Fortunate

Once upon a time there was a poor plowman, who saw himself on the point of die, did not want to leave in his estate any subject of dispute to his son and his daughter whom he loved dearly.

“Your mother brought me,” he told them, “as a dowry, two stools and a benchtop. Here they are with my chicken, a pot of carnations, and a rush of money which was given to me by a great lady who stayed in my poor cottage; she said to me as she left: “My good man, this is a gift what I do to you; be careful to water the carnations well, and tighten the ring securely. Besides, your daughter will be incomparably beauty, name her Fortunée, give her the ring and the carnations, for console him for his poverty." Thus, added the good man, my Fortunate, you you will have one and the other, the rest will be for your brother.”

The two children of the plowman seemed happy: he died. They cried, and the sharing was done without trial. Fortunée believed that his brother loved him; but having wanted to take one of the stools to sit:

“Keep your carnations and your ring,” he said to her, with a fierce air, “and for my stools don’t bother them, I like order in my house.”

Fortunée, who was very gentle, began to cry quietly; she remained standing, while Bedou (that's his brother's name) was better seated than a doctor.

Supper time came, Bedou had an excellent fresh egg from his the only hen, he threw the shell to his sister.

“Here,” he said to her, “I have nothing else to give you; if you don't Don't worry, go hunting for frogs, there are some in the next marsh.”

Fortunée said nothing. What would she have said? She looked up in heaven, she cried again, and then she went into her room. She has it found everything fragrant, and not doubting that it was the smell of his carnations, she approached them sadly, and said to them:

“Beautiful carnations, the variety of which gives me extreme pleasure to see, you who strengthen my afflicted heart, with this sweet perfume that you pour out, do not fear that I will let you run out of water, and that with one hand cruel, I tear you from your rod; I will take care of you, since you are my only possession.”

As she finished these words, she looked to see if they needed to be watered; they were very dry. She took her pitcher and ran into the light of the moon to the fountain, which was quite far away.

As she had walked quickly, she sat down on the edge to rest; but she was barely there when she saw a lady come, whose majestic air responded well to the numerous suite that accompanied him; six girls of honor supported the tail of his coat; she leaned on two others; her guards walked before her, richly dressed in velvet amaranth, in pearl embroidery: we carried an armchair of cloth of gold, where she sat down, and a field canopy, which was soon stretched; same time the buffet was set up, it was all covered with gold dishes and crystal vases. He was served an excellent supper by the river. fountain, whose sweet murmur seemed to agree with several voices, which sang these words:

Our woods are agitated by the most tender zephirs,
Flora shines on these shores;
Under these dark foliage
Enchanted birds express their desires.

Take care to hear them;
And if your heart wants to love,
There are sweet objects that can charm you:
We will be proud to surrender.

Fortunée stood in a little corner, not daring to move, she was so surprised at all the things that were happening. After a moment, this great queen said to one of her squires:

“It seems to me that I see a shepherdess near this bush, make her approach.”

Immediately Fortunée came forward, and however shy she was naturally, she did not fail to make a deep bow to the queen, with so much please, that those who saw it were astonished; she took the the bottom of her dress which she kissed, then she stood before her, lowering his eyes modestly; his cheeks were covered with a crimson which enhanced the whiteness of her complexion, and it was easy to notice in his manners this air of simplicity and gentleness, which charm in young people.

“What are you doing here, beautiful girl,” said the queen to her, “don’t you fear no thieves?

--Alas! madame, said Fortunée, I only have a linen coat, which would they win with a poor shepherdess like me?

--So you are not rich? replied the queen, smiling.

--I am so poor, said Fortunée, that I only inherited from my father a pot of carnations and a silver bangle.

--But you have a heart, added the queen, if someone wanted it from you take, would you give it?

--I don't know what it means to give my heart, madame, she replied, I have always heard that without your heart you cannot to live, that when injured one must die, and despite my poverty, I am not sorry to live.

--You will always be right, beautiful girl, to defend your heart. But tell me, continued the queen, did you have a good supper?

“No, madame,” said Fortunée, “my brother ate everything.”

The queen ordered that a place to be brought to her, and that she be table, she served him the best. The young shepherdess was so surprised with admiration, and so charmed by the kindness of the queen, that she could barely eat a piece.

“I would like to know,” said the queen, “what you are coming to do if late at the fountain?

--Madame, she said, here is my jug, I came to fetch some water for water my carnations.”

Speaking thus, she stooped to take her pitcher which was near of her; but when she showed it to the queen, she was very surprised to find it of gold, all covered with large diamonds, and filled with water which smelled admirably good. She did not dare take it, fearing that it was not hers.

“I give it to you, Fortunée,” said the queen; go and water the flowers you take care, and remember that the Queen of the Woods wants to be of your friends.”

At these words, the shepherdess threw herself at his feet.

“After having rendered you very humble thanks, madame,” she said to her, “to the honor you do me, I dare to take the liberty of praying to you to wait here a moment, I will ask you for half of my property, it's my pot of carnations, which can never be in better hands than yours.

--Come on, Fortunée, said the queen to her, gently touching her cheeks, I agree to stay here until you return.”

Fortunée took her golden pitcher and ran into her little room; but while she had been absent, her brother Bedou had entered it, he had taken the pot of carnations, and put a large cabbage in their place. When Fortunée saw this unfortunate cabbage, she fell into the last affliction, and remained very unresolved whether she would return to fountain. Finally she decided, and kneeling before the queen:

“Madame,” she said to her, “Bedou stole my pot of carnations, I only have than my rush; I beg you to receive it as proof of my acknowledgement.

--If I take your rush, beautiful shepherdess, said the queen, there you are ruined?

--Ha! madame, she said, with a very witty air, if I have your good graces, I cannot ruin myself.”

The queen took Fortunée's bangle and put it on her finger; immediately she rode in a coral chariot, enriched with emeralds, pulled by six horses white, more beautiful than the team of the sun. Fortunée followed her eyes, as much as she could; finally the different roads of the forest hid from his sight. She returned to Bedou, filled with this adventure. The first thing she did when she entered the room was was to throw the cabbage out the window. But she was very surprised to hear a voice shouting: “Ha! I am dead." She didn't understand nothing to these complaints, because ordinarily cabbages do not speak. Of the When it was day, Fortunée, worried about her pot of carnations, went downstairs down to fetch it; and the first thing she found was the unfortunate cabbage; she kicked him, and said:

“What are you doing here, you who interfere in taking the place of my carnations?

--If they had not taken me there, replied the cabbage, I would not have advised of my mind to go there.”

She shivered, because she was very frightened; but the cabbage said to him again:

“If you want to report me with my comrades, I will tell you in two words that your carnations are in Bedou’s pallet.”

Fortunée, in despair, did not know how to take them back; she had the kindness to plant the cabbage, and then she took her favorite hen brother, and said to him:

“Wicked beast, I’m going to make you pay for all the sorrows that Bedou gave me given.

--Ha! shepherdess, said the hen, let me live, and as my mood is cackling, I'm going to teach you some surprising things.

“Do not believe that you are the daughter of the plowman with whom you were fed; no, beautiful Fortune, he is not your father; but the queen who gave birth, had already had six daughters; and as if she had been there mistress to have a boy, her husband and her father-in-law told her that they would stab her, unless she gave them an heir.

"The poor, afflicted queen became pregnant; she was locked up in a castle, and guards were placed near her, or better said, executioners, who had orders to kill her if she had another daughter. This princess, alarmed by the misfortune that threatened her, did not eat or sleep more; she had a sister who was a fairy; she wrote to him her righteous fears; the fairy being pregnant, knew well that she would have a son. When she was given birth, she loaded the zephirs into a basket, where she locked her son up very neatly, and she gave them orders that they carried the little prince to the queen's bedroom, in order to change for the daughter she would have: this foresight served no purpose nothing, because the queen received no news from her sister the fairy, took advantage of the good will of one of his guards, who took pity on him, and who saved her with a rope ladder.

"As soon as you came into the world, the afflicted queen seeking to hide, arrived in this little house, half dead with weariness and pain; I was a plowman, said the hen, and a good nurse, she took charge of you, and told me about her misfortunes, of which she found herself so overwhelmed, that she died without having time to order us what we would make you.

"As I have loved chatting all my life, I could not help but say this adventure; so that one day there came hither a beautiful lady, which I told everything I knew about it. Immediately she touched me with a wand, and I became a chicken, without being able to speak any further: my affliction was extreme and my husband who was absent at the time of I never knew about this metamorphosis.

"On his return, he looked for me everywhere; finally he believed that I was drowned, or that the beasts of the forest had devoured me. This same lady who had done me so much harm, passed this way a second time; her him ordered you to be called Fortunée, and presented her with a silver bangle and a pot of carnations; but as she was there, it happened twenty-five guards of the king your father, who were searching for you bad intentions: she said a few words, and made them become green cabbages, among which is the one you threw away yesterday evening through your window. I hadn't heard him speak until now, I couldn't speak myself, I don't know how the voice is to us returned.”

The princess remained very surprised by the wonders that the hen had just tell him; she was still full of kindness, and said to him:

“You make me very sorry, my poor nurse, for having become a hen, I would very much like to give you back your first appearance, if I could; but let us not despair of anything, it seems to me that all the things that you just taught me, cannot remain in the same situation. I I'm going to get my carnations, because I only love them."

Bedou had gone to the woods, not being able to imagine that Fortunée would take it into his head to rummage through his pallet; she was delighted at his distance, and flattered that she would find no resistance, when she saw everything at once a large quantity of prodigious rats, armed for war: they lined up in battalions, having behind them the famous mattress and the stools at the sides; several large mice formed the body of reserve, resolved to fight like amazons.

Fortunée remained very surprised; she did not dare to approach, because the rats threw themselves on her, biting her and making her bloody.

"What! she cried, “my carnation, my dear carnation, will you stay such bad company?”

She suddenly realized that perhaps this water was so fragrant that she had in a golden vase, would have a particular virtue; she ran there to fetch; she threw a few drops on the people of Souris; same time the scum fled each into their own hole and the princess took promptly its beautiful carnations, which were on the verge of dying, so they needed to be watered; she poured all the water on it was in her golden vase, and she smelled them with great pleasure, when she heard a very sweet voice coming from between the branches, and who said to him:

“Incomparable Fortunate, here is the happy and much desired day of you declare my feelings; know that the power of your beauty is such, that it can make even the flowers sensitive.”

The princess, trembling and surprised to have heard a cabbage speak, hen, a carnation, and having seen an army of rats, became pale and fades away. Bedou arrived there: work and the sun had heated the head; when he saw that Fortunée had come to get her carnations, and she had found them, he dragged her to her door, and put her out. She barely felt the coolness of the earth, that she opened her beautiful eyes; she saw near her the queen of Wood, always charming and magnificent.

“You have a bad brother,” she said to Fortunée, “I saw how inhumanity he threw you here; do you want me to avenge you?

--No, madame, she said to her, I am not capable of getting angry, and his bad nature cannot change mine.

--But, added the queen, I have a presentiment which assures me that this big plowman is not your brother; What do you think?

--All appearances convince me that he is, madame, replied modestly the shepherdess, and I must believe them.

--What! continued the queen, have you not heard that you are born princess?

"I was told that recently," she replied, "however would I dare to brag about something I have no proof of?

--Ha, my dear child, added the queen, how I love you so much. mood! I now know that the obscure education you received has not stifled the nobility of your blood. Yes, you are princess, and he did not require me to guarantee you from the disgraces that you have experienced up to this time.”

She was interrupted there by the arrival of a young teenager. more beautiful than the day; he was dressed in a long jacket mixed with gold and green silk, attached by large emerald buttonholes, rubies and diamonds; he had a crown of carnations, his hair covered his shoulders. As soon as he saw the queen, he got down on one knee earth, and saluted her respectfully.

"Ha! my son, my kind Oeillet, she said to him, the fatal time of your enchantment has just ended, with the help of the beautiful Fortunée: what a joy to see you!”

She hugged him tightly in her arms; and then turning towards the shepherdess:

“Charming princess,” she said to her, “I know everything that the hen has told you. told: but what you do not know is that the zephyrs that I was responsible for putting my son in your place, carried him in a flower bed. While they were going to get your mother who was my sister, a fairy who knew nothing of the most secrets, and with which I have been estranged for a long time, the moment she had planned since the birth of my son, that she changed it immediately into a carnation, and despite my knowledge, I could not prevent this misfortune. In the sorrow to which I was reduced, I used everything my art to seek some remedy, and I found no more assured that to bring Prince Oeillet to the place where you were fed, guessing that when you would have watered the flowers of the water delicious that I had in a golden vase, he would speak, he would would like, and that in the future nothing would disturb your rest; I even had the silver bangle that I had to receive from your hand, not ignoring not that it would be the mark by which I would know that the hour was approaching where the charm lost its strength, despite the rats and mice that our enemy had to take the field, to prevent you from touching the eyelets. So, my dear Fortunée, if my son marries you with this rush, your happiness will be permanent: see now if this prince seems kind enough to receive him as a husband.

--Madame, she replied, blushing, you fill me with graces, I know that you are my aunt; that by your knowledge, the guards sent to kill me, were transformed into cabbages, and my nurse into a hen; that by offering me the alliance of Prince Oeillet, he is the greatest honor where I can claim. But, shall I tell you my uncertainty? I I don't know his heart, and I'm beginning to feel for the first time time in my life that I couldn't be happy if he didn't love me.

--Have no doubts about that, beautiful princess, said the prince, it has been a long time since you made quite the impression on me what you want to do now, and if the use of voice had been allowed, what would you not have heard every day of the progress of a passion that consumed me? but I am an unhappy prince, for whom you only feel indifference.”

He then told him these verses:

You gave me your tender care:
You sometimes came to admire without witnesses,
Of my brilliant flowers the strange painting.

For you I spread my sweetest perfumes,
I affected your eyes with a new beauty;
And when I was far from you,
A deadly drought
Proved only too much to you, that in secret consumed,
I still languished in cruel waiting
Of the object that had charmed me.

To my pains you were favorable,
And your beautiful hand,
Pure water watered my breast,
And sometimes your adorable mouth,
Gave me kisses, alas! full of sweets.

To better enjoy my happiness,
And prove to you my fire and my gratitude,
I wished, in such a sweet moment,
That some magical power,
Brought me out of a sad enchantment.
My wishes are granted, I see you, I love you;
I can tell you my torment:
But unfortunately for me, you are no longer the same.

What wishes have I formed! righteous gods, what have I done!

The princess seemed very pleased with the prince's gallantry; she praised very much this impromptu, and although she was not accustomed to hearing verses, she spoke of them in a person of good taste. The queen, who suffered dressed as a shepherdess and impatiently touched her, wishing her the richest clothes that had ever been seen; at the same time his canvas white was changed into silver brocade, embroidered with carbuncles; of his hairstyle raised, a long veil of gauze mixed with gold fell; her hair blacks were adorned with a thousand diamonds; and his complexion, whose whiteness dazzled, took on such vivid colors that the prince could barely sustain its brilliance.

"Ha! Fortunate, how beautiful and charming you are! he exclaimed sighing; will you be inexorable to my sorrows?

--No, my son, said the queen, your cousin will not resist our prayers."

At the time she was speaking like this, Bedou, who was returning to his work, passed by, and seeing Fortunée like a goddess, he thought he was dreaming; she called him with much kindness, and begged the queen to have pity on him.

"What! after having treated you so badly! she says.

--Ha! Madam, replied the princess, I am incapable of taking revenge.”

The queen kissed him, and praised the generosity of his feelings.

“To satisfy you,” she added, “I am going to enrich the ungrateful Bedou”; his cottage became a palace furnished and full of money; his stools did not change shape, nor his pallet, to do it memory of his first state, but the Queen of the Woods filed his mind; she gave him some politeness, she changed his face. Bedou then found capable of recognition. What did he not say to the queen and the princess to show them hers on this occasion.

Then with a wave of the wand, the cabbages became men, the hen a woman; Prince Oeillet was the only one dissatisfied; he sighed with his princess; he implored her to take a resolution in her favor: finally she consented to it; she had seen nothing pleasant, and everything what was lovable was less so than this young prince. The queen of Bois, delighted with such a happy marriage, neglected nothing to ensure that everything was was sumptuous; this celebration lasted several years, and the happiness of these tender spouses lasted as long as their lives.