The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
still remained, for the key was a Fairy, and she could never make it
quite clean; when the blood was gone off from one side, it came again
on the other.
Blue Beard returned from his journey the same evening, and said, he
had received letters upon the road, informing him that the affair he
went about was ended to his advantage. His wife did all she could to
convince him she was extremely glad of his speedy return. Next morning
he asked her for the keys, which she gave him, but with such a
trembling hand, that he easily guessed what had happened.
"What," said he, "is not the key of my closet among the rest?"
"I must certainly," answered she, "have left it above upon the table."
"Fail not," said Blue Beard, "to bring it me presently."
After putting him off several times, she was forced to bring him the
key. Blue Beard, having very attentively considered it, said to his
wife:
"How comes this blood upon the key?"
"I do not know," cried the poor woman, paler than death.
"You do not know," replied Blue Beard; "I very well know, you were
resolved to go into the closet, were you not? Mighty well, Madam; you
shall go in, and take your place among the ladies you saw there."
Upon this she threw herself at her husband's feet, and begged his
pardon with all the signs of a true repentance for her disobedience.
She would have melted a rock, so beautiful and sorrowful was she; but
Blue Beard had a heart harder than any rock.
"You must die, Madam," said he, "and that presently."
"Since I must die," answered she, looking upon him with her eyes all
bathed in tears, "give me some little time to say my prayers."
"I give you," replied Blue Beard, "half a quarter of an hour, but not
one moment more."
* * * * *
When she was alone, she called out to her sister, and said to her:
"Sister Anne" (for that was her name), "go up I beg you, upon the top
of the tower, and look if my brothers are not coming; they promised me
that they would come to-day, and if you see them, give them a sign to
make haste."
Her sister Anne went up upon the top of the tower, and the poor
afflicted wife cried out from time to time, "Anne, sister Anne, do you
see any one coming?"
And sister Anne said:
"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass growing
green."
In the mean while Blue Beard, holding a great scimitar in his hand,
cried out as loud as he could bawl to his wife:
"Come down instantly, or I shall come up to you."
"One moment longer, if you please," said his wife, and then she cried
out very softly:
"Anne, sister Anne, dost thou see any body coming?"
And sister Anne answered:
"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass growing
green."
"Come down quickly," cried Blue Beard, "or I will come up to you."
"I am coming," answered his wife; and then she cried:
"Anne, sister Anne, dost thou see any one coming?"
"I see," replied sister Anne, "a great dust that comes this way."
"Are they my brothers?"
"Alas! no, my dear sister, I see a flock of sheep."
"Will you not come down?" cried Blue Beard.
"One moment longer," said his wife, and then she cried out:
"Anne, sister Anne, dost thou see nobody coming?"
"I see," said she, "two horsemen coming, but they are yet a great way
off."
"God be praised," she cried presently, "they are my brothers; I am
beckoning to them, as well as I can, for them to make haste."
Then Blue Beard bawled out so loud, that he made the whole house
tremble. The distressed wife came down, and threw herself at his feet,
all in tears, with her hair about her shoulders.
"Nought will avail," said Blue Beard, "you must die"; then, taking
hold of her hair with one hand, and lifting up his scimitar with the
other, he was going to take off her head.
The poor lady turning about to him, and looking at him with dying
eyes, desired him to afford her one little moment to recollect
herself.
"No, no," said he, "recommend thyself to God," and was just ready to
strike.
At this very instant there was such a loud knocking at the gate, that
Blue Beard made a sudden stop. The gate was opened, and presently
entered two horsemen, who drawing their swords, ran directly to Blue
Beard. He knew them to be his wife's brothers, one a dragoon, the
other a musqueteer; so that he ran away immediately to save himself;
but the two brothers pursued so close, that they overtook him before
he could get to the steps of the porch, when they ran their swords
thro' his body and left him dead. The poor wife was almost as dead as
her husband, and had not strength enough to rise and welcome her
brothers.
Blue Beard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all his
estate. She made use of one part of it to marry her sister Anne to a
young gentleman who had loved her a long while; another part to buy
captains' commissions for her brothers; and the rest to marry herself
to a very worthy gentleman, who made her forget the ill time she had
passed with Blue Beard.
_The Moral_
_O curiosity, thou mortal bane!
Spite of thy charms, thou causest often pain
And sore regret, of which we daily find
A thousand instances attend mankind:
For thou--O may it not displease the fair--
A fleeting pleasure art, but lasting care.
And always proves, alas! too dear the prize,
Which, in the moment of possession, dies._
_Another_
_A very little share of common sense,
And knowledge of the world, will soon evince
That this a story is of time long pass'd;
No husbands now such panic terrors cast;
Nor weakly, with a vain despotic hand,
Imperious, what's impossible, command:
And be they discontented, or the fire
Of wicked jealousy their hearts inspire,
They softly sing; and of whatever hue
Their beards may chance to be, or black, or blue,
Grizeld, or russet, it is hard to say
Which of the two, the man or wife, bears sway._
_The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood_
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
There were formerly a King and a Queen, who were so sorry that they
had no children, so sorry that it cannot be expressed. They went to
all the waters in the world; vows, pilgrimages, all ways were tried
and all to no purpose. At last, however, the Queen proved with child,
and was brought to bed of a daughter. There was a very fine
christening; and the Princess had for her godmothers all the Fairies
they could find in the whole kingdom (they found seven), that every
one of them might give her a gift, as was the custom of Fairies in
those days, and that by this means the Princess might have all the
perfections imaginable.
After the ceremonies of the christening were over, all the company
returned to the King's palace, where was prepared a great feast for
the Fairies. There was placed before every one of them a magnificent
cover with a case of massive gold, wherein were a spoon, knife and
fork, all of pure gold set with diamonds and rubies. But as they were
all sitting down at table, they saw come into the hall a very old
Fairy whom they had not invited, because it was above fifty years
since she had been out of a certain tower, and she was believed to be
either dead or inchanted. The King ordered her a cover, but could not
furnish her with a case of gold as the others, because they had seven
only made for the seven Fairies. The old Fairy fancied she was
slighted, and muttered some threat between her teeth. One of the young
Fairies, who sat by her, overheard how she grumbled; and judging that
she might give the little Princess some unlucky gift, went, as soon as
they rose from the table, and hid herself behind the hangings, that
she might speak last, and repair, as much as possible she could, the
evil which the old Fairy might intend.
In the mean while all the Fairies began to give their gifts to the
Princess. The youngest gave her for gift, that she should be the most
beautiful person in the world; the next, that she should have the wit
of an angel; the third, that she should have a wonderful grace in
every thing she did; the fourth, that she should dance perfectly well;
the fifth, that she should sing like a nightingale; and the sixth,
that she should play upon all kinds of music to the utmost perfection.
The old Fairy's turn coming next, with a head shaking more with spite
than age, she said, that the Princess should have her hand pierced
with a spindle, and die of the wound. This terrible gift made the
whole company tremble, and every body fell a-crying.
At this very instant the young Fairy came out from behind the
hangings, and spake these words aloud:
"Be reassured, O King and Queen; your daughter shall not die of this
disaster: it is true, I have no power to undo intirely what my elder
has done. The Princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle;
but instead of dying, she shall only fall into a profound sleep, which
shall last a hundred years; at the expiration of which a king's son
shall come and awake her."
The King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old Fairy, caused
immediately proclamations to be made, whereby every-body was
forbidden, on pain of death, to spin with a distaff and spindle or to
have so much as any spindle in their houses.
About fifteen or sixteen years after, the King and Queen being gone to
one of their houses of pleasure, the young Princess happened one day
to divert herself running up and down the palace; when going up from
one apartment to another, she came into a little room on the top of a
tower, where a good old woman, alone, was spinning with her spindle.
This good woman had never heard of the King's proclamation against
spindles.
"What are you doing there, Goody?" said the Princess.
"I am spinning, my pretty child," said the old woman, who did not know
who she was.
"Ha!" said the Princess, "this is very pretty; how do you do it? Give
it to me, that I may see if I can do so." She had no sooner taken the
spindle into her hand, than, whether being very hasty at it, somewhat
unhandy, or that the decree of the Fairy had so ordained it, it ran
into her hand, and she fell down in a swoon.
The good old woman not knowing very well what to do in this affair,
cried out for help. People came in from every quarter in great
numbers; they threw water upon the Princess's face, unlaced her,
struck her on the palms of her hands, and rubbed her temples with
Hungary-water; but nothing would bring her to herself.
And now the King, who came up at the noise, bethought himself of the
prediction of the Fairies, and judging very well that this must
necessarily come to pass, since the Fairies had said it, caused the
Princess to be carried into the finest apartment in his palace, and to
be laid upon a bed all embroidered with gold and silver. One would
have taken her for an angel, she was so very beautiful; for her
swooning away had not diminished one bit of her complexion; her cheeks
were carnation, and her lips like coral; indeed her eyes were shut,
but she was heard to breathe softly, which satisfied those about her
that she was not dead. The King commanded that they should not disturb
her, but let her sleep quietly till her hour of awakening was come.
The good Fairy, who had saved her life by condemning her to sleep a
hundred years, was in the kingdom of Matakin, twelve thousand leagues
off, when this accident befell the Princess; but she was instantly
informed of it by a little dwarf, who had boots of seven leagues, that
is, boots with which he could tread over seven leagues of ground at
one stride. The Fairy came away immediately, and she arrived, about an