The EndThe king sent Curdie out into his dominions to search for men and women that had human hands.And many such he found, honest and true, and brought them to his master.So a new and upright court was formed, and strength returned to the nation.
But the exchequer was almost empty, for the evil men had squandered everything, and the king hated taxes unwillingly paid.Then came Curdie and said to the king that the city stood upon gold.And the king sent for men wise in the ways of the earth, and they built smelting furnaces, and Peter brought miners, and they mined the gold, and smelted it, and the king coined it into money, and therewith established things well in the land.
The same day on which he found his boy, Peter set out to go home.
When he told the good news to Joan, his wife, she rose from her chair and said, 'Let us go.' And they left the cottage, and repaired to Gwyntystorm.And on a mountain above the city they built themselves a warm house for their old age, high in the clear air.
As Peter mined one day, at the back of the king's wine Cellar, he broke into a cavern crusted with gems, and much wealth flowed therefrom, and the king used it wisely.
Queen Irene - that was the right name of the old princess - was thereafter seldom long absent from the palace.Once or twice when she was missing, Barbara, who seemed to know of her sometimes when nobody else had a notion whither she had gone, said she was with the dear old Uglies in the wood.Curdie thought that perhaps her business might be with others there as well.All the uppermost rooms in the palace were left to her use, and when any one was in need of her help, up thither he must go.But even when she was there, he did not always succeed in finding her.She, however, always knew that such a one had been looking for her.
Curdie went to find her one day.As he ascended the last stair, to meet him came the well-known scent of her roses; and when he opened the door, lo! there was the same gorgeous room in which his touch had been glorified by her fire! And there burned the fire - a huge heap of red and white roses.Before the hearth stood the princess, an old grey-haired woman, with Lina a little behind her, slowly wagging her tail, and looking like a beast of prey that can hardly so long restrain itself from springing as to be sure of its victim.