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
That I adored thee yesterday I swore
An hundred times; and broken ne'er can be
The vows I uttered from my fond heart's core;
For Love himself dictated them to me,
And beauty such as thine ensureth constancy.
After what the Fairy had ordained, the Princess comprehended that she
ought to receive these attentions from her new admirer as those of a
Prince who was shortly to be her husband.
She received the little Cupids very graciously, and they had scarcely
taken their departure, when twenty-four dwarfs, fancifully, but
magnificently attired, appeared, bearing other presents. They consisted
of dresses made entirely of feathers; but the colours, the work, and
the jewels with which they were ornamented were so beautiful, that the
Princess admitted she had never seen anything so elegant.
She chose a rose-coloured dress to wear that day. Her head-dress
was composed of plumes of the same colour. She appeared so charming
with these new ornaments, that the Prince of the Peaceful Island,
who came to see her as soon as she was dressed, felt his passion for
her redoubled. All the Court hastened to admire the Princess. In the
evening the Prince proposed to the fair Hebe to descend into the
palace gardens, which were admirably laid out.
During the promenade, the Prince informed Hebe that the Fairy had, for
the last four years, led him to expect that Princess's arrival in the
Peaceful Island; "but shortly after that period," added the Prince, "on
my pressing her to fulfil her promise, she appeared distressed, and
said to me, 'The Princess Hebe is destined by her father to another;
but if my science does not deceive me, she will not marry the Prince
who has been chosen for her husband. I will let you know the issue.'
Some months afterwards the Fairy returned to the island. 'Fate favours
you,' said she to me: 'the Prince who was to have married Hebe will
not be her husband, and in a short time you will behold here the most
beautiful Princess in the world.'"
"It is true," replied Hebe, blushing, "that I was to have married the
son of a King whose dominions were adjacent to those of my father;
but, after several events, the love he conceived for the Princess, my
sister, induced him to fly with her from my father's kingdom."
The Prince of the Peaceful Island said a thousand tender things to the
beautiful Hebe respecting the happy destiny which, in accordance with
the Fairy's desire, had brought the Princess into his dominions. She
listened to him with greater pleasure, as it interrupted her account of
her own adventures, for she feared she could not speak of her faithless
lover without the Prince's observing how great had been her affection
for him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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