena of the Principality. It is a sinecure of the most obese character. He is charged by the government with the writing of a folio treatise on the important question of knowing the reason of the difference between the taste of water and the taste of wine and why they produce such contrary effects. He has been authorised to make experiments in the Prince's cellar. He has already exhausted in his studies half a tonne of rind wine, and I know not how many baskets of champagne. He is now occupied in the analysis of a cast of Alicante. The new Minister has not forgotten the blow that you gave him at Mosch Turpin's house. He has sworn to have startling vengeance. You would not be safe in carapies. He has a cruel spite against me for having surprised him when the veiled lady was making his toilette in the middle of a rose-bush, and whilst he remains in power I shall not have the most trifling office. For the rest my evil star causes me to meet him everywhere. Lately the infernal dwarf clothed in all the insignia of his dignity visited at the hour when the public has admitted the Museum of Natural History in our city. On arriving before the glass case in which I placed the stuffed monkeys, a stranger perceived him leaning on his cane. Oh! exclaimed he, what a charming living specimen! Where does he come from, if you please, keeper? At these words the Guardian of the Curiosities placed his hand upon the shoulder of Cinnabre and gravely answered. Indeed, sir, it is a very rare animal, and will figure very advantageously after its death in that case. This species of monkey is called the mycetes-biasal-bub. It is the cimea-biasal-bub linae, Niger, barbitus, podis, kodake, apice, cruneus. Sir, sir, exclaimed Cinnabre exasperated. You have lied, and I will have you soundly chastised to teach you what it is not to recognise the minister Cinnabre. I was not far distant from this conversation. This comic scene excited my laughter. The minister turned towards me and gave me a furious look. But he in vain protested. The stranger did not the less persist in his cool admiration, and tried to feed Cinnabre with nuts that he prepared with the utmost care. The minister could bear it no longer. He was seized with a nervous attack, and was carried away in his carriage. This is the first misfortune that has happened to this accursed mandrake. That gave me a little hope. God does not always abandon honest people like us. Courage, then, and patience. I have heard that Cinnabre came back from his morning visit to the rose-bush, very much disconcerted. Perhaps the lady who protects him did not make her appearance. For your favourite's hair is in very great disorder, and the prince has said to him, My dear friend, you neglect your magnificent hair. I will send my hairdresser to you. To which Cinnabre very insolently answered, If that scoundrel appears before my eyes, I will have him thrown out of the window. The prince stared. Farewell, my dear Balthazar. Hide thyself carefully. All the ferrets of the police are on thy track. Poor Balthazar was in despair. He wandered about the fields and woods ringing his hands in mourning. He accused Alpinus of having mocked and bewitched him. Whilst he was uttering to the winds the broken phrases of his monologue, the night gradually came on, and a leaden tint loaded with obscure grey the distant horizon. Suddenly the sun, before disappearing, pierced the cloudy veil, and coloured with a brilliant light the tops of the trees, and the foliage of the bushes. The insects began to hum as at daybreak, the perfume of the flowers became penetrating, a celestial harmony gradually filled all space. The light became fixed for a moment like an aurora borealis, from the middle of which Dr Prosper Alpinus descended, towards Balthazar, mounted upon an insect sparkling with a thousand magical reflections, and like a butterfly with wings coloured by all the tints and shades of the prism. Young man, why dost thou accuse me of having done the evil, at the very moment when I am laboring to deliver up thy enemy to thee? I am not offended at thy complaints, for I know how unjust and impatient love makes thee. I pardon thee, and I have come to protect thee. Learn that Sinarbrey is a dwarf, brought into the world by a poor peasant woman. His true name is Little Zach. He only assumed that of Sinarbrey from foolish vanity. Learn also that the canoness of Rosen-Showen, who is nothing less than the celebrated fairy Rosa Belverde, having met this miserable dwarf in one of her solitary walks, took pity upon his destiny, and thought that she would grant him a singular gift, the effects of which might console him for being deprived of natural qualities from his birth. This gift consisted in causing to be attributed to him all that another thought said or did in his presence. He was, besides in all societies of people, remarkable for their physical beauty, their intelligence, or the superiority of their minds, to pass immediately before the eyes of all, as the handsomest, the most intelligent, the wittiest. This singular charm was conferred upon a tress formed of three flame-coloured hairs upon the top of Little Zach's head. The least touch was to be painful and fatal to him, for that reason the fairy ornamented his head with a profusion of thick and silky hair, which she herself was to take the trouble to come and comb every nine days, with a magical golden comb, the usage of which would drive away all evil directed against her little pet. But now the comb is broken. Little Zach is delivered up without defence, to all the attacks of those whom he has injured, and it is only necessary to complete the breaking of the charm, to pluck from the head of the minister Sinabre the three flame-coloured hairs. It is to thee, dear Balthazar, that the honour of this enterprise is reserved. It requires only a little courage, strength, and tact. Take this crystal lens, go to Sinabre, as soon as thou meetest him, cast through this lens an attentive look upon his hair, and thou wilt see the tress of flame-coloured hair immediately rise. Seize, unhesitatingly the dwarf, and pluck out his talisman, which thou wilt burn at once, either in a candle or by throwing it into the nearest fire. O wise and venerable doctor, exclaimed Balthazar, how little am I worthy of your counsel and assistance. Thanks be given to you, O you by whom all my troubles are to be ended, through whom is to be given me a whole future of divine felicity. That is well, said Alpinus, thy gratitude pleases me, and thy pure and sincere heart was worthy of what I have done for thee. I may appear to thee at this moment, like one of those strange personages that fill the grandmother's story-books, but the result will soon prove to thee that nature is full of mysteries, which are only revealed to privileged beings. It now remains for me to confide to thee the secret of the future that I reserve for thee. I am tired of vegetating in this country, and I am in haste to return to the fairy kingdom, where a peri of marvellous beauty awaits me to render me youthful and marry me. I am about to leave all that I possess here, but it is thee whom I wish to constitute the legitimate inheritor of my goods. I will go to carapies to-morrow, and have a deed of gift drawn up, in which I will name thee my nephew. As soon as thou hast broken the charm that by which is Sinarbre and Candida, present thyself to Dr. Mosh Turpin, with the confidence assured by a good property, and he will be too happy to give thee his daughter in marriage. I wish thee then to fix thyself with Candida in my country house. You will both there enjoy unchangeable happiness. On finishing this speech, Dr. Prosper Alpinus whistled thrice. His insect, saddled and bridled, immediately came to him, and at the moment of starting, Alpinus drew a little shell box from his pocket, and gave it to Balthasar, saying, Keep this box carefully, with the crystal lens that I give thee. It contains what will relieve thee of all thy embarrassments. Balthasar returned to take leave of his Hock Jacob Shine Garrett, and joyfully hastened the preparations for his expedition against Sinarbre.