Conrad, however, grew more despondent daily. He dreaded lest Rudolph, his favourite brother, should take it into his head to challenge the Dragon. Rudolph was less hot-headed than Leo and—surely a great safeguard—he was engaged to be married. Married men were prohibited (or, as Conrad put it to himself, exempted) from Dragon-baiting—though more than one, concealing his true condition, had gone out to meet a bachelor’s death.

Conrad lost no opportunity of urging the charms of Charlotte, his brother’s sweetheart; in and out of season he proclaimed them and begged Rudolph to marry her. In his anxiety for his brother’s safety he more than once let drop a disparaging remark about the Princess, comparing her unfavourably to Charlotte. Rudolph told him to shut up or he would get himself into trouble: a madman who had spoken disrespectfully of the Princess had been torn to pieces by the mob.

‘Of course the Princess is beautiful,’ Conrad admitted, ‘but she is fair: you told me you only admired dark women. Promise me you will marry Charlotte before the month is out.’

‘How can I?’ asked Rudolph, ‘when I’ve no money and no home to take her to?’

Conrad knew that this was not strictly true; his brother was a gay young man, but he had some money laid by. Conrad, though he earned little, spent nothing at all.

‘If you marry her a fortnight from to-day,’ he begged, ‘you shall all my savings, and I will be a forester instead of going to the University.’

It cost him something to say this, but Rudolph answered with his light laugh:

‘Keep your money, my dear Conrad, you will want it when your comes to fight the Dragon.’

This was not very encouraging, and Conrad began to ask himself was there no other way of keeping Rudolph out of harm’s reach. The King had offered an enormous prize to anyone who could suggest a solution to the Dragon problem, and many women, cripples, elderly men and confirmed husbands had sent in suggestions. One was that the intending suitor should visit the castle in disguise. This was turned down because, even if the man got safely in, the Dragon would still be at large. Another proposed that the Royal Magician should give place to one more competent. To this the Home Secretary replied that it was a bad plan to change horses in mid-stream; the Magician had a worldwide reputation; he had performed many noteworthy feats in the past, he knew the lay-out of the castle as no one else did, and he was a close friend of Princess Hermione: it would be cruel to deprive her of his presence.

Most of the proposals, though meant helpfully, only put the authorities’ backs up, implying as they did some dissatisfaction with the way things were being handled. One malcontent even dared to remark that at this rate the Princess would never get married. The newspapers made fun of him and he lost his job.

‘If only I could get inside the castle,’ thought Conrad, ‘I might be able to do something. But I shall have to be very tactful.’

He began to write, but the pen would not answer to his thoughts. It seemed to have a will of its own, which was struggling against his. Instead of the valuable suggestion he wanted to make, a message of very different import kept appearing on the paper, in broken phrases like, ‘my life to your service,’ ‘no better death than this.’ Tired of trying to control it, he let the pen run on; when it stopped, he found he had written a little love-address to the Princess, very like those printed between heavy black lines (almost every day now) in the memorial columns of the newspapers. Puzzled, he threw the thing aside and applied himself to his task. Now it went better; he signed it, wrote ‘The Princess Hermione’ on the envelope and took it to the post. It would be some days before it reached her, if it ever did; she must have so many letters to deal with.

When he got home he found Rudolph in the room. He was standing by the table holding something in his hand.

‘Ha, ha!’ said he, ‘I’ve found you out.’

Conrad could not imagine what he meant.

‘Yes,’ went on Rudolph, putting his hands behind his back .’You’ve been deceiving me. You’re in love with the Princess. You’ve been trying to persuade me not to fight the Dragon because you want the glory of killing it yourself.’

Rudolph was laughing, but Conrad cried out in agitation, ‘No, no, you don’t understand.’

‘Well, listen then,’ said Rudolph, and he began to read Conrad’s declaration of love to the Princess; mockingly at first, then more seriously, and finally with a break in his voice and tears standing in his eyes.

They were silent for a moment, then Conrad held out his hand for the paper. But Rudolph would not part with it.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Conrad pleaded. ‘Give it to me.’

‘What do you want it for?’ asked Rudolph.

‘I want to burn it!’ cried Conrad recklessly.

‘No, no!’ said Rudolph, half laughing and gently pushing his brother away. ‘I must have it—it may come in useful—who knows.’

He went out, taking the paper with him. Conrad felt uncomfortable; somehow he guessed he had done a silly thing.

He had. Two days later Rudolph casually announced that he had sent in his name as a candidate for the privilege of freeing Princess Hermione from her tormentor and that his application had been accepted.

‘It’s fixed for Thursday,’ he remarked gaily. ‘Poor old Dragon.’

His mother burst into tears, his father left the room and did not come back for an hour; but Conrad sat in his chair, without noticing what was going on round him. At last he said:

‘What about Charlotte?’

‘Oh,’ said Rudolph airily, ‘she’s anxious for me to go. She’s not like you pretend to be. She’s sorry for the Princess. “I expected you’d want to go,” she said to me. “I shall be waiting for you when you come back.” ’

‘Was that all?’ asked Conrad.

‘Oh, she gave me her blessing.’

Conrad pondered. ‘Did you tell her you were in love with the Princess?’ he asked at length.

Rudolph hesitated. ‘I couldn’t very well tell her that, could I? It wouldn’t have been kind. Besides, I’m not really in love with the Princess, of course: that’s the difficulty. It was that speech you wrote—you know’ (Conrad nodded) ‘made me feel I was. I shall just try to be in love with her as long as the combat lasts. If I wasn’t, you know, the Dragon wouldn’t come out and I should miss my chance. But,’ he added more cheerfully.’I shall recite your address, and that will deceive it.’

‘And then?’

‘Oh, then I shall just come back and marry Charlotte. She understands that. You can give us some of your money if you like. I won’t take it all. I’m not greedy.’

He went off whistling. Conrad’s heart sank. He knew his brother’s moods: this careless manner betokened that his mind was made up.

Who the first founder of the royal castle was, and when he built it, no one precisely knew. The common people ascribed its origin to the whim of some god or hero; and professional historians, though they scoffed at this idea, had no definite theory to put in its place—at least none that they all agreed upon. But the castle had been many times rebuilt, at the bidding of changing fashions, and of the present edifice it was doubtful whether any part was more than a thousand years old. Its position on the solitary rock, defended by precipices on all sides save one, gave it so much natural strength that it was generally considered impregnable. According to common report, there were more rooms hollowed out of the rock than built of stones and mortar. Later architects, taking advantage of this, had concentrated their efforts on giving a grace and elegance to the exterior that no other fortress could boast, adorning it with turrets and balconies of an aery delicacy and windows embellished with the richest tracery their imaginations could devise. Windows that generously admitted the sun into wide, spacious rooms, the damasks and brocades of which, thus exposed to the noonday glare, had need of constant renewal.