The Green Fairy Book | Page 8

and Turritella was not married. The
Queen had offered her hand to all the neighbouring Princes, but they
always answered that they would marry Fiordelisa with pleasure, but
not Turritella on any account. This displeased the Queen terribly.
‘Fiordelisa must be in league with them, to annoy me!' she said. ‘Let us
go and accuse her of it.'
So she and Turritella went up into the tower. Now it happened that it
was nearly midnight, and Fiordelisa, all decked with jewels, was sitting
at the window with the Blue Bird, and as the Queen paused outside the
door to listen she heard the Princess and her lover singing together a
little song he had just taught her. These were the words:--
‘Oh! what a luckless pair are we, One in a prison, and one in a tree. All
our trouble and anguish came From our faithfulness spoiling our

enemies' game. But vainly they practice their cruel arts, For nought can
sever our two fond hearts.'
They sound melancholy perhaps, but the two voices sang them gaily
enough, and the Queen burst open the door, crying, ‘Ah! my Turritella,
there is some treachery going on here!'
As soon as she saw her, Fiordelisa, with great presence of mind, hastily
shut her little window, that the Blue Bird might have time to escape,
and then turned to meet the Queen, who overwhelmed her with a
torrent of reproaches.
‘Your intrigues are discovered, Madam,' she said furiously; ‘and you
need not hope that your high rank will save you from the punishment
you deserve.'
‘And with whom do you accuse me of intriguing, Madam?' said the
Princess. ‘Have I not been your prisoner these two years, and who have
I seen except the gaolers sent by you?'
While she spoke the Queen and Turritella were looking at her in the
greatest surprise, perfectly dazzled by her beauty and the splendour of
her jewels, and the Queen said:
‘If one may ask, Madam, where did you get all these diamonds?
Perhaps you mean to tell me that you have discovered a mine of them
in the tower!'
‘I certainly did find them here,' answered the Princess.
‘And pray,' said the Queen, her wrath increasing every moment, ‘for
whose admiration are you decked out like this, since I have often seen
you not half as fine on the most important occasions at Court?'
‘For my own,' answered Fiordelisa. ‘You must admit that I have had
plenty of time on my hands, so you cannot be surprised at my spending
some of it in making myself smart.'

‘That's all very fine,' said the Queen suspiciously. ‘I think I will look
about, and see for myself.'
So she and Turritella began to search every corner of the little room,
and when they came to the straw mattress out fell such a quantity of
pearls, diamonds, rubies, opals, emeralds, and sapphires, that they were
amazed, and could not tell what to think. But the Queen resolved to
hide somewhere a packet of false letters to prove that the Princess had
been conspiring with the King's enemies, and she chose the chimney as
a good place. Fortunately for Fiordelisa this was exactly where the Blue
Bird had perched himself, to keep an eye upon her proceedings, and try
to avert danger from his beloved Princess, and now he cried:
‘Beware, Fiordelisa! Your false enemy is plotting against you.'
This strange voice so frightened the Queen that she took the letter and
went away hastily with Turritella, and they held a council to try and
devise some means of finding out what Fairy or Enchanter was
favouring the Princess. At last they sent one of the Queen's maids to
wait upon Fiordelisa, and told her to pretend to be quite stupid, and to
see and hear nothing, while she was really to watch the Princess day
and night, and keep the Queen informed of all her doings.
Poor Fiordelisa, who guessed she was sent as a spy, was in despair, and
cried bitterly that she dared not see her dear Blue Bird for fear that
some evil might happen to him if he were discovered.
The days were so long, and the nights so dull, but for a whole month
she never went near her little window lest he should fly to her as he
used to do.
However, at last the spy, who had never taken her eyes off the Princess
day or night, was so overcome with weariness that she fell into a deep
sleep, and as son as the Princess saw that, she flew to open her window
and cried softly:
‘Blue Bird, blue as the sky, Fly to me now, there's nobody by.'

And the Blue Bird, who had never ceased to flutter round within sight
and hearing of