Fortunatus Rex & Co

Fortunatus Rex & Co by Edith Nesbit

Miss Fitzroy Robinson, a genteel but under-financed lady, opens a "Select Boarding Establishment for the Daughters of Respectable Monarchs," insisting on excellent references and charging ten thousand pounds a year, which allows her to save money and invest it in land. Her only pupils are seven princesses, including little Princess Daisy, daughter of King Fortunatus, the school's sole non-parlour-boarder. One washing-day, the Chevalier Doloro De Lara, Professor of Magic, calls seeking a teaching post at the school, recalling that Miss Fitzroy Robinson was once his pupil. She refuses him, wary of magicians near princesses. He locks himself in the schoolroom; she climbs down the chimney via emergency steps but arrives a second too late — all seven princesses have vanished, and the Professor stands alone, smiling. The next day, King Fortunatus arrives for Daisy's usual outing and finds Miss Fitzroy Robinson dressed in sackcloth and cinders, mourning the disappearance. She recounts the Professor's visit and asks the King to trust her to resolve matters rather than punish her, citing their exchanged references. He agrees, closes the school, and returns home broken-hearted. Time passes with no news. The Queen, busy with housekeeping, urges the grieving King to occupy himself, so he founds "Fortunatus Rex & Co.," a speculative building company that buys up green land and covers it with yellow-brick streets and houses, growing very rich. The company's expansion is halted at Clover Hill, whose owner, a little old woman in grey, refuses to sell the top twenty-two acres, demanding two red-brick walls (an inner seven-acre and outer fifteen-acre enclosure), a law hanging fruit thieves, and a fierce bulldog named Martha for the wall's weak corner. The King agrees, and Clover Hill's summit remains green amid the yellow-brick sprawl. Six handsome Princes arrive in the new town, sent by their distant royal fathers to marry the six lost princesses (each Prince assigned a specific Princess by name). Finding the school shut, they lease the furnished house themselves and dine at the Palace, swearing to find their brides. On their seventh night in the house, a voice from the schoolroom's terrestrial globe pleads to be let out; Prince Primus cuts it open with his sword, revealing the top half of the Professor of Magic, his other half trapped in the celestial globe. The Princes refuse to free his legs until he tells them how to find the princesses. He tells them to "steal apples," then faints. Guided by young Prince Denis (King Fortunatus's son), who knows of apples in the old woman's orchard atop Clover Hill, the six Princes climb the wall (past Martha, who respects royalty) and each pluck a golden apple from a tree with copper trunk, brass branches, and silver leaves. Denis insists on joining despite the danger. As they leave, Denis bites his apple, breaking his teeth on its stony hardness; the old woman wakes, Martha barks, and the six Princes are captured and sentenced by King Fortunatus (business is business) to be hanged the next morning, though Denis is spared due to his youth. Denis visits the trapped half-Professor via the schoolroom chimney; pressed for help, the Professor again says "steal apples" and mentions "seven kisses." Denis rushes to the orchard, finds the Princes hanged but not dead, and cuts them down with the gardener's boy's penknife. The Princes, disappointed at being woken from happy dreams, are told by Denis to steal apples again — new golden apples have appeared on the tree. Each Prince picks one (Denis choosing the smallest this time) and kisses it seven times, and each apple becomes a Princess. Denis's apple yields his sister Daisy. However, every Prince has picked the wrong apple, pairing with a Princess other than the one assigned to him — except Denis, who got Daisy because he took the smallest. None of the mismatched couples wish to change partners. The old woman explains the pairings are permanent once a Princess is kissed free, and as she speaks she grows younger, revealing herself as Miss Fitzroy Robinson, now about fifty-five. Her former pupils greet her respectfully. The company goes to the old school, and the half-Professor, having promised to abandon magic for an honest trade, has his legs restored and departs to become a plumber, remarking that his talents will still serve him in "a little hanky-panky." When King Fortunatus offers Miss Fitzroy Robinson any reward for restoring the princesses, she asks him to "make the land green again." Fortunatus Rex & Co. then dismantles the yellow-brick streets they built, restoring the countryside to near its former green state. The Queen praises Miss Fitzroy Robinson's cleverness in trapping the Professor in the two globes, and the King concludes that all turned out well because he always insisted on the highest references.

By Edith Nesbit · First published 1906 · Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Children's Literature · 6,246 words

First lines

THERE was once a lady who found herself in middle life with but a slight income. Knowing herself to be insufficiently educated to be able to practise any other trade or calling, she of course decided, without hesitation, to enter the profession of teaching. She opened a very select Boarding School for Young Ladies. The highest references were given and required. And in order to keep her school as select as possible, Miss Fitzroy Robinson had a brass plate fastened on to the door, with an inscription in small polite lettering. (You have, of course, heard of the "polite letters. " Well, it was with these that Miss Fitzroy Robinson's door-plate was engraved.)

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Fantasy · Adventure · Children's Literature · Classic · Humor · Satire · Social Commentary · Quest · Magic · Imaginary Kingdoms · Royalty · Wealth

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Fortunatus Rex & Co is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edith Nesbit, dated 1906 CE.

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