The Green Fairy Book | Page 6

he say, though the Fairy scolded and
threatened, and Turritella wept and raged for twenty days and twenty
nights. At last the Fairy Mazilla said furiously (for she was quite tired
out by his obstinacy), ‘Choose whether you will marry my goddaughter,
or do penance seven years for breaking your word to her.'
And then the King cried gaily: ‘Pray do whatever you like with me, as
long as you deliver me from this ugly scold!'
‘Scold!' cried Turritella angrily. ‘Who are you, I should like to know,
that you dare to call me a scold? A miserable King who breaks his
word, and goes about in a chariot drawn by croaking frogs out of a
marsh!'
‘Let us have no more of these insults,' cried the Fairy. ‘Fly from that
window, ungrateful King, and for seven years be a Blue Bird.' As she
spoke the King's face altered, his arms turned to wings, his feet to little
crooked black claws. In a moment he had a slender body like a bird,
covered with shining blue feathers, his beak was like ivory, his eyes

were bright as stars, and a crown of white feathers adorned his head.
As soon as the transformation was complete the King uttered a
dolorous cry and fled through the open window, pursued by the
mocking laughter of Turritella and the Fairy Mazilla. He flew on until
he reached the thickest part of the wood, and there, perched upon a
cypress tree, he bewailed his miserable fate. ‘Alas! in seven years who
knows what may happen to my darling Fiordelisa!' he said. ‘Her cruel
stepmother may have married her to someone else before I am myself
again, and then what good will life be to me?'
In the meantime the Fairy Mazilla had sent Turritella back to the Queen,
who was all anxiety to know how the wedding, had gone off. But when
her daughter arrived and told her all that had happened she was terribly
angry, and of course all her wrath fell upon Fiordelisa. ‘She shall have
cause to repent that the King admires her,' said the Queen, nodding her
head meaningly, and then she and Turritella went up to the little room
in the tower where the Princess was imprisoned. Fiordelisa was
immensely surprised to see that Turritella was wearing a royal mantle
and a diamond crown, and her heart sank when the Queen said: ‘My
daughter is come to show you some of her wedding presents, for she is
King Charming's bride, and they are the happiest pair in the world, he
loves her to distraction.' All this time Turritella was spreading out lace,
and jewels, and rich brocades, and ribbons before Fiordelisa's unwilling
eyes, and taking good care to display King Charming's ring, which she
wore upon her thumb. The Princess recognised it as soon as her eyes
fell upon it, and after that she could no longer doubt that he had indeed
married Turritella. In despair she cried, ‘Take away these miserable
gauds! what pleasure has a wretched captive in the sight of them?' and
then she fell insensible upon the floor, and the cruel Queen laughed
maliciously, and went away with Turritella, leaving her there without
comfort or aid. That night the Queen said to the King, that his daughter
was so infatuated with King Charming, in spite of his never having
shown any preference for her, that it was just as well she should stay in
the tower until she came to her senses. To which he answered that it
was her affair, and she could give what orders she pleased about the
Princess.

When the unhappy Fiordelisa recovered, and remembered all she had
just heard, she began to cry bitterly, believing that King Charming was
lost to her for ever, and all night long she sat at her open window
sighing and lamenting; but when it was dawn she crept away into the
darkest corner of her little room and sat there, too unhappy to care
about anything. As soon as night came again she once more leaned out
into the darkness and bewailed her miserable lot.
Now it happened that King Charming, or rather the Blue Bird, had been
flying round the palace in the hope of seeing his beloved Princess, but
had not dared to go too near the windows for fear of being seen and
recognised by Turritella. When night fell he had not succeeded in
discovering where Fiordelisa was imprisoned, and, weary and sad, he
perched upon a branch of a tall fir tree which grew close to the tower,
and began to sing himself to sleep. But soon the sound of a soft voice
lamenting attracted his attention, and listening intently he heard it say--
‘Ah! cruel Queen! what have I ever done to