OK, perhaps I could have kept an eye on things better. I thought I was a benevolent ruler. My name doesn't matter anymore, now that I no longer have one. My story is one of the minor ones, I'm not Snow White, or Cinderella, or Rapunzel, or anyone REALLY famous. You probably read my story while passing time between chapters. Still, we are all in the same fix ...
"My how the mighty have fallen, have they not, "princess?"
He was Capano, a farmer who used to work the land that bordered my palace. Since the revolution, he's cobbled together a huge estate by buying up his neighbor's land and bullying into submission and possibly murdering others to make recalcitrant farm owners divest their property to him. Before, I never gave Capano more than a passing thought. When he supplied apples from his orchards, I made sure he received a fair amount of pies in exchange. Now I find he expected to be paid! As if my gold was fit for his purse! When the man known as Harsh Reality entered Storyland and began spreading his poison, he found fertile ground in the wicked heart of Capano and his ilk.
"THIS is what a revolution looks like little Miss perfect, in all of its wonderful glory! We have your palace, we have your land. We have all that precious gold you have been hoarding since once upon a time! For the first time your people breath free and labor for themselves. Men such as myself will make sure your kind never exploits us again." Capano was practically frothing at the mouth when he delivered that tirade. Political economy has never been my strong suit. I'd always believed that the feudal system simply WORKED. I never considered all the moving parts!
Behind Capano, a group of fat peasant women entered the room. I liked the looks of none of them!
Capano commanded, "Strip her! Clothe her in rags as befits her new station. Make VERY sure that she is not hiding any jewelry on her person. What you DO find on her you can divvy up among yourselves!"
With that, my tormentor exited the small room I was being held in. I don't like to think of what happened next. Those women were merciless! They stripped me naked. They tore off my beautiful long mauve gown and fought like spoiled children over the scraps. They tore away my bandeau, allowing them to feast their eyes on my ample and shapely bosom The disgusting women almost came to fisticuffs before one of them came away with my long silk stockings and garter. Lastly, I was compelled under threat of force, to withdraw my step-ins. The horrid creatures Inserted their fingers in places where a proper princess only admits a doctor's syringe! All the while they laughed at and mocked my discomfort. They broke up my string of pearls and tore the jewels from my crown. My signet ring was torn from my hand. My bracelets were divvied up like pirate booty. After they had had their sport, they clothed me in rags that barely concealed my intimacies. The foul, rough fabric smelled of animals and urine!
Capano re-entered the room. His eyes took a most unwelcome tour of my person.
"Rags for a tyrant! Now you are fit for trial!"
I cannot describe to you the disgust I felt at subsequent events. My hands were bound behind my back and I was marched, in my bare feet, to the courthouse. All along the way, crowds had gathered to hurl invective and rotten fruit at me! I refused to give them the satisfaction of reacting, even in the face of the blistering insults and gross rumors of my sexual proclivities! I recognized many of the people lining the streets. Some were craftsmen who supplied goods for my palace, others were villagers whom I sometimes conversed with in my role as head of state. I could not, of course, recall a single name. What royal gives more than a passing notice of those who toil for her? I knew the names of most of my servants but that was professional courtesy. They were permitted to call my "Your Highness" why would they want to know me as anything else?
I did not know what I had done to lose the adoration of my people, but I felt that this unpleasantness would be of only a limited duration. Naively, I clung to the belief that once my people came to their senses, order would be restored and things would be as they had always been ordained to be. I was disabused of that notion the moment that I spied Mister. Harsh Reality sitting in judgment of me. I was raised not to hate. "A princess may dislike but she must never hate." my mother stated to me from infancy. I made an exception for this vile human.
His cold blue-gray eyes stared at me levelly. His bland features were unreadable. His overt ordinariness and seemingly meek exterior belied the fact that the man was a mighty orator. From one end of Storyland to the other he had planted seeds of discontent and revolution. Some of my fellow royals had tried jailing this monster. In every case, coteries of his devotees stormed his prison and liberated him. With each jailbreak, he became more and more powerful, riding the wave of adulation and turning it into a weapon. Now all of Storyland was in tatters and flames. My heart fell into my stomach as I realized that the man I despised the most, and who certainly detested me, would render the sentence. I tried to summon a prayer, but God had been quite absent of late, at least from me.
The courtroom fell quiet as a tomb when the Mister Harsh Reality banged his gavel.
"So we finally meet, "princess" am I everything you expected?"
I shot him my most contemptuous glance. I'd be damned before I allowed myself to believe he wielded any real power.
The gray-bearded man simply laughed and instructed that the charges against me be entered into the record. Now I was sure this was an elaborate tasteless joke. I was accused of everything from stealing from the populace to enslaving the proletariat and extinguishing the labor movements to using my enchantments for personal gain. Not once did they mention the love I had for my people or the times when the palace was thrown open for lavish parties open to all! Some of the words used to impugn me were new to my mind, almost as if, the clerk were making things up out of whole cloth. It was all I could do to maintain my withering expression. At last, the torrent of words trailed off.
"The charges are entered into the record," stated Mister Harsh Reality. He gazed at the jury box and asked, "How does the jury find the defendant?"
The jury box was full of people dressed in the most ordinary of clothes. I recognized a farrier by his filthy apron and I recalled having met the man in the bloody apron of a butcher during one of my goodwill tours of the village. I recalled his last name began with the letter "J" The rest of the occupants of the jury box were fat matrons and callow youths. Not my sort at all. I continued to wonder what I had done wrong. Try as I might, I could find no reason for the enmity directed at me. I had been a perfectly delightful princess, ruling a perfectly delightful village. Did I not protect my village by having my wizard use his enchantments to keep the ogres at bay?
Where was my wizard anyway? I know he was old and not especially powerful but he had never failed to charm the populace. I really needed him now. My eyes darted about the courtroom. Scribes were busily recording the proceedings. Disgustingly, vendors were hawking peanuts to the crowd and horrifyingly, the chief knight of my castle sat to the right of Mister. Harsh Reality. He should be defending me!
An obese woman rose in the jury box, smiled evilly and yelled "Guilty!"
Loud conversations and cheers erupted all about the courtroom until Mister. Harsh Reality restored order with his gavel.
I wanted to wipe the smugness off hs bearded face as he smiled and stated, "Woman, note that you no longer have a title or a name. This court is perfectly within its rights to remove your head from your shoulders."
I gasped in disbelief as calls for my decapitation rebounded about the room.
Mister harsh Reality gaveled quiet once more and continued with, "HOWEVER, you would learn nothing from that experience and your value to the state would be transitory. Therefore, it is the order of this court that you be transported to the next village and sold into basest slavery! In the long years ahead, as you labor incessantly and spread your legs on command, you will appreciate the gravity of your crimes and realize the justness of this sentence. Court dismissed!"
I was numb with anger and fear, anger being foremost as I had not as yet understood the severity of my punishment. I cried, "I'll see you hang for this, Mister Reality!"
My adversary simply smiled and instructed that I be gagged and prepared for market. One of my knights, no I refuse to believe that it was one of my knights, it must have been some stranger in royal colors, produced a ball and a stout rope. My commands to be released died as the ball filled my mouth. Then this impudent man tore away my scanty rags, leaving me naked in a crowded courtroom! It was revolting! It was horrifying! Worse was the way the people laughed and stared and made comments about my person. A minstrel began playing and people started dancing jigs of joy as I was marched out of the courtroom and into the public square. A wagon with a cage affixed to it and a floor of straw waited in the slanting rays of sunset. For the first time, I wondered how long the rebellion against my rule had been brewing. Had I known ...
I was flung into the wagon and the door locked behind me. The wagon began rolling immediately. I tried to stand up as the wagon rattled over the cobblestones. I finally found my footing and turned to face my rapidly receding village. My last view of the only home I knew was a line of soldiers and citizens, half of which dropped their trousers, exposing their buttocks to me while the other half bid me farewell with the middle finger of each hand.
Night was falling as my wagon pulled to a stop in the adjoining village. A sign above the door read, "Simon's Wholesale Slaves." My eyes filled with tears as I was forced out of my cage at sword point. I was still gagged and my hands were still bound. A lean ferret-like man examined me carefully, even forcing his fingers into my cunny and my rear! He fondled my breasts and smelled my hair. I saw a large number of gold coins exchange hands and the ferret-like man led me into his place of business.
A rather tall and powerful appearing but not fat woman stood inside the door. The slave master, whom I assumed to be Simon, addressed her,
"I know it is late and that I normally don't take on new merchandise this late, but I think I can get a very nice price for this one. Clean her up honey, collar her and get her squared away. I'll have her branded in the morning. With any luck, I have doubled her price by tomorrow's sunset."
"You work too hard, darling," returned the woman.
"True, but then again I love my work." stated Simon.
The man turned leaving me with the woman. She was taller than me. She unsheathed a dagger from around her waist and waved the point under my chin.
