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
The King raised her and pressed her tenderly in his arms, without
comprehending why she addressed him by that title. He imagined she must
be some orphan Princess, who sought his protection from some oppressor,
and who made use of the most touching expression in order to obtain
her request. He was about to assure her that he would do all that lay
in his power to assist her, when he recognized the Queen his sister,
who, embracing him in her turn, presented her son to him. She then
informed him of some of the obligations they were under to Beauty, and
especially of the frightful enchantment that had just been terminated.
The King praised the young Princess, and desired to know her name,
when the Fairy, interrupting him, asked if it was necessary to name
her parents, and if he had never known any one whom she resembled
sufficiently to enable him to guess them. "If I judged only from her
features," said he, gazing upon her earnestly, and not being able to
restrain a few tears, "the title she has given to me is legitimately
my due; but notwithstanding that evidence, and the emotion which her
presence occasions me, I dare not flatter myself that she is the
daughter whose loss I have deplored; for I had the most positive proof
that she had been devoured by wild beasts. Yet," he continued, still
examining her countenance, "she resembles perfectly the tender and
incomparable wife whom death has deprived me of. Oh, that I could but
venture to indulge in the delightful hope of beholding again in her the
fruit of a happy union, the bonds of which were too soon broken!"
"You may, my liege," replied the Fairy; "Beauty is your daughter. Her
birth is no longer a secret here. The Queen and Prince know who she is.
I caused you to direct your steps this way on purpose to inform you;
but this is not a fitting place for me to enter into the details of
this adventure. Let us enter the Palace. After you have rested yourself
there a short time I will relate to you all you desire to know. When
you have indulged in the delight which you must feel at finding a
daughter so beautiful and so virtuous I will communicate to you another
piece of intelligence, which will afford you equal gratification."
The King, accompanied by his daughter and the Prince, was ushered by
the monkey officers into the apartment destined for him by the Fairy,
who took this opportunity of restoring to the statues the liberty
of relating what they had witnessed. As their fate had excited the
compassion of the Queen, it was from her hands that the Fairy desired
they should receive the benefit of re-animation. She placed her wand
in the Queen's hand, who, by her instructions, described with it seven
circles in the air, and then pronounced these words: "Be re-animated.
Your King is restored to you." All the statues immediately began to
move, walk, and act as formerly, retaining only a confused idea of what
had happened to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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