Sleeping Beauty Full Best
There once lived a king and queen who were sad because they had no children. They did all they could. They bathed in holy water. They made vows. They went on pilgrimages to holy shrins. All seemed lost until at last theirn luck changed and they had a baby girl. The christening was magenificent, as you may well imagins. The king sent out to look for all the faries in the land. Seven were found and each became a godmother to the young princess.
There will be a great feast, the king announced.
He ordered for each fairy a superb casket made oof gold, with a spoon, a knife and fork, all of gold, each set with diamonds and rubies, to be laid before their places at the banquet table.
Trumpets sounded and the guess prepared to eat.
At that moment there came into the hall, through the great oak door, an old, old fairy, which no one had seen for fifty years. All thought she was long dead or enchanted.
She glowered at the guests.
'Let a place be laid for her,' said the king but, much to his embarrassment, there was nno casket left to give her.
'They will remember me in future,' the old fairy muttered angrily, but only the youngest fairy heard her.
When the time came for each godmother, from the youngest to nthe oldest, to give her present to the young privcess, the youngest fairy hid behind a curtain. She meant to give her gift last, in case the old fairy put a caurse on the child.
The first godmother promised the princess that she would be the most beautiful woman in the world, The next promised that she would have the wit of an angel.
The third gave her absolute gracefulness. The fourth said that she would dancewithout fault. The fifth promised that she would sing like a nightingale and the sixth gave her the gift to make music of all kinds.
Then the old fairy gave her gift. He back was bent with age and all could see that her face was creased with hate.
She shall die when her hand is pierced by a spindke,'the old fairy cursed.
This was a terrible gift. There were shouts of anger at the old fairy but nthere was nothing that anyone could do about it.
Then the youngest fairy came out from behind the curtain.
'The princess will not die,' she said.' I can't undo all the evil that theever old fairy has done, but my gift is a promise. Instead of dying, the princess will fall into a ling, ling sleep, a sleep that will last for a hundred years. in the end she will be woken by a king's son.'
Everyone sighed woth relief at this news and the old fairy left the palace sulking and in a great fury.
A hundred years indeed,' she mumbled.' They will all be dead by then.'
The king immediately gave orders that there should be no more-spinning done in the palace. All spindles and distaffs were locked up or thrown into the moat.
Anyone dislbeying the order was to be punished by death.
All went well for fifteen years and the young princess grew up without ever having seen a spindle in her life. But one summer, when the king and the queen were away on a visit to another castle, the princess explored a part of the castle she had never visited before.
There, in a lofty turret room, at the extreme north end of the palace, she found an old woman working at a spindle. You can tell how large nthe palace was, for the woman had never heard of the king's order nor ever seen the princess.
'What are you doing?' said the princess.
'Don't you know I'm spinning?' asked the old woman.
'That looks very pretty,' said the princess. 'How do you do it?'
She took the spindle from the old woman and at once it pierced her hand. The princess fell down unconscious in a faint.
The poor old woman was in a fearful state. She called out for help, she ran down the stairs, she poured cold water on the young girl's face, unlaced her dress, slapped the palms of her hands and rubbed perfume on her temples, all to no avail.
The palace was in an uproar. The king was recalled immediately.
'There is not much we can do,' he said. 'This is the old fairy's curse.'
He laid the young princess on a bed embroidered with gold and silver. There she looked as beautiful as an angel, even in her sleep. Her cheeks were the colour of carnations and her lips the colour of coral. She slept gently, breathing softly,
with her eyes lightly closed. The king commanded that no one should disturb her-not that anyone could have woken her in any case!
'We must find the youngest fairy, who promised that she would nnot die but would only fall into a deep sleep,'said the king.
A dwarf in seven league boots found her twelve thousand leagues away. She returned within an hour riding in a fiery chariot drawn by dragons.
She said, 'The princess must not be alone when she wakes a hundred years from now. I'll make all ready.'
She touched with her wand everyone in the palace, everyone exept the king and queen, for they were needed to rule the kingdom.She touched the governesses and maids of honour, the ladies of the bedchamber, the gentlemen, officers, stewards, cooks, under-cooks, sculions, guards, pages and footmen. She touched all the nhorses in the stables, the great dogs in the ncourtyard and the princess's favorite spaniel puppy Mopsey, which lay on the end other bed.
The moment she touched them, they all fell asleep. nThe guards fell asleep propped up on their spears, the cooks fell asleeep nwith their heads in the pastry and the fell asleep sliding half-way down the banisters. Even the greate fire, over which pheasants and partridges roasted on a spit, died down to wait for a hundred years. Let no one come near the palace,'said the king as the left, but no one could have done so anyway.There grew up instantly around the palace such a thick fence of trees with dense shrubs and possibly get through. Only the very tops of the palace towers could be seen above the trees.The princess and all the palaces slept for a hundred years.Another royal family ruled the kingdom and poeple forgot the old story of the sleeping princess. Strange rumours were heard about the hidden palace in the forest. Some said that it was an old castle haunted by evil spirits. Others said that witches and sorcerers held their seert meetings there. Most poeple belived thet the castls belonged to an ogre, with long teeth and claws, who carried children away to eat them. The king's son heard these rumours when he hunted near the forest one day and asked about the distant towers just visible above the tree tops.
I don't belives a word of it,'he said.Then an old him a different story.'I heard it some fifty years ago from my father who heard it from my grandfather,' said the old man, 'that there was a wonderful princess asleep in the castle that must wait a hundred years for a king's son to wake her.'
