Princess Rosette (3)

Once upon a time there lived a king and a queen who had two beautiful boys: They grew like daylight, they were so well fed. There queen never had a child without sending to invite the fairies to their birth; she always begged them to tell her what they owed them arrive.

She gave birth to a beautiful little girl, who was so pretty that we could not see her without loving her. The queen having entertained all fairies who had come to see her, when they were ready to leave, she said to them: “Do not forget your good custom and tell me what will arrive at Rosette.”(That’s what the little princess was called.)

The fairies told him that they had forgotten their grimoire at home, that they would come back another time to see her.

“Ah! said the queen, “this doesn’t bode well for me; you do not want afflict me with a bad prediction. But please let me know everything; don’t hide anything from me.”

They apologized very much, and the queen still had much more want to know what it was. Finally, the youngest of the fairies said to him:

“We fear, madame, that Rosette will cause great misfortune to her brothers; lest they die in any matter for her. That's all what we can guess about this beautiful little girl: we are well sorry not to have better news to tell you.”

They left; and the queen remained so sad, so sad, that the king noticed it by his expression.

He asked her what was wrong with her: she replied that she had approached too close to the fire, and that she had burned all the linen that was on her distaff. “Is that all?” said the king. He went up to his attic and brought her more flax than she could spin in a hundred years. There The queen continued to be sad: he asked her what was wrong with her.

She told him that being by the river, she had dropped her green satin slipper in the stream. “Is that all?” say it king. He sent for all the shoemakers in his kingdom, and brought ten thousand green satin slippers for the queen.

She continued to be sad: he asked her what was wrong with her. She told him that by eating too heartily, she had swallowed her wedding ring. wedding, which was on his finger. The king discovered that she was lying because he had hidden this ring, and said to her: “My dear wife, you are lying! There your ring which I have hidden in my purse.”

Lady! she was very surprised to be caught lying (because that's the thing the ugliest in the world), and she saw that the king was sulking. That is why she told him what the fairies had predicted about little Rosette, and that if he knew of any good remedy, he would say it. The king was very sad. He finally confessed to the queen: “I know of no other way of saving our two sons, than by putting Rosette to death.” But the queen cried out that she would not survive it. However, the queen was told that there was in a big wood an old hermit, who slept in the trunk of a tree, that we were going to consult everywhere.

“I must go too,” said the queen, “the fairies announced to me the bad, but they forgot the remedy.” Early in the morning she got on a beautiful little white mule, all shod with gold, with two of his young ladies, who each had a pretty horse. When they were near the wood, the queen and her young ladies dismounted and returned to the tree where the hermit lived. He didn't like seeing women; but when he recognized the queen he said to her: “Welcome! What do you want from me?"

She told him what the fairies had said about Rosette, and asked him advice. He replied that the princess had to be hidden in a tower, without her ever leaving it. The queen thanked him, gave him a good alms, and returned to tell everything to the king. When the king learned of these news, he quickly had a large tower built. He put his daughter there and, so that she would not be bored, the king, the queen and the two brothers went to see her every day. The eldest was called the great prince, and the youngest, the little prince.

They loved their sister passionately because she was the most beautiful and more graceful than anyone had ever seen, and the slightest of her glances was better than a hundred pistoles. When she was fifteen, the big one prince said to the king: “My sister is old enough to be married: Shall we not go to the wedding soon?” The little prince says as much to the queen, but their Majesties gave them evasive answers. But the king and queen fell ill. They both died on the same day. The court was dressed in black, and bells were rung everywhere. Rosette was inconsolable over the death of his mother.

When the king and queen were buried, the marquises and dukes of kingdom placed the great prince on a throne of gold and diamonds, with a beautiful crown on his head, and clothes of purple velvet, decorated with suns and moons. And then the whole court shouted three times "Long live the king!" All we could think about was rejoicing. The king and his brother decided: “Now that we are the masters, we must remove our sister from the tower where she has been bored for a long time.”

They only had to cross the garden to go to the tower, which we had built as high as possible because the deceased king and queen wanted her to stay there forever. Rosette was embroidering a beautiful dress on a profession that was there before her; but when she saw her brothers, she stood up and took the king’s hand, saying to him: “Hello, sire! YOU you are now the king, and I your little servant. Please tell me withdraw from the tower where I am very bored. And, with that, she began to cry.

The king kissed him, and told him not to cry; that he came for take her from the tower, and take her to a beautiful castle. The prince had his pockets full of sugared almonds, which he gave to Rosette. “Come on,” he said to him, let's get out of this ugly tower! The king will marry you soon! Don't worry point!"

When Rosette saw the beautiful garden full of flowers, fruits, fountains, she remained so astonished that she could not say a word, because she had never seen anything so beautiful before. She looked from all sides; she walked, she stopped; she was picking fruit on the trees, and flowers in the flowerbed: his little dog, called Frétillon, who was green like a parrot, who only had one ear, and who danced delightedly, went in front of her, doing jap, jap, jap, with a thousand jumps and a thousand antics. Frétillon greatly delighted the company. He suddenly started running into a small wood. There princess followed him and was amazed to see, in this wood, a large peacock which was doing cartwheels and which seemed so beautiful to her, so beautiful, that she couldn't believe it. could avert his eyes.

The king and the prince came to her, and asked her what purpose she was having fun. She showed them the peacock, and asked them what it was. that. They told him it was a bird that we ate sometimes.

"What! she said, we dare to kill such a beautiful bird and eat it? I you declare that I will only ever marry the king of peacocks, and when I If I'm the queen, I'll stop anyone from eating it."

One cannot express the king's astonishment.

“But, my sister,” he said to her, “where do you want us to find the king? peacocks?

--Wherever you please, sire! But I will only marry him!”

After having made this resolution, the two brothers took her to their castle, where the peacock had to be brought and put in its bedroom. The ladies who had not yet seen Rosette ran to greet her: some brought her jam, others sugar; others gold dresses, beautiful ribbons, dolls, shoes made of embroidery, pearls, diamonds. While she was chatting with friends, the king and the prince were thinking of finding the king of the peacocks, if there had one in the world. They realized that it was necessary to make a portrait of Princess Rosette; and they made it so beautiful that it did not only lacked speech and said to him:

“Since you only want to marry the Peacock King, we will leave together, and we will seek him throughout the earth. take care of our kingdom while we wait for us to return.”

Rosette thanked them for the trouble they took; she tells them that she would govern the kingdom well, and that in their absence all its pleasure would be to look at the beautiful peacock and make Frétillon dance. They don't could stop themselves from crying as they said goodbye. Here are the two princes parties, who asked everyone:

“Don’t you know the king of the peacocks?

--No no!"

They passed and went even further. Like this, they went so far, so far, that no one has ever been so far. They arrived at kingdom of the cockchafers: it has not yet been seen so much; these made such a loud buzzing that the king was afraid of becoming deaf. He asked the one who seemed most reasonable to him if he did not know where he could find the king of the peacocks.

“Sire,” said the cockchafer, “his kingdom is thirty thousand leagues from here. You took the long way to get there.

--And how do you know that? said the king.

“It is,” replied the cockchafer, “that we know you well, and that Every year we will spend two or three months in your gardens.”

Here is the king and his brother who took the cockchafer arm in arm below: as a gesture of friendship, they dined together. They saw with admire all the curiosities of that country, where the smallest tree leaf is worth a pistole. After that, they left to finish their journey, and as they knew the way, they did not put a long time. They saw all the trees loaded with peacocks, and while was so full that they could be heard shouting and talking from two leagues away.

The king said to his brother:

“If the king of peacocks is a peacock himself, how can our sister does she intend to marry him? You would have to be crazy to agree to that. See it beautiful alliance that she would give us, little peacocks for nephews.”

The prince was no less distressed:

“That,” he said, “was an unfortunate fantasy that came to him in the mind. I don't know where she went to guess that there is in the world a king of the peacocks.”

When they arrived at the big city, they saw that it was full of men and women, but who had clothes made of feathers of peacock, and that they put it everywhere like a very beautiful thing. They met the king who was going for a walk in a beautiful little carriage of gold and diamonds, which twelve peacocks led at full speed. This king of peacocks were so beautiful, so beautiful, that the king and the prince were charmed: he had long blond, curly hair, a white face, a peacock tail crown.

When he saw them, he judged that since they had clothes of another way that the people of the country had to be foreigners; and for knowing this, he stopped his carriage and called them. The king and the prince came to him. Having made their bow, they said to him:

“Sire, we have come from a long way to show you a beautiful portrait.”

They took from their suitcase the large portrait of Rosette. When the king peacocks took a good look at him:

“I cannot believe,” he said, “that there is such a beautiful girl in the world!

--She is still a hundred times more beautiful, said the king.

--Ah! you are joking, replied the king of the peacocks.

--Sire, said the prince, here is my brother who is king like you. OUR sister, whose portrait here is, is Princess Rosette: we come ask you if you want to marry him; she is beautiful and very wise, and we will give him a bushel of gold crowns.

--Yes, said the king, I will marry her with all my heart. She won't miss anything with me, I would love her very much: but I assure you that I want her be as beautiful as her portrait, otherwise I will put you to death.

"Well, we agree to it," said Rosette's two brothers.

--Do you consent to this? added the king. So go to prison and stay there until the princess came.”

The princes did this without difficulty, because they were very certain that Rosette was more beautiful than her portrait. When they were in the prison, the king went to see them often and he had in his castle the portrait of Rosette, about whom he was so crazy that he slept neither day nor night. night.

As the king and his brother were in prison, they wrote by post for the princess to quickly pack her trunk and come as quickly as possible possible because, finally, the king of the peacocks was waiting for him. They don't did not say that they were prisoners, for fear of worrying him too much. When she received this letter, she was so transported that she thought he would die. She told everyone that the king of peacocks was found him, and that he wanted to marry her. We lit bonfires, we shot the Canon; we ate sugared almonds and sugar everywhere. She left her beautiful dolls to her friends, and her brother's kingdom in her hands of the wisest old men in the city.

She recommended them to take care of everything, to spend little, to raise money for the return of the king; she asked them to keep her peacock, and only wanted to take with her her nurse and her sister. milk, with the little green dog Frétillon. They got into a boat on the sea. They carried the bushel of gold crowns and clothes for ten years, changing it twice a day. They just laughed and sing. The nurse asked the boatman:

“Let’s get closer, let’s get closer to the peacock kingdom?”

He said to him:

"No no!"

Another time she asked him:

“Let’s come closer, let’s come closer?”

He said to him:

"Soon soon."

Another time she said to him:

“Let’s come closer, let’s come closer?”

He replied:

"Yes yes."

And when he had said this, she went to the end of the boat, sitting near from him, and said to him:

“If you want, you will be rich forever.”

He answered:

"I want it a lot!"

She continued:

“If you want, you will earn good pistoles.”

He answered:

“I couldn’t ask for anything better.

"Well," she said, "this night, while the princess sleep, you help me throw her into the sea. After she is drowned, I will dress my daughter in her beautiful clothes, and we will take her to the king peacocks who will be happy to marry her; and, for your reward, we we'll give you lots of diamonds."

The boatman was very surprised by what the nurse offered him; he him said it was a shame to drown such a beautiful princess, that she was pitiful: but she took a bottle of wine, and made him drink so much that he no longer knew how to refuse her anything.

Night having come, the princess went to bed: her little Frétillon was lying nicely at the bottom of the bed, without moving either feet or paws. Rosette was sleeping soundly, when the wicked nurse, who was not sleeping, went to fetch the boatman. She took him into the bedroom of the princess; then, without waking her, they took her with her bed feather, his mattress, his sheets, his blankets. The foster sister helped with all his might. They threw everything into the sea; and the The princess slept so soundly that she did not wake up.

But the fortunate thing was that his feather bed was made of phoenix feathers, which are very rare, and which have this property that they never go to the bottom of the water; so that she was swimming in her bed, as if she had been in a boat. The water was still wet little by little his feather bed, then the mattress; and Rosette, feeling water, was afraid of having peed at the dodo, and of being scolded. Like her turned from one side to the other, Frétillon woke up. He had a nose excellent; he smelled the soles and cod so closely that he began to yelp, yelp, until he wakes up all the other fish.

They began to swim: the big fish gave head against the princess's bed, which held on to nothing, tossed and turned like a pirouette. Lady, she was very surprised! “Does our boat dancing on the water? she said. I have never felt so bad comfortable this night.” And still Frétillon barking, and making a life of despair. The wicked nurse and the boatman heard it from far away, and said: “Here is this funny little dog who drinks with his mistress to our health. Let’s hurry and get there!”

Because they were very close to the city of the king of the peacocks. He had sent at the seaside a hundred carriages pulled by all kinds of rare beasts: there were lions, bears, deer, wolves, horses, oxen, donkeys, eagles, peacocks. The carriage where the princess Rosette had to take her place and was dragged by six blue monkeys, who who jumped, who danced on the rope, who made a thousand turns pleasant: they had beautiful crimson velvet harnesses, with gold plates.

We saw sixty young ladies that the king had chosen for the to entertain. They were dressed in all kinds of colors, and gold and money were the least thing. The nurse had taken great care to adorn his daughter; she put Rosette's diamonds on his head and everywhere, as well as her most beautiful dress: but she was with her fits uglier than a monkey, her hair a greasy black, the crooked eyes, crooked legs, a big bump in the middle of the back, in a bad mood and sullen, who was always growling.

When all the peacock king's people saw her get out of the boat, they remained so surprised that they could not speak.

"What is that? she says. Are you sleeping? Calm down, someone bring me something to eat! You are good scoundrels, I will hang everyone!”

At this news, they said to themselves:

“What an ugly beast! She is as mean as she is ugly. This is our king well married, I am not surprised; it wasn't worth doing come from the end of the world.”

She always played the mistress, and for less than nothing she gave slaps and punches to everyone. Like his crew was very big, she went slowly. She stood like a queen in his carriage. But all the peacocks that were on the trees to greet her in passing, and who had resolved to shout: “Long live the beautiful Queen Rosette!”, when they saw her so horrible, they cried: “Fi, fi, how ugly she is!” She was furious with spite, and told her guards: “Kill these rascally peacocks who sing insults to me.” Peacocks quickly flew away and made fun of her.

The scoundrel boatman, who saw all this, said in a low voice to the nurse: “Gossip, we are not well; your daughter should be prettier." She answered him: “Shut up, dizzy, you will carry us misfortune." They went to warn the king that the princess was approaching.

“Well,” he said, “did his brothers tell me the truth? Is she more beautiful than his portrait?

--Sire, they say, it is enough that she is so beautiful.

“Yes,” said the king, “I will be very happy: let’s go and see her!”

For he heard, through the great noise that was being made in the courtyard, that she was coming, and he could make out nothing of what was happening otherwise said: “Fi, fi, how ugly she is!” He thought we were talking about some dwarf or some beast that she had perhaps brought with her her, because it could not enter her mind that it was indeed of the young girl. Rosette's portrait was carried to the end of a large stick completely exposed, and the king walked gravely afterwards, with all its barons and all its peacocks, then the ambassadors of neighboring kingdoms. The peacock king couldn't wait to see his dear Rosette.

Lady! when he saw him, he almost died on the spot; he put himself in the greatest anger in the world; he tore his clothes; he did not want approach her: she scared him.

“How,” he said, “these two marauds that I have in my prisons have great boldness to have made fun of me and to have proposed to me to marry a maggot like that: I will put them to death. Come on, let's lock up this little girl, her nurse and the one who bring! Let them be put at the bottom of my great tower!”

On the other hand, the king and his brother, who were prisoners, and who knew that their sister was due to arrive, had dressed beautifully to receive it.

Instead of coming to open the prison, and setting them free as they hoped, the jailer came with soldiers and took them down into a completely black cellar, full of ugly animals, where they had water to the neck. "Alas! they said to each other, these are sad wedding for us. What can bring us such great misfortune?” They didn't know what to think in the world, other than that people wanted to make them die. Three days passed without them hearing about Nothing. After three days, the king of the peacocks came to tell them insults through a hole.

“You have taken the title of king and prince,” he cried to them, “to catch me and make me marry your sister! But you are not both of you just beggars, not worth the water you drink. I will send judges who will quickly put you on trial. We're already heading there rope from which I will hang you.

--King of peacocks, replied the king angrily, do not go so quickly into this matter, because you might repent of it. I am king like YOU; I have a beautiful kingdom, clothes and crowns, and good ECU; I would eat my shirt off there. Ho, ho, you're nice to we want to hang! Did we steal something?”

When the king heard him speak so resolutely, he did not know where he was going. was, and he sometimes wanted to let them go with their sister without making them die. But his confidant, who was a real flattering, encouraged him, telling him that if he did not take revenge, everyone everyone would make fun of him, and they would take him for a little wren of four deniers. He swore not to forgive them, and he ordered that they were put on trial.

It didn't last long: all you had to do was see the portrait of the real Princess Rosette with the one who had come, and who claimed being, so that they were condemned to have their necks cut, as being liars, since they had promised a beautiful princess to the king, and that they had only given her an ugly peasant girl. We went to the prison read this judgment to them and they exclaimed that they had not lied; that their sister was a princess, and more beautiful than the day; that there was something down there that they didn't understand, and that they asked for another seven days before they were put to death; that maybe during this time their innocence would be recognized.

The king of the peacocks, who was very angry, had great difficulty in grant this grace; but in the end he wanted it. While all these affairs took place at court, something must be said of the poor Princess Rosette. As soon as it was daylight, she was very surprised, and Frétillon too, to see himself in the middle of the sea without a boat and without relief. She began to cry, to cry so much, that she mercy to all the fish. She didn't know what to do or what to become.

“Surely,” she said, “I was thrown into the sea by the king’s order peacocks; he repented of marrying me, and to get rid of me, he made me drown. This is a strange man, she continued. I would have it loved so much! We would have gotten along so well!”

Then she cried harder, because she couldn't help but love him. She stayed like that for two days, floating from one side to the other. from the sea, wet to the skin, with a cold to death, and almost chilled. If it hadn't been little Frétillon who warmed his head a little heart, she would have died a hundred times over.

She was terribly hungry; she saw oysters in the shell; She took as much as she wanted, and she ate it. Frétillon does not hardly loved; However, he had to feed on it. When the night came, a great fear seized Rosette, and she said to her dog: “Frétillon, always barking, for fear that the soles will eat us.” He had been barking all night, and the princess's bed was not good far from the water's edge. In that place, there was a good old man who lived all alone in a little cottage where no one ever went: he was very poor, and did not care about the goods of the world.

When he heard Frétillon yapping, he was quite surprised because he did not pass hardly any dogs there. He thought that some travelers had gotten lost. He went out to charitably put them back on their way. All of one suddenly he saw the princess and Frétillon swimming in the sea; And the princess, seeing him, held out her arms and shouted to him:

“Good old man, save me, for I will perish here; two days ago I languish.”

When he heard her speak so sadly, he took pity on her, and returned into his house to take a long hook. He walked into the water up to his neck, and two or three times thought he was drowned. Finally he pulled so much that he brought the bed to the water's edge. Rosette and Frétillon were very happy to be on earth.

She thanked the man very much, and took her blanket from which she wrapped himself up. Then, barefoot, she entered the cottage, where he lit him a small fire of dry straw, and took from his chest the most beautiful outfit of his late wife, with stockings and shoes whose princess got dressed. Thus dressed as a peasant, she was beautiful as the day, and Frétillon danced around her to entertain her.

The old man saw clearly that Rosette was some great lady, because the the coverings of his bed were all of gold and silver, and his mattress satin. He begged her to tell him her story, and that he would not tell word if she wished. She taught him everything from start to finish, crying very hard, because she still believed that he was the king of peacocks who had drowned him.

“How shall we do, my daughter? the old man said to him. You are one if great princess, accustomed to eating good morsels, and I have no only black bread and raves. You're going to be nasty, and if you wouldn't believe me, I would go tell the king of the peacocks that you are here: certainly, if he had seen you, he would marry you.

--Ah! he's a bad guy, said Rosette, he would kill me: but if you have a small basket, you have to attach it to my dog's neck, and there will be very unhappy if he does not bring back the provision.”

The old man gave the princess a basket; she tied it to the neck of Frétillon, and said to him:

“Go to the best pot in town, and bring me back what’s there inside."

Frétillon runs to town; as there was no better pot than that of the king, he enters his kitchen, he discovers the pot, takes deftly removes everything that was inside, and returns home. Rosette said to him:

“Go back to the pantry and get the best.”

Frétillon returns to the office, and takes some white wine, muscat wine, all kinds of fruit and jams: he was so loaded that he didn't have any could no longer. When the king of the peacocks wanted to have dinner, there was nothing in his pot nor in his office.

Everyone looked at each other, and the king was in horrible anger.

“Well,” he said, “I won’t dine then! But this evening we put the brioche in the fire, and that I have good roasts.”

When evening came, the princess said to Frétillon:

“Go to the city, enter the best kitchen, and bring me some good roasts.”

Frétillon did as his mistress had ordered him, and not knowing better cuisine than that of the king, he entered it very slowly. While the cooks' backs were turned, he took the roast which was on the spit; he had an excellent appearance and, just to see, created an appetite.

Frétillon brought his full basket back to the princess. She sent him away immediately to the office, and he brought all the compotes and sugared almonds from king. The king, who had not dined, being very hungry, wanted to have a supper of good hour; but there was nothing: he became angry frightful, and went to bed without supper.

The next day at dinner and supper it was the same; so that the king remained three days without drinking or eating, because when he was going to When we sat down to the table, we found that everything was taken. His strong confidant barely, fearing the death of the king, hid in a small corner of the kitchen, and he always had his eyes on the boiling pot. He was very surprised to see a little green dog enter very slowly, who had only one ear, which uncovered the pot, and put the meat in his basket. He followed him to know where he would go; he saw him come out of the city.

Still following him, he went to the good old man's house. At the same time he came tell everything to the king; that it was at the home of a poor peasant that his boiled and his roast went evening and morning. The king remained very surprised. He asked let's go get him. The confidant, to pay his court, wanted to go himself and led archers: they found him dining with the princess, eating the king's porridge. He had them taken, and attached large ropes, as did Frétillon.

When they arrived, they went to inform the king, who replied:

“Tomorrow expires the seventh day that I granted to these confronters. I will put them to death with the thieves of my dinner.”

Then he entered his hall of justice. The old man knelt down, and said he was going to tell her everything. As he spoke, the king looked at the beautiful princess, and he felt sorry to see her cry.

Then when the man declared that it was her who was called the Princess Rosette, who had been thrown into the sea, despite the weakness where it was from having gone so long without eating, he made three jumps all immediately, and ran to kiss her, and untie the ropes from which she was a prisoner, telling her that he loved her with all his heart. We were at the same time seeking the princes, who believed that it was for the put to death, and who arrived very sad, bowing their heads. We also went to fetch the nurse and her daughter. When they saw each other, they everyone recognized: Rosette jumped around her brothers' necks; the nanny and her The girl, with the boatman, threw themselves on their knees and begged for mercy.

The joy was so great that the king and the princess forgave them; And the good old man was largely rewarded: he always remained in the palace. Finally the king of the peacocks made all kinds of satisfaction to the king and to his brother, expressing his pain at having mistreated them. Nanny gave Rosette back her beautiful clothes and her bushel of gold crowns, and The wedding lasted fifteen days. Everyone was happy, until Frétillon, who did not ate more than partridge wings.

Heaven watches for us, and when innocence
Is in pressing danger,
He knows how to embrace his defense,
Deliver her and avenge her.

To see the shy Rosette,
Like an Alcion, in his little cradle,
As the winds sail on the water,
We feel a secret pity in his favor;

We fear that she will meet a tragic end
In the middle of the damaged waves,
And let her go and have a very light feast
To some hungry whale.

Without the help of heaven, no doubt, she would have perished.
Frétillon knew how to play his role
Against cod and sole,

And when it also came to
To feed his dear mistress.
It's good at the moment
Who would like to meet dogs of this species?

Rosette, escaped from shipwreck,
To the perpetrators of his evils grant forgiveness.
O you, who are insulted,
Who wants to get reason out of it,

Learn that it is beautiful to forgive the offense,
After we have conquered our enemies,
And that we can get just revenge!
Virtue admires you, and crime pales.