Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 (2 page)

'Madam, your incomparable beauty needs no adornment.'

'Sire,' answered the Princess, 'I assure you that I am not in the
habit of wearing dresses as crumpled and untidy as this one, so I
should have been better pleased if you had not seen me at all.'

'Impossible!' cried King Charming. 'Wherever such a marvellously
beautiful Princess appears I can look at nothing else.'

Here the Queen broke in, saying sharply—

'I assure you, Sire, that Fiordelisa is vain enough already. Pray
make her no more flattering speeches.'

The King quite understood that she was not pleased, but that did
not matter to him, so he admired Fiordelisa to his heart's
content, and talked to her for three hours without stopping.

The Queen was in despair, and so was Turritella, when they saw
how much the King preferred Fiordelisa. They complained bitterly
to the King, and begged and teased him, until he at last
consented to have the Princess shut up somewhere out of sight
while King Charming's visit lasted. So that night, as she went to
her room, she was seized by four masked figures, and carried up
into the topmost room of a high tower, where they left her in the
deepest dejection. She easily guessed that she was to be kept out
of sight for fear the King should fall in love with her; but
then, how disappointing that was, for she already liked him very
much, and would have been quite willing to be chosen for his
bride! As King Charming did not know what had happened to the
Princess, he looked forward impatiently to meeting her again, and
he tried to talk about her with the courtiers who were placed in
attendance on him. But by the Queen's orders they would say
nothing good of her, but declared that she was vain, capricious,
and bad-tempered; that she tormented her waiting-maids, and that,
in spite of all the money that the King gave her, she was so mean
that she preferred to go about dressed like a poor shepherdess,
rather than spend any of it. All these things vexed the King very
much, and he was silent.

'It is true,' thought he, 'that she was very poorly dressed, but
then she was so ashamed that it proves that she was not
accustomed to be so. I cannot believe that with that lovely face
she can be as ill-tempered and contemptible as they say. No, no,
the Queen must be jealous of her for the sake of that ugly
daughter of hers, and so these evil reports are spread.'

The courtiers could not help seeing that what they had told the
King did not please him, and one of them cunningly began to
praise Fiordelisa, when he could talk to the King without being
heard by the others.

King Charming thereupon became so cheerful, and interested in all
he said, that it was easy to guess how much he admired the
Princess. So when the Queen sent for the courtiers and questioned
them about all they had found out, their report confirmed her
worst fears. As to the poor Princess Fiordelisa, she cried all
night without stopping.

'It would have been quite bad enough to be shut up in this gloomy
tower before I had ever seen King Charming,' she said; 'but now
when he is here, and they are all enjoying themselves with him,
it is too unkind.'

The next day the Queen sent King Charming splendid presents of
jewels and rich stuffs, and among other things an ornament made
expressly in honour of the approaching wedding. It was a heart
cut out of one huge ruby, and was surrounded by several diamond
arrows, and pierced by one. A golden true-lover's knot above the
heart bore the motto, 'But one can wound me,' and the whole jewel
was hung upon a chain of immense pearls. Never, since the world
has been a world, had such a thing been made, and the King was
quite amazed when it was presented to him. The page who brought
it begged him to accept it from the Princess, who chose him to be
her knight.

'What!' cried he, 'does the lovely Princess Fiordelisa deign to
think of me in this amiable and encouraging way?'

'You confuse the names, Sire,' said the page hastily. 'I come on
behalf of the Princess Turritella.'

'Oh, it is Turritella who wishes me to be her knight,' said the
King coldly. 'I am sorry that I cannot accept the honour.' And he
sent the splendid gifts back to the Queen and Turritella, who
were furiously angry at the contempt with which they were
treated. As soon as he possibly could, King Charming went to see
the King and Queen, and as he entered the hall he looked for
Fiordelisa, and every time anyone came in he started round to see
who it was, and was altogether so uneasy and dissatisfied that
the Queen saw it plainly. But she would not take any notice, and
talked of nothing but the entertainments she was planning. The
Prince answered at random, and presently asked if he was not to
have the pleasure of seeing the Princess Fiordelisa.

'Sire,' answered the Queen haughtily, 'her father has ordered
that she shall not leave her own apartments until my daughter is
married.'

'What can be the reason for keeping that lovely Princess a
prisoner?' cried the King in great indignation.

'That I do not know,' answered the Queen; 'and even if I did, I
might not feel bound to tell you.'

The King was terribly angry at being thwarted like this. He felt
certain that Turritella was to blame for it, so casting a furious
glance at her he abruptly took leave of the Queen, and returned
to his own apartments. There he said to a young squire whom he
had brought with him: 'I would give all I have in the world to
gain the good will of one of the Princess's waiting-women, and
obtain a moment's speech with Fiordelisa.'

'Nothing could be easier,' said the young squire; and he very
soon made friends with one of the ladies, who told him that in
the evening Fiordelisa would be at a little window which looked
into the garden, where he could come and talk to her. Only, she
said, he must take very great care not to be seen, as it would be
as much as her place was worth to be caught helping King Charming
to see the Princess. The squire was delighted, and promised all
she asked; but the moment he had run off to announce his success
to the King, the false waiting-woman went and told the Queen all
that had passed. She at once determined that her own daughter
should be at the little window; and she taught her so well all
she was to say and do, that even the stupid Turritella could make
no mistake.

The night was so dark that the King had not a chance of finding
out the trick that was being played upon him, so he approached
the window with the greatest delight, and said everything that he
had been longing to say to Fiordelisa to persuade her of his love
for her. Turritella answered as she had been taught, that she was
very unhappy, and that there was no chance of her being better
treated by the Queen until her daughter was married. And then the
King entreated her to marry him; and thereupon he drew his ring
from his finger and put it upon Turritella's, and she answered
him as well as she could. The King could not help thinking that
she did not say exactly what he would have expected from his
darling Fiordelisa, but he persuaded himself that the fear of
being surprised by the Queen was making her awkward and
unnatural. He would not leave her until she had promised to see
him again the next night, which Turritella did willingly enough.
The Queen was overjoyed at the success of her stratagem, end
promised herself that all would now be as she wished; and sure
enough, as soon as it was dark the following night the King came,
bringing with him a chariot which had been given him by an
Enchanter who was his friend. This chariot was drawn by flying
frogs, and the King easily persuaded Turritella to come out and
let him put her into it, then mounting beside her he cried
triumphantly—

'Now, my Princess, you are free; where will it please you that we
shall hold our wedding?'

And Turritella, with her head muffled in her mantle, answered
that the Fairy Mazilla was her godmother, and that she would like
it to be at her castle. So the King told the Frogs, who had the
map of the whole world in their heads, and very soon he and
Turritella were set down at the castle of the Fairy Mazilla. The
King would certainly have found out his mistake the moment they
stepped into the brilliantly lighted castle, but Turritella held
her mantle more closely round her, and asked to see the Fairy by
herself, and quickly told her all that had happened, and how she
had succeeded in deceiving King Charming.

'Oho! my daughter,' said the Fairy, 'I see we have no easy task
before us. He loves Fiordelisa so much that he will not be easily
pacified. I feel sure he will defy us!' Meanwhile the King was
waiting in a splendid room with diamond walls, so clear that he
could see the Fairy and Turritella as they stood whispering
together, and he was very much puzzled.

'Who can have betrayed us?' he said to himself. 'How comes our
enemy here? She must be plotting to prevent our marriage. Why
doesn't my lovely Fiordelisa make haste and come hack to me?'

But it was worse than anything he had imagined when the Fairy
Mazilla entered, leading Turritella by the hand, and said to
him—

'King Charming, here is the Princess Turritella to whom you have
plighted your faith. Let us have the wedding at once.'

'I!' cried the King. 'I marry that little creature! What do you
take me for? I have promised her nothing!'

'Say no more. Have you no respect for a Fairy?' cried she
angrily.

'Yes, madam,' answered the King, 'I am prepared to respect you as
much as a Fairy can be respected, if you will give me back my
Princess.'

'Am I not here?' interrupted Turritella. 'Here is the ring you
gave me. With whom did you talk at the little window, if it was
not with me?'

'What!' cried the King angrily, 'have I been altogether deceived
and deluded? Where is my chariot? Not another moment will I stay
here.'

'Oho,' said the Fairy, 'not so fast.' And she touched his feet,
which instantly became as firmly fixed to the floor as if they
had been nailed there.

'Oh! do whatever you like with me,' said the King; 'you may turn
me to stone, but I will marry no one but Fiordelisa.'

And not another word would he say, though the Fairy scolded and
threatened, and Turritella wept and raged for twenty days and
twenty nights. At last the Fairy Mazilla said furiously (for she
was quite tired out by his obstinacy), 'Choose whether you will
marry my goddaughter, or do penance seven years for breaking your
word to her.'

And then the King cried gaily: 'Pray do whatever you like with
me, as long as you deliver me from this ugly scold!'

'Scold!' cried Turritella angrily. 'Who are you, I should like to
know, that you dare to call me a scold? A miserable King who
breaks his word, and goes about in a chariot drawn by croaking
frogs out of a marsh!'

'Let us have no more of these insults,' cried the Fairy. 'Fly
from that window, ungrateful King, and for seven years be a Blue
Bird.' As she spoke the King's face altered, his arms turned to
wings, his feet to little crooked black claws. In a moment he had
a slender body like a bird, covered with shining blue feathers,
his beak was like ivory, his eyes were bright as stars, and a
crown of white feathers adorned his head.

As soon as the transformation was complete the King uttered a
dolorous cry and fled through the open window, pursued by the
mocking laughter of Turritella and the Fairy Mazilla. He flew on
until he reached the thickest part of the wood, and there,
perched upon a cypress tree, he bewailed his miserable fate.
'Alas! in seven years who knows what may happen to my darling
Fiordelisa!' he said. 'Her cruel stepmother may have married her
to someone else before I am myself again, and then what good will
life be to me?'

In the meantime the Fairy Mazilla had sent Turritella back to the
Queen, who was all anxiety to know how the wedding, had gone off.
But when her daughter arrived and told her all that had happened
she was terribly angry, and of course all her wrath fell upon
Fiordelisa. 'She shall have cause to repent that the King admires
her,' said the Queen, nodding her head meaningly, and then she
and Turritella went up to the little room in the tower where the
Princess was imprisoned. Fiordelisa was immensely surprised to
see that Turritella was wearing a royal mantle and a diamond
crown, and her heart sank when the Queen said: 'My daughter is
come to show you some of her wedding presents, for she is King
Charming's bride, and they are the happiest pair in the world, he
loves her to distraction.' All this time Turritella was spreading
out lace, and jewels, and rich brocades, and ribbons before
Fiordelisa's unwilling eyes, and taking good care to display King
Charming's ring, which she wore upon her thumb. The Princess
recognised it as soon as her eyes fell upon it, and after that
she could no longer doubt that he had indeed married Turritella.
In despair she cried, 'Take away these miserable gauds! what
pleasure has a wretched captive in the sight of them?' and then
she fell insensible upon the floor, and the cruel Queen laughed
maliciously, and went away with Turritella, leaving her there
without comfort or aid. That night the Queen said to the King,
that his daughter was so infatuated with King Charming, in spite
of his never having shown any preference for her, that it was
just as well she should stay in the tower until she came to her
senses. To which he answered that it was her affair, and she
could give what orders she pleased about the Princess.

When the unhappy Fiordelisa recovered, and remembered all she had
just heard, she began to cry bitterly, believing that King
Charming was lost to her for ever, and all night long she sat at
her open window sighing and lamenting; but when it was dawn she
crept away into the darkest corner of her little room and sat
there, too unhappy to care about anything. As soon as night came
again she once more leaned out into the darkness and bewailed her
miserable lot.