Prince Humperdinck took my hand and held it high and the crowd cheered. “That’s enough, mustn’t risk overexposure,” (Goldman 98), he said,as he started back in toward the castle. But I told him that some of them have been waiting so long, and that I would like to walk among them. He replied by telling me that, “we do not walk among commoners unless it is unavoidable,” (Goldman 98). Believe it or not, I was a bit upset by this, “I have known more than a few commoners in my time. They will not, I think, harm me” (Goldman 98). And with that I left the balcony, I then emerged “a moment later on the great steps of the castle and, quite alone, walked open-armed down into the crowd” (Goldman 99). Wherever I went, the people parted, I crossed and recrossed the Great Square, slowly and smiling. I was smiling, when the people wanted to touch my skin or gown I let them. I had studied very hard to do things royally, and I wanted very much to succeed, so I kept my posture erect and my smile gentle. I was rather tired after this victory, so I rested a bit. But very shortly after, I changed into my riding clothes and went to fetch Horse.
Really, that was one thing in my life that hadn’t changed. I still loved to ride, and I would for several hours every afternoon, regardless of weather or whatever happened to be going on. I did my best thinking then. Not that my best thinking ever expanded horizons. Still, I told myself, I was not a dummy either, so as long as I kept my thoughts to myself, well, where was the harm? As I rode through the woods and streams, my brain was awhirl. The walk through the crowd had moved me in a strange way. I’d really done nothing for three years but train to be a princess, and then a queen, today was the first day it actually felt like my reality. I don’t hate Humperdinck or anything, I just don’t like him, he’s always off someplace or playing in the Zoo of Death. Really there are two main problems: was it wrong to marry without like, and if it was, was it too late to do anything about it. The answers: no and yes. In my way of thought, “it wasn’t wrong to marry someone you didn’t like, it just wasn’t right either,” (Goldman 101). The other answer was even easier: I had given my word I would marry; that would have to be enough. True, he had told me quite honestly that if I said no he would have me disposed of, in order to keep respect for the crown at its proper level; still, I could have, had I so chosen to said no. Everyone had been telling me that I was very likely the most beautiful woman in the world. Now I was going to be the richest and most powerful as well. “Don’t expect too much from life,” I told myself, “learn to be satisfied with what you have” (Goldman 101). Dust was closing in, I was about half an hour from the castle, my daily ride was three-quarters done. I reined Horse, standing in the dimness was the strangest trio I had ever seen. “The man in front was dark, Sicilian perhaps, with the gentlest face, almost angelic. He had one leg too short, and the makings of a humpback, but he moved forward toward me with surprising speed and nimbleness. The other two remained rooted. The second, also dark, probably Spanish, was as erect and slender as the blade of steel that was attached to his side. The third man, mustachioed, perhaps a Turk, was easily the biggest human being I had ever ever seen”(Goldman 101-102). He told me that they poor, lost circus performers, looking for a nearby village. When I informed him that there was no one nearby. He jumped at me saying, “Then there will be no one to hear you scream,” (Goldman 102). That was all that I remembered, perhaps I did scream. If I did it was from sheer terror, for there was certainly no pain. But unconsciousness came. This next little bit was honestly a total blur, I awoke to the lapping of water. I was going to speak, but thought it better to listen to their conversation, but after a moment, it got harder and harder to hear. Because of the terrible pounding of my heart. Their conversation was dizzying and frightening. I learned that they were hired to kill me in order to start a war with Guilder. The Sicilian somehow knew that I was awake and listening to it all. He must have been a mind reader. They talked some more, then unconsciousness came. Again. I don’t know how long I was out, but we were still in the boat when I blinked. This time, without daring to think -- the Sicilian would have known it somehow -- I threw the blanket aside and dove deep into the Florin Channel. I stayed under for as long as I dared and then surfaced, starting to swim across the moonless water with every ounce of strength remaining to me. Behind me in the darkness there were cries, apparently none of them can swim. I continued to leave them behind me. My arms ached from effort but I gave them no rest. My legs kicked and her heart pounded. Over the water I heard, “The sharks will get her, don’t worry,” (Goldman 105). I wish he hadn’t mentioned that. “Princess,” the Sicilian called, “do you know what happens to sharks when they smell blood in the water? They go mad. There is no controlling their wildness. They rip and shred and chew and devour, and I’m in a boat, Princess, and there isn’t any blood in the water now, so we’re both quite safe, but there is a knife in my hand, my lady, and if you don’t come back I’ll cut my arms and I’ll cut my legs and I’ll catch the blood in a cup and I’ll fling it as far as I can and sharks can smell blood in the water for miles and you won’t be beautiful for long” (Goldman 105). I hesitated, silently treading water. Around me now, although it was surely my imagination, I seemed to be hearing the swish of giant tails. I thought, “If I come back, they’ll kill me anyway, so what’s the difference? “The difference is—” There he goes doing that again, I thought. He really is a mind reader. “—if you come back now,” the Sicilian went on, “I give you my word as a gentleman and assassin that you will die totally without pain. I assure you, you will get no such promise from the sharks" (Goldman 106). The fish sounds in the night were closer now,” (Goldman 106). I began to tremble with fear. I was terribly ashamed of myself but there it was. I only wished I could see if there were really sharks and blood being caught in the cup. “I don’t believe them,” I thought. “There are no no sharks in the water and there is no blood in his cup” (Goldman 106). “There was the splashing sound of liquid landing on liquid. Then there came a pause. Then the sharks went mad” (Goldman 107). I did not get eaten by the sharks at this time. “Fortunately for all concerned save the sharks, it was around this time that the moon came out” (Goldman 107). The Turk reached out and I was back in the safety of the murderers while the sharks swam around in wild frustration. We soon approached the Cliffs of Insanity. I did not understand. Going up the Cliffs could hardly be done, and no one had ever mentioned secret passages through them. Yet here we were, sailing closer and closer to the rocks. The Spaniard then discovered that, less than a mile behind them “another sailing boat, small, painted what looked like black, with a giant sail that billowed black in the night, and a single man at the tiller. A man in black” (Goldman 110). I could not take my eyes from the great black sail. The men I was with frightened me, but for some reason I could not explain, the man in black frightened me more. The Cliffs of Insanity were very close now. When we reached them, we climbed up and up. The man in black followed closely behind. He almost seemed to be flying. Tied hand and foot, sick with fear, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen. Except this much I knew: she didn’t want to go through anything like it again. It was over, we had reached the top of the Cliffs. The man in black was no more than three hundred feet away. The Sicilian untied the rope, the man in black didn’t fall, instead he kept climbing, not quickly of course, and not without great effort, but he was climbing. The Sicilian ordered the Spaniard to kill him, the Turk picked me up and began to follow the humpback The man in black beat the Spaniard, he then beat the Turk. I don’t know how he did it. The Sicilian laid out a picnic. Then held a knife up to my neck. We sat there, the man in black approached. There was a battle of wits, something about the goblets, some poison, and Australia, I admit, I got lost rather quickly. Somehow, the man in black out thought the Sicilian. When I asked who he was. He simply replied that he was no one to be trifled with.
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AuthorPrincess Buttercup of Hammersmith was once a poor peasant. She fell in love with the farm boy, Westley, and they decided to get married. Tragedy strikes and Westley is reported to have died at sea. Buttercup vows to never love again, even though she gets engaged to Prince Humperdinck roughly five years later. Buttercup is almost assassinated by Vizzini, Inigo, and Fezzik, but saved by a mysterious man, who is in fact her long lost love, Westley... Quotes"Enough about my beauty. Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I’ve got a mind, Westley. Talk about that.”
“Westley and I are joined by the bond of love and you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords.” “I love you, I know this must come as something of a surprise, since all I’ve ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm.” "Let me get this straight. Are you saying my love is a grain of sand and yours is this other thing? Images confuse me so - is this universal business of yours bigger than my sand? Help me, Westley. I have the feeling we're on the verge of something just terribly important.” “Westley, my passion, my sweet, my only, my own. Come back, come back. I shall kill myself otherwise. Yours in torment, Buttercup." She looked at Humperdinck. "Well? Do you think I'm throwing myself at him?" |