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
All those she desired to be present at her wedding having arrived, the
celebration of it was no longer delayed. The festivities lasted many
days, and ended at length only because the fairy aunt of the young
bride pointed out to them the propriety of leaving that beautiful
retreat, and returning to their dominions, to show themselves to their
subjects.
It was quite time she should recall their kingdom to their recollection
and the indispensable duties which demanded their presence. Enraptured
with the scenes around them, entranced by the pleasure of loving and
expressing their love to each other, they had entirely forgotten their
royal state and the cares that attend it.
The newly-married pair, indeed, proposed to the Fairy that they should
abdicate, and resign their power into the hands of any one she should
select; but that wise being represented to them clearly that they were
under as great an obligation to fulfil the destiny which had confided
to them the government of a nation as that nation was to preserve for
them an unshaken loyalty.
They yielded to these just remonstrances, but the Prince and Beauty
stipulated that they should be allowed occasionally to visit that spot,
and cast aside for a while the cares inseparable from their station,
and that they should be waited on by the invisible Genii or the
animals who had attended them during the preceding years. They availed
themselves as often as possible of this liberty. Their presence seemed
to embellish the spot. All were eager to please them. The Genii awaited
their visits with impatience, and received them with joy, testifying in
a hundred ways the delight their return afforded them.
The Fairy, whose foresight neglected nothing, gave them a chariot,
drawn by twelve white stags with golden horns and hoofs, like those
she drove herself. The speed of these animals was almost greater than
that of thought; and, drawn by them, you could easily make the tour of
the world in two hours. By this means they lost no time in travelling.
They profited by every moment of leisure, and went frequently in this
elegant equipage to visit their father, the King of the Happy Island,
who had grown so young again through the return of his Fairy Queen,
that he equalled in face and form the Prince, his son-in-law. He felt
also equally happy, being neither less enamoured nor less eager to
prove to his wife his unceasing affection, while she, on her part,
responded to his love with all that tenderness which had previously
been the cause of so much misfortune to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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