Once upon a time, there was a ruthless, headstrong prince, whose whole heart was devoted to conquering all the countries of the world,
so that the people were creeped out at the very sound of his name; and he went about his campaigns with fire and sword. His soldiers trampled
trampled out the crops in the fields of wheat and corn; they burned the houses of the peasants, and bright red tongues of fire devoured the trees, and the fruits were withered and hung on the branches of the trees, which had been blackened by the smouldering fire
. Many a poor mother hid behind the smoking walls with her naked, nursing child, while the soldiers searched for her and her child, and if
they found them, they made fiendish fun of them. The worst of devils could not have done such a thing, but the king
thought it was right that they should. And as his power grew greater every day, he was able to do all that he did. All the people were afraid when they heard
his name. He plundered gold and silver from the cities he conquered, and in his royal city he gathered more treasure than in any other
place. He had splendid palaces, churches and arcades built. Anyone who saw these vast projects said, "What a marvelous prince!" They did not think of the misery he had brought to other nations; they did not
hear the sighs and groans that came from those burned cities.
When the prince looked at his gold, and at his magnificent buildings, he thought, as did many others, "How marvelous, lo! But,
I will possess more, much more! No other power can compare with me, much less surpass me!" He declared war on all his neighbors
and conquered them all. As he drove through the markets, he chained the kings he had conquered to his
vehicle with gold chains; and when he held a banquet, they had to kneel at his feet and those of his courtiers, and pick up the
crumbs of bread that were thrown to them by those attending the feast.
Later, the prince had his statue placed in every square and in the royal court. Yes, he was even going to place his
statue before the altar of God in every church. But the priest said, "Prince, you are great, but God is greater,
and we dare not."
"All right!" Said the vicious prince, "Then I'll conquer even God!" Instructed by his arrogant and ignorant
mood, he built a marvelous ship in which he could fly across the sky. The ship was decorated with many peacock's tail
feathers, as if it had a million eyes1, though each eye was a bullet hole. The prince sat in the middle of the boat, and all he had to do was to press the
tail feathers, and ten million bullets were shot out of the guns, which were immediately loaded with new bullets. Thousands of
eagles were tethered to the front of the boat, and so he flew thus to the sun. The earth sank far below, and at first the mountains and woods on the ground had to look like a
plowed field, with a patch of green rising out of the tilled turf, and slowly the earth became a flat map, and at last
completely obscured by fog and clouds. The eagle flew higher and higher; God then sent out one of his countless angels. The vicious prince shot a million gun bullets at him
, yet they all bounced back like hail from the angel's shining wings. A drop of blood, just a drop of
blood, dripped from the white feathers of the wings. This drop of blood fell upon the boat in which the prince was sitting, and it soon burst into flames;
it was as heavy as a thousand weights of lead, and as quickly as it flew it smashed the boat to pieces and fell to the ground. The eagle's sturdy wings were broken, and the wind whooshed
over the prince's head. The clouds around him, which, you know, had been generated by the cities that had been burned away, all became
millions of things of all shapes, like crabs miles square, thrusting their claws at him, like roaring, tumbling blocks of boulders, and also
like fire-breathing dragons. He lay half dead, and at last the boat fell to the ground, hanging between the thick branches of a great forest.
"I will overcome God!" He said, "I swore that my wish would be granted!" It took him seven years to build
into fine ships for his flight to heaven. He had lightning bolts cast from the hardest steel so that he could blast the fortresses in the sky. He gathered the most marvelous armies from all the countries under his
control. When they were lined up one by one, they took up many miles around.
They climbed into the finely crafted ships, and the king approached his position. At that moment, God sent down a mosquito array, only
it was a swarm of tiny mosquitoes. The mosquitoes buzzed around the king's head and bit his face and hands. He drew his sword in extreme anger, but
it was only able to slash at the air he couldn't catch. Mosquitoes he could not hit. Then he ordered precious blankets to be fetched, and his squire did as
he said. The prince wrapped himself up so that the mosquitoes could not get in and bite him, but one mosquito alone landed in the very
inner of the blanket, and it crawled into the king's ear and stung him; and the pain was so great that it burned him as if he were on fire, and the mosquitoes poisoned his brain. He hastily tore the blanket off
his body again and got out, tearing his own clothes to shreds. He jumped naked in front of the rough soldiers. Now
these soldiers began to laugh at the mad prince who had challenged God but had been vanquished by a mosquito.
1) The peacock's tail feathers are decorated with beautiful round flowers that resemble eyes.