Now, if Prince Eigenwillig had only possessed the courage and resolution to have continued the struggle, and had remembered to have called the old man to his aid, he would have been able to master Selbst, to shake him off, and prevent him from gaining the upper hand. To be sure it was a grievous oversight to have allowed such a mischievous-looking 181elf to get upon his back at all; but for this there was now no help; the only question was, how to get rid of him. If the Prince had given himself time for consideration, it might have occurred to him as probable that such a boastful little creature, as Selbst had already shown himself to be, was not likely to have much resolution about him when fairly encountered. Selbst, in fact, was little better than a cowardly bully, full of presumption and bravado, who was in the habit of endeavouring to carry matters with a high hand, by using great swelling words, and who, when persons yielded to him, tyrannized over them more and more, the more they yielded. But though there was a good deal of obstinacy and importunity in his character, he was very mean and pitiful when he met with a determined opponent.

Unhappily for himself, Prince Eigenwillig was soon cowed. When he found that he could not shake off the sprite at once, his heart failed him, and he thought within himself 182that, having given Selbst such an advantage over him, there was no help for it, and he must e’en make the best bargain he could for himself.

“There!” cried the Sprite, as, breathless and exhausted, Prince Eigenwillig desisted from further efforts to free himself, “There! now I hope you will be satisfied. It is no use struggling with me. I am sure to carry the day. So, that point being settled, we shall be good friends directly, and I will see if I cannot make my weight less of an incumbrance to you.”

that the Prince felt disposed to be appeased; and being immediately followed up by an effort on Selbst’s part to sit more lightly, and by an apparent relaxation of his hold, the royal traveller became much better reconciled to his companion, and proceeded cheerfully on his way, Selbst directing him as to the route which would prove most agreeable, and beguiling the path with narrative and song.

183They had not gone far together before the Prince became so well used to his burden, that he would have disliked the thought of being released from it. He ceased to find it troublesome, and grew so intimate with Selbst, that he felt as if he must needs consult him, and take his opinion upon every thing, and that there would be no getting on without him The Prince was very much alarmed when he perceived that Selbst was growing so rapidly..

This was precisely the object at which the sprite was aiming: he desired to make the Prince wholly subservient to him, but he did not choose that his victim should become aware of the extent to which he was enslaved, and therefore he contrived to appear to submit, when, in fact, he was dictating.