The Princess Eglantine
:
The Old-fashioned Fairy Book
A certain queen had twin children, a boy and a girl, both as beautiful
as the dawn of a summer morning. As the mother was one day hanging over
the double cradle, shaped like two silver lilies growing on one stem, an
old aunt of hers, who knew a good deal about magic, arrived from the
country to see the babies and to spend the day.
The old lady took the Princess Eglantine in her arms, and kissed her,
and j
ggled her, and clucked at her, after the fashion of all good
aunties.
"That's a girl to be proud of, my dear!" she said, handing the baby
back to her mamma. "And she looks as good as she is pretty, too."
"They are both wonderful children, nurse says," replied the young
queen, modestly. "And the doctor thinks them the finest pair he has
ever seen. Only the boy is a little high-tempered. He kicks and snaps
at his attendants the whole time he is awake; so take care, aunty dear,
and don't disturb him for the world. We always let him sleep as long as
he will."
"Hoity-toity!" cried aunty, "as if I came out of the woods to be
frightened by an owl. I know how to manage all children!" and the
boy opening his eyes at that moment, she lifted him from his crib, and
laid him on her lap.
Sad to say, he behaved like an infant tiger. Never was there seen such a
tempestuous baby. He wriggled, and howled, and fought, and plunged,
until the poor mother and nurses turned red with mortification. But the
old aunty held on to him bravely, and examined him from top to toe.
Nothing could she find, till she came to the sole of the right foot, and
there was a tiny red mark like a burning torch. As soon as aunty saw
this she sighed, and whispered a word in the baby's ear, when he became
as quiet as any lamb.
Aunty sent away the nurses, and told the poor queen there was no doubt
about it; her boy was bewitched, and when he grew up he would try to
devour his sister. The only thing was to keep them apart, and this the
queen told her husband; and he sent for a wise man, who confirmed what
aunty had said. The wise man added that all would go well so long as the
princess was kept apart from her brother, and as the brother was the
heir of the kingdom, there was nothing left but to banish the
unfortunate princess. The king built for his daughter, in the remotest
corner of his kingdom, an ivory tower. Around the tower was a crystal
moat full of gold and silver fish. Around the moat were lovely
flower-beds, and around the flower-beds was a thick and thorny hedge. In
this tower there was a room lined with tufted blue satin, like the
inside of a bonbon box, and all the furniture was made of fine carved
ivory. Here the princess was shut up for life, under the care of an old
dame, Madame Veloutine by name, who once had kept a boarding-school for
duchesses, and was very respectable indeed. Poor Eglantine was gradually
forgotten at court, and her cannibal brother grew up without knowing he
had ever had a sister.
Like all other captive princesses, past, present, and to come, Eglantine
was beautiful and accomplished. She could speak in every language, work
in silk and crewels, paint china plaques, make mince-pies, sing like a
nightingale, and play anything on the piano at sight with her eyes shut!
Her skin was milk-white, with a rosy flush on the cheeks, while her
glorious golden hair never came out of crimp, but rippled from the roots
to her very feet.
One day a prince, cantering by upon his palfrey, looked up at the tower
window, and there saw this lovely creature, surrounded by a flock of
pretty white doves. Prince Charming gazed and gazed, and the longer he
stood there, the more enraptured he became. When he heard from the
country people that no one knew who or what was this mysterious beauty,
excepting that once a year, by night, a grand gentleman and lady visited
her, and looked at her while asleep, the ardent young prince made a vow
to solve the secret without delay. He engaged his old tutor to make love
to Eglantine's governess, and this plan succeeded so well that the tutor
was, ere long, invited to take a cup of tea at five o'clock, in the
ground floor apartment of the tower where Madame Veloutine kept house.
Madame Veloutine was very much fluttered by the attentions of the
tutor, a gloomy-looking individual with savage dark mustache and
deep-sunken eyes. The poor old thing, who had been reading novels
without any intermission for eighteen years, was very sentimental, and
the idea of a suitor coming to woo at some period of her existence was
never wholly absent from her thoughts. She dressed herself in one of the
Princess Eglantine's white robes, put a blue sash around her waist, and
covering her little red nose with rice powder, sat in a darkened corner
with a guitar upon her knees. The tutor flattered her, and soon she grew
confidential and told him the story of her charge. When the tutor took
his leave, Madame Veloutine sighed deeply, and pitied the poor man who
had fallen a victim to her charms. She did not see the fat purse of gold
the prince bestowed on him, upon learning the true state of the case
about the enchanting captive!
Prince Charming rode, day and night, till he reached the king's palace.
"Give me your daughter for my wife," he said. The king turned pale at
hearing that the secret was betrayed. "For pity's sake speak lower,
young man," said the anxious father. "Only suppose her brother should
hear of it." With that he told the whole story to Prince Charming, who
forthwith rode to ask a wise man what he should do to set the princess
free, with safety to herself.
"Ride as far as you will, and as fast as you will with her, you may not
escape the curse," said the wise man.
The prince went off heavy hearted, and visited a witch he knew. She was
knitting a stocking, which ravelled every night as fast as it grew by
day.
"I have been knitting this stocking for fifty years," said the witch,
taking a pinch of snuff out of the soup-tureenful that she always kept
beside her. "I could as soon make it whole in one night as keep away the
curse from her."
The prince groaned as he rode away. Across his path was a green bough,
half covered by a huge cobweb. In this a tiny being, no bigger than a
fly, was entangled, and was making desperate struggles to be free.
Travelling toward it, with tremendous strides, came an enormous red
spider, with white spots and great protruding eyes. The prince, not
without a shudder, for, like most of us, he hated the nasty things,
killed the spider with a blow, and set free the pretty captive, who
proved to be a fairy. She tidied her iridescent frock, and thanked him
very nicely.
"You have saved my life, dear prince," she said. "Pray let me do
something in return for it."
"Perhaps you can help me," said the prince, eagerly. "If you can't,
never mind," he added, politely, when he had finished telling her the
sad story of his doomed princess. "I don't expect much of a person of
your size, you know; but really it's the greatest relief to talk about
the dear darling!"
"A person of my size!" said the little lady, with a shrill sniff. "I'd
have you to know, prince, that I'm the fairy Buz-fuz, the discoverer of
the celebrated invisibility powder. It is never known to fail, is made
from a fern-seed that I alone can pluck, and is not for sale at
any druggist's! As to lifting the spell from that poor young creature,
the princess, I can't undertake to do it, on any terms; but with the aid
of my powder, one pinch of which sprinkled on an object will make it
disappear from sight in a moment, I believe you can manage to keep clear
of the cannibal brother."
The prince thanked the fairy, took the powder, and galloped off,
light-hearted, to his Eglantine. She, poor thing, had thought of nothing
but the prince and his beauty, and his kind glances and smiles, since he
left her. She wearied of the society of poor old Veloutine, and sighed
for change. Veloutine was in despair. To comfort the princess she
promised to allow her a single meeting with the prince, should he ever
come that way again. "That I am sure he will!" said the princess. "If
you had only seen his eyes when he looked at me! They were so kind, so
true! Oh! Veloutine! he will come back!"
So Eglantine settled down to her embroidery. This was a gown of white
damask with large white satin flowers outlined with real pearls. She had
been at work on it for several years, and a few stitches more would
finish it. She now wrought busily, until the last stitch was set, and
then, with trembling fingers, put it on. Around her neck and waist she
wrapped great chains of pearls, and left her long hair rippling to her
knees. When her toilet was complete she went to the window. It was the
sunset of a summer's day. Around her tower grew vines heavy with
deep-red roses; the shining surface of the moat beneath was streaked
with color from the western clouds. Along the path beyond the hedge rode
a horseman gayly clad in green and gold, who, smiling, doffed a cap with
a single long white plume, and bowed to his saddle-bow. Behind him came
a splendid cavalcade of courtiers and knights on horseback, surrounding
a golden coach in which sat the father and mother of Eglantine, who had
given consent to her marriage with the prince. The poor king and queen
were dreadfully frightened at the rashness of this proceeding. They had
sent the cannibal brother off on a hunting excursion in a distant part
of the country, and had come in fear and trembling, bringing with them
the most trustworthy of their people. They could not resist Prince
Charming, who, in addition to his other attractions, had just lost his
father, the old king, and was now the sole owner and ruler of a
neighboring kingdom, and just the match for their lovely daughter. He
had sworn to them that their child should be kept so securely guarded
that her brother could never reach her.
Eglantine came down from her bower, to be introduced to her father,
mother, and lover all at once. The marriage took place without delay,
and the new king started with his bride for the sea-shore, where they
were to embark for his home.
They set sail in a ship of which the sides were plated with beaten gold.
The sails were of pink satin, and the ropes golden threads plaited
together. The young king and queen sat upon cushions of velvet on the
deck, and talked of their happy future, when suddenly the sky was
darkened as by a cloud, and, riding upon a vulture, the cannibal brother
came after them. He had been hunting, and a wandering breeze carried to
him the story of his sister's escape. Although he had never before heard
he possessed a sister, the first whisper of such a thing was sufficient
to rouse in him the dreadful cannibal instinct to drink her blood. From
where the king and queen sat they could distinctly hear him smacking his
lips with joy at the prospect of his horrible meal. Queen Eglantine,
fearing she knew not what, shuddered from head to foot, and closing her
eyes cast herself upon the king's breast for protection.
The king, bidding her be calm, sprinkled the deck of the ship with one
of the fairy's powders, which he carried in a little crystal box. At the
moment the huge foul bird of prey hovered above them and gave a fierce
swoop downward, the ship and all its contents vanished utterly from
sight, while the vulture with his rider plunged into the sea.
The cannibal prince was a good swimmer, and although his vulture was
immediately drowned, managed to keep up, until he found a dolphin and
got astride its back.
"Now, carry me in pursuit of yonder ship, and mind you swim fast and
well," he exclaimed.
"Master, I obey," said the dolphin, who recognized in him a magician.
"But, look for yourself--blue sky above, blue water below, and not a
sail upon the sea."
The prince looked, and in truth there was no ship to be seen; so,
ordering the dolphin to convey him to the nearest landing-place, he soon
reached the shores of a beautiful country, where flags were flying, and
all the inhabitants were dressed in holiday clothes. Over the wharf was
an arch of most lovely flowers, and five hundred little girls were
strewing the roads with orange blossoms.
"What is taking place?" asked the cannibal brother of the people around
the wharf.
"Where have you been, pray?" said they scornfully, "not to know that
our king brings home his bride to-day!"
Then the ship came in sight and the rejoicings began. The cannibal
brother had no sooner laid eyes upon his sister than a new longing to
drink her blood came over him; and he set about plotting how he could
get hold of her, no easy matter, since the palace was guarded night and
day by twenty white bull-dogs of the fiercest sort, besides the usual
soldiers and attendants. So he took service with a butcher near the
town, and made a bag full of little meat-balls, each one containing a
drop of deadly poison. One day his master sent him to the palace to
carry Queen Eglantine's sweetbreads and mutton-chops. "Now," thought the
brother, "I shall get inside;" but he was mistaken, for the sweetbreads
and mutton-chops were taken from him at the gate, and passed on through
twenty different hands till they reached the cook. As no outsider
whatever was allowed to penetrate the inner palace walls, behind which
the new queen lived surrounded by every luxury, the cannibal brother had
to wait many days for an opportunity to get a sight of her. Meantime his
appetite was gaining terribly, and he went to the blacksmith and had all
his teeth framed in iron, the better to enjoy his horrid meal.
At last King Charming was summoned to meet a neighboring monarch about a
right of way for his armies across a certain peninsula; and, with many
injunctions to the queen not to admit any stranger during his absence,
he reluctantly set out. No sooner was he out of sight than the pretended
butcher's boy hastened to assume his own princely clothing, and, ringing
boldly at the castle gate, told the servants to announce to the queen
that her brother had arrived, bearing messages from her father and
mother. He sent in a golden locket containing likenesses of both the
king and queen, his parents, which convinced Queen Eglantine that his
tale was true. So, joyfully, she ran forth to meet him, and would have
cast herself upon his neck, but that the trained bull-dogs rushed
between, growling most horribly.
"Come here, pretty fellow, nice fellow," said the cannibal brother,
coaxingly; but the dogs only opened their jaws wider than before and
growled defiance.
"Give them these little dainties, sister," said the wily prince,
producing his poisoned meat-balls. "They are some that I always carry
for my own pets."
The innocent queen called the dogs one after another to her side, and
fed them with the fatal balls, which they ate, licking her white hand
gratefully. At once, as the poison began to work, they all lay down in a
row, and became as quiet as they had been before ferocious. The queen
led her brother into an inner room, and bade him sit upon her silken
couch. The prince laughed to himself, for now, thought he, the hour has
come for my coveted meal. But he was seized with the notion to go into
another room in order to file his teeth, which were becoming rather
dull.
"Will you not play for me upon the piano, sister?" he asked lovingly.
The amiable queen, who never waited to be asked twice, sat down to play,
while her brother hid within a closet and began to file his teeth. Up
jumped the queen's cat, in great excitement, and sat on her mistress'
lap.
"Mistress dear," said the affectionate creature, "fly, fly, as fast as
your feet will carry you. Your brother is at this moment getting ready
to make a meal of you, and as he is a magician no one in the castle is
strong enough to defend you from him. In the stable you will find the
king's gray steed. Jump upon his back, and be off, while I play the
piano in your stead."
The terrified queen took to her royal heels, weeping as she stumbled
over the dead bodies of her faithful dogs, and the clever cat sat
playing beautifully so many runs and trills that the prince, admiring
his sister's brilliant execution, made no haste to leave his task until
it was finished to his entire satisfaction.
And now, mounted upon the good gray steed, away flew Queen Eglantine in
search of her beloved spouse. Pretty soon she heard footsteps, and
there, swifter than any horse, swifter than wind, on flew the cannibal
brother after her.
"What shall I do, dear steed?" said the alarmed queen.
"Drop your cloak into the road," said the gray horse, who was the cat's
own cousin.
The queen obeyed, and the cloak became a broad lake, across which the
cannibal brother took a long time to swim. The gray horse got a good
start, but presently the prince came nearly up with him.
"What shall I do now, dear steed?" said the queen, almost ready to fall
fainting from his back.
"Drop the veil from your head," said the horse.
This was done, and the veil became a thick fog, causing the cannibal
brother to lose his way and stumble dreadfully. But he got out of it at
last, and came nearly up with them.
"What shall I do next, dear steed?" said the queen, trembling in every
limb.
"Take your scissors and cut a long lock from your hair, and throw that
behind you."
The queen lifted the scissors that hung at her girdle, and in a moment,
snip! they went into her beautiful golden hair. The hair became a jungle
of tall reeds, and through it the cannibal brother had work indeed to
travel. While he was puffing and blowing and struggling in the reeds,
oh, joy! the queen saw her king riding swiftly to meet her.
Just as the cannibal brother, by a desperate effort of magic strength
had freed himself from the jungle, and emerged in swift pursuit, he had
the mortification of seeing the queen rush into her husband's arms. His
dreadful hunger was now increased until it drove him to desperation.
With a roar of baffled rage he darted toward the royal couple, swearing
that both of them should be his victims; and this no doubt would have
been the case--since the monster was endowed with the strength of fifty
men--but that the king, bidding his queen have no fear, quickly
sprinkled them both, and their steeds, with a pinch of the fairy
fern-seed. Immediately they disappeared from sight, and the cannibal
brother, coming with full force upon the spot where they had been,
beheld only empty space. This disappointment, combined with his now
really appalling appetite, made the miserable wretch fall in a fit upon
the ground.
The king would have killed him where he lay, but the queen pleaded for
her brother's life, so the attendants bore him, insensible, back to the
palace. There, the queen's clever cat advised that he should be left to
her to deal with. She shut herself up with the patient in a tower
bedroom, and during sixty days and nights not a morsel of food passed
the sufferer's lips, except the cat's magic castor-oil--a cupful every
ten minutes--each tasting more nauseous than the one before! In the
morning he was lifted from bed, and put into an ice-cold bath, and then
whipped soundly until his circulation was restored. At the end of the
second month the cat stopped his bath, whipping, and medicines, offering
him instead a handful of parched peas and a dry crust. This diet seemed
to him so delicious that never again could he be tempted to vary it.
Until he reached a green and virtuous old age this prince was never
known to look upon so much as a rare beefsteak without shuddering! His
father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law united their tears of joy at
this happy reform, and who should the clever cat turn out to be, but
aunty, who had taken this means of watching over her favorite Eglantine!
The gray steed was aunty's first cousin upon the mother's side; but when
peace was restored he preferred to go back to his own country to live,
although the grateful King Charming offered him every inducement to
remain, in the way of marble stalls and silver mangers, rose-water to
quench his thirst, and golden oats to eat. Aunty, too, retired to her
own distant castle, and the reformed cannibal lived quiet and happy
until the time came to reign in his good father's stead.
As for Eglantine and King Charming, they never again found use for the
fern-seed powder. Even the faults of one were invisible to the other.
Nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of their entire reign but a
suit for breach-of-promise of marriage, brought against the king's
former tutor by the queen's former governess, Madame Veloutine; and this
was settled speedily by the tutor announcing that, rather than make any
fuss about the matter, he would marry the old lady and be done with it,
although he really could not imagine what there had been in his past
conduct to put such an idea into her venerable head. So at last
Veloutine got a husband, and nobody could be surprised at anything after
that.