Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
General
Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
Fairy tales
with reason, that the Princess might be more touched by the charms of
so perfect a prince than by the recital of the love entertained for
her by another prince whom she had never seen nor even heard speak.
He deplored the cruelty of his destiny, and sought some other mode of
declaring his love to the Princess, but without success.
"None but a demi-god could approach the dwelling of the Fairy without
feeling immediately the direful effect of her fury. He embarked,
therefore, with the Prince of Leaves, agitated by a jealous fear.
It appeared to him that this Prince could not preserve for a single
moment, on beholding the beautiful Princess, the insensibility on which
he had always piqued himself.
"Cupid, touched at the sad state to which he was reduced, wished at
least to re-assure him on this point, and at the same time triumph over
the insensible heart of the Prince of Leaves. It was by you, beautiful
Princess," continued the Butterfly, "that the God expected to gain this
victory, and you alone are worthy of it.
"It was on the same day that the two princes embarked that they saw
from afar, upon this rock, an illumination so brilliant, that the
Prince of Leaves, impelled by his destiny more than by curiosity,
ordered the winged fish which conducted the arbour of myrtle in
which he travelled, to approach the spot from which the bright light
emanated. You know the remainder of this adventure. The Prince of
Leaves found you in the forest of hyacinths, and left at your feet the
liberty which he had held so dear, and which, till that moment, he
had always preserved. Hurried away by the impatience of the Prince of
the Butterflies, who had suffered nothing but regret at the delay, he
tore himself, with infinite pain, from a spot where his heart and his
wishes would have made him desire to remain for ever. They continued
their voyage, and the Prince of the Butterflies was so delighted to see
that the Prince of Leaves was so deeply in love, and so far from being
likely to become his rival, that he did not doubt of its being a happy
omen, and that he might count on a successful issue to his enterprise.
"They arrived in the forest of the Fairy of the Grotto; they entered
her dreary abode, and Cupid, who had resolved to favour them, caused
them to find the Princess of the Linnets alone and asleep. There was
no time to be lost--the Prince of Leaves carried her off in the myrtle
arbour, whilst the Prince of the Butterflies followed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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