The Blue Fairy Book
Bellissima was already fifteen years old, and every one of the Princes
wished to marry her, but not one dared to say so. How could they when
they knew that any of them might have cut off his head five or six times
a day just to please her, and she would have thought it a mere trifle,
so little did she care? You may imagine how hard-hearted her lovers
thought her; and the Queen, who wished to see her married, did not know
how to persuade her to think of it seriously.
“Bellissima,” she said, “I do wish you would not be so proud. What makes
you despise all these nice kings? I wish you to marry one of them, and
you do not try to please me.”
“I am so happy,” Bellissima answered: “do leave me in peace, madam. I
don’t want to care for anyone.”
“But you would be very happy with any of these Princes,” said the Queen,
“and I shall be very angry if you fall in love with anyone who is not
worthy of you.”
But the Princess thought so much of herself that she did not consider
any one of her lovers clever or handsome enough for her; and her mother,
who was getting really angry at her determination not to be married,
began to wish that she had not allowed her to have her own way so much.
At last, not knowing what else to do, she resolved to consult a certain
witch who was called “The Fairy of the Desert.” Now this was very
difficult to do, as she was guarded by some terrible lions; but happily
the Queen had heard a long time before that whoever wanted to pass
these lions safely must throw to them a cake made of millet flour,
sugar-candy, and crocodile’s eggs. This cake she prepared with her own
hands, and putting it in a little basket, she set out to seek the Fairy.
But as she was not used to walking far, she soon felt very tired and sat
down at the foot of a tree to rest, and presently fell fast asleep. When
she awoke she was dismayed to find her basket empty. The cake was all
gone! and, to make matters worse, at that moment she heard the roaring
of the great lions, who had found out that she was near and were coming
to look for her.
“What shall I do?” she cried; “I shall be eaten up,” and being too
frightened to run a single step, she began to cry, and leaned against
the tree under which she had been asleep.
Just then she heard some one say: “H’m, h’m!”
She looked all round her, and then up the tree, and there she saw a
little tiny man, who was eating oranges.
“Oh! Queen,” said he, “I know you very well, and I know how much afraid
you are of the lions; and you are quite right too, for they have eaten
many other people: and what can you expect, as you have not any cake to
give them?”
“I must make up my mind to die,” said the poor Queen. “Alas! I should
not care so much if only my dear daughter were married.”
“Oh! you have a daughter,” cried the Yellow Dwarf (who was so called
because he _was_ a dwarf and had such a yellow face, and lived in the
orange tree). “I’m really glad to hear that, for I’ve been looking for
a wife all over the world. Now, if you will promise that she shall marry
me, not one of the lions, tigers, or bears shall touch you.”
The Queen looked at him and was almost as much afraid of his ugly little
face as she had been of the lions before, so that she could not speak a
word.
“What! you hesitate, madam,” cried the Dwarf. “You must be very fond of
being eaten up alive.”
And, as he spoke, the Queen saw the lions, which were running down a
hill toward them.
Each one had two heads, eight feet, and four rows of teeth, and their
skins were as hard as turtle shells, and were bright red.
At this dreadful sight, the poor Queen, who was trembling like a dove
when it sees a hawk, cried out as loud as she could, “Oh! dear Mr.
Dwarf, Bellissima shall marry you.”
“Oh, indeed!” said he disdainfully. “Bellissima is pretty enough, but I
don’t particularly want to marry her--you can keep her.”
“Oh! noble sir,” said the Queen in great distress, “do not refuse her.
She is the most charming Princess in the world.”
“Oh! well,” he replied, “out of charity I will take her; but be sure and
don’t forget that she is mine.”
As he spoke a little door opened in the trunk of the orange tree, in
rushed the Queen, only just in time, and the door shut with a bang in
the faces of the lions.
The Queen was so confused that at first she did not notice another
little door in the orange tree, but presently it opened and she found
herself in a field of thistles and nettles. It was encircled by a muddy
ditch, and a little further on was a tiny thatched cottage, out of which
came the Yellow Dwarf with a very jaunty air. He wore wooden shoes and
a little yellow coat, and as he had no hair and very long ears he looked
altogether a shocking little object.
“I am delighted,” said he to the Queen, “that, as you are to be my
mother-in-law, you should see the little house in which your Bellissima
will live with me. With these thistles and nettles she can feed a donkey
which she can ride whenever she likes; under this humble roof no
weather can hurt her; she will drink the water of this brook and eat
frogs--which grow very fat about here; and then she will have me always
with her, handsome, agreeable, and gay as you see me now. For if her
shadow stays by her more closely than I do I shall be surprised.”
The unhappy Queen, seeing all at once what a miserable life her daughter
would have with this Dwarf could not bear the idea, and fell down
insensible without saying a word.
When she revived she found to her great surprise that she was lying in
her own bed at home, and, what was more, that she had on the loveliest
lace night cap that she had ever seen in her life. At first she thought
that all her adventures, the terrible lions, and her promise to the
Yellow Dwarf that he should marry Bellissima, must have been a dream,
but there was the new cap with its beautiful ribbon and lace to remind
her that it was all true, which made her so unhappy that she could
neither eat, drink, nor sleep for thinking of it.
The Princess, who, in spite of her wilfulness, really loved her mother
with all her heart, was much grieved when she saw her looking so sad,
and often asked her what was the matter; but the Queen, who didn’t want
her to find out the truth, only said that she was ill, or that one of
her neighbors was threatening to make war against her. Bellissima knew
quite well that something was being hidden from her--and that neither of
these was the real reason of the Queen’s uneasiness. So she made up her
mind that she would go and consult the Fairy of the Desert about it,
especially as she had often heard how wise she was, and she thought that
at the same time she might ask her advice as to whether it would be as
well to be married, or not.
So, with great care, she made some of the proper cake to pacify the
lions, and one night went up to her room very early, pretending that
she was going to bed; but instead of that, she wrapped herself in a long
white veil, and went down a secret staircase, and set off all by herself
to find the Witch.
But when she got as far as the same fatal orange tree, and saw it
covered with flowers and fruit, she stopped and began to gather some
of the oranges--and then, putting down her basket, she sat down to eat
them. But when it was time to go on again the basket had disappeared
and, though she looked everywhere, not a trace of it could she find.
The more she hunted for it, the more frightened she got, and at last she
began to cry. Then all at once she saw before her the Yellow Dwarf.
“What’s the matter with you, my pretty one?” said he. “What are you
crying about?”
“Alas!” she answered; “no wonder that I am crying, seeing that I have
lost the basket of cake that was to help me to get safely to the cave of
the Fairy of the Desert.”
“And what do you want with her, pretty one?” said the little monster,
“for I am a friend of hers, and, for the matter of that, I am quite as
clever as she is.”
“The Queen, my mother,” replied the Princess, “has lately fallen into
such deep sadness that I fear that she will die; and I am afraid that
perhaps I am the cause of it, for she very much wishes me to be married,
and I must tell you truly that as yet I have not found anyone I consider
worthy to be my husband. So for all these reasons I wished to talk to
the Fairy.”
“Do not give yourself any further trouble, Princess,” answered the
Dwarf. “I can tell you all you want to know better than she could. The
Queen, your mother, has promised you in marriage----”
“Has promised _me!_” interrupted the Princess. “Oh! no. I’m sure she has
not. She would have told me if she had. I am too much interested in
the matter for her to promise anything without my consent--you must be
mistaken.”
“Beautiful Princess,” cried the Dwarf suddenly, throwing himself on his
knees before her, “I flatter myself that you will not be displeased
at her choice when I tell you that it is to _me_ she has promised the
happiness of marrying you.”
“You!” cried Bellissima, starting back. “My mother wishes me to marry
you! How can you be so silly as to think of such a thing?”
“Oh! it isn’t that I care much to have that honor,” cried the Dwarf
angrily; “but here are the lions coming; they’ll eat you up in three
mouthfuls, and there will be an end of you and your pride.”
And, indeed, at that moment the poor Princess heard their dreadful howls
coming nearer and nearer.
“What shall I do?” she cried. “Must all my happy days come to an end
like this?”
The malicious Dwarf looked at her and began to laugh spitefully. “At
least,” said he, “you have the satisfaction of dying unmarried. A lovely
Princess like you must surely prefer to die rather than be the wife of a
poor little dwarf like myself.”
“Oh, don’t be angry with me,” cried the Princess, clasping her hands.
“I’d rather marry all the dwarfs in the world than die in this horrible
way.”
“Look at me well, Princess, before you give me your word,” said he. “I
don’t want you to promise me in a hurry.”
“Oh!” cried she, “the lions are coming. I have looked at you enough. I
am so frightened. Save me this minute, or I shall die of terror.”
Indeed, as she spoke she fell down insensible, and when she recovered
she found herself in her own little bed at home; how she got there
she could not tell, but she was dressed in the most beautiful lace and
ribbons, and on her finger was a little ring, made of a single red hair,
which fitted so tightly that, try as she might, she could not get it
off.
When the Princess saw all these things, and remembered what had
happened, she, too, fell into the deepest sadness, which surprised and
alarmed the whole Court, and the Queen more than anyone else. A hundred
times she asked Bellissima if anything was the matter with her; but she
always said that there was nothing.
At last the chief men of the kingdom, anxious to see their Princess
married, sent to the Queen to beg her to choose a husband for her as
soon as possible. She replied that nothing would please her better, but
that her daughter seemed so unwilling to marry, and she recommended them
to go and talk to the Princess about it themselves so this they at once
did. Now Bellissima was much less proud since her adventure with the
Yellow Dwarf, and she could not think of a better way of getting rid
of the little monster than to marry some powerful king, therefore she
replied to their request much more favorably than they had hoped, saying
that, though she was very happy as she was, still, to please them, she
would consent to marry the King of the Gold Mines. Now he was a very
handsome and powerful Prince, who had been in love with the Princess for
years, but had not thought that she would ever care about him at all.