第64章 GRACIOSA AND PERCINET(5)

When they got near the palace the Prince made the sledge and themselves invisible, so the Princess got in unobserved, and ran up to the great hall where the King was sitting all by himself.At first he was very much startled by Graciosa's sudden appearance, but she told him how the Queen had left her out in the forest, and how she had caused a log of wood to be buried.The King, who did not know what to think, sent quickly and had it dug up, and sure enough it was as the Princess had said.Then he caressed Graciosa, and made her sit down to supper with him, and they were as happy as possible.But someone had by this time told the wicked Queen that Graciosa had come back, and was at supper with the King, and in she flew in a terrible fury.The poor old King quite trembled before her, and when she declared that Graciosa was not the Princess at all, but a wicked impostor, and that if the King did not give her up at once she would go back to her own castle and never see him again, he had not a word to say, and really seemed to believe that it was not Graciosa after all.So the Queen in great triumph sent for her waiting women, who dragged the unhappy Princess away and shut her up in a garret; they took away all her jewels and her pretty dress, and gave her a rough cotton frock, wooden shoes, and a little cloth cap.There was some straw in a corner, which was all she had for a bed, and they gave her a very little bit of black bread to eat.In this miserable plight Graciosa did indeed regret the fairy palace, and she would have called Percinet to her aid, only she felt sure he was still vexed with her for leaving him, and thought that she could not expect him to come.

Meanwhile the Queen had sent for an old Fairy, as malicious as herself, and said to her:

`You must find me some task for this fine Princess which she cannot possibly do, for I mean to punish her, and if she does not do what I order, she will not be able to say that I am unjust.' So the old Fairy said she would think it over, and come again the next day.When she returned she brought with her a skein of thread, three times as big as herself; it was so fine that a breath of air would break it, and so tangled that it was impossible to see the beginning or the end of it.

The Queen sent for Graciosa, and said to her:

`Do you see this skein? Set your clumsy fingers to work upon it, for I must have it disentangled by sunset, and if you break a single thread it will be the worse for you.' So saying she left her, locking the door behind her with three keys.

The Princess stood dismayed at the sight of the terrible skein.

If she did but turn it over to see where to begin, she broke a thousand threads, and not one could she disentangle.At last she threw it into the middle of the floor, crying:

`Oh, Percinet! this fatal skein will be the death of me if you will not forgive me and help me once more.'

And immediately in came Percinet as easily as if he had all the keys in his own possession.

`Here I am, Princess, as much as ever at your service,' said he, `though really you are not very kind to me.'

Then he just stroked the skein with his wand, and all the broken threads joined themselves together, and the whole skein wound itself smoothly off in the most surprising manner, and the Prince, turning to Graciosa, asked if there was nothing else that she wished him to do for her, and if the time would never come when she would wish for him for his own sake.

`Don't be vexed with me, Percinet,' she said.`I am unhappy enough without that.'

`But why should you be unhappy, my Princess?' cried he.`Only come with me and we shall be as happy as the day is long together.'

`But suppose you get tired of me?' said Graciosa.

The Prince was so grieved at this want of confidence that he left her without another word.

The wicked Queen was in such a hurry to punish Graciosa that she thought the sun would never set; and indeed it was before the appointed time that she came with her four Fairies, and as she fitted the three keys into the locks she said:

`I'll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at all--she prefers to sit with her hands before her to keep them white.'

But, as soon as she entered, Graciosa presented her with the ball of thread in perfect order, so that she had no fault to find, and could only pretend to discover that it was soiled, for which imaginary fault she gave Graciosa a blow on each cheek, that made her white and pink skin turn green and yellow.And then she sent her back to be locked into the garret once more.

Then the Queen sent for the Fairy again and scolded her furiously.`Don't make such a mistake again; find me something that it will be quite impossible for her to do,' she said.

So the next day the Fairy appeared with a huge barrel full of the feathers of all sorts of birds.There were nightingales, canaries, goldfinches, linnets, tomtits, parrots, owls, sparrows, doves, ostriches, bustards, peacocks, larks, partridges, and everything else that you can think of.These feathers were all mixed up in such confusion that the birds themselves could not have chosen out their own.`Here,' said the Fairy, `is a little task which it will take all your prisoner's skill and patience to accomplish.Tell her to pick out and lay in a separate heap the feathers of each bird.She would need to be a fairy to do it.'

The Queen was more than delighted at the thought of the despair this task would cause the Princess.She sent for her, and with the same threats as before locked her up with the three keys, ordering that all the feathers should be sorted by sunset.Graciosa set to work at once, but before she had taken out a dozen feathers she found that it was perfectly impossible to know one from another.

`Ah! well,' she sighed, `the Queen wishes to kill me, and if Imust die I must.I cannot ask Percinet to help me again, for if he really loved me he would not wait till I called him, he would come without that.'

`I am here, my Graciosa,' cried Percinet, springing out of the barrel where he had been hiding.`How can you still doubt that Ilove you with all my heart?'