The Green Fairy Book | Page 9

her prison, came in an instant. They had so much to say,
and were so overjoyed to meet once more, that it scarcely seemed to
them five minutes before the sun rose, and the Blue Bird had to fly
away.
But the next night the spy slept as soundly as before, so that the Blue
Bird came, and he and the Princess began to think they were perfectly
safe, and to make all sorts of plans for being happy as they were before
the Queen's visit. But, alas! the third night the spy was not quite so
sleepy, and when the Princess opened her window and cried as usual:
‘Blue Bird, blue as the sky, Fly to me now, there's nobody nigh,'
she was wide awake in a moment, though she was sly enough to keep
her eyes shut at first. But presently she heard voices, and peeping
cautiously, she saw by the moonlight the most lovely blue bird in the
world, who was talking to the Princess, while she stroked and caressed
it fondly.
The spy did not lose a single word of the conversation, and as soon as
the day dawned, and the Blue Bird had reluctantly said good-bye to the
Princess, she rushed off to the Queen, and told her all she had seen and
heard.
Then the Queen sent for Turritella, and they talked it over, and very
soon came to the conclusion than this Blue Bird was no other than King
Charming himself.
‘Ah! that insolent Princess!' cried the Queen. ‘To think that when we
supposed her to be so miserable, she was all the while as happy as
possible with that false King. But I know how we can avenge
ourselves!'
So the spy was ordered to go back and pretend to sleep as soundly as
ever, and indeed she went to bed earlier than usual, and snored as
naturally as possible, and the poor Princess ran to the window and
cried:

‘Blue Bird, blue as the sky, Fly to me now, there's nobody by!'
But no bird came. All night long she called, and waited, and listened,
but still there was no answer, for the cruel Queen had caused the fir tree
to be hung all over with knives, swords, razors, shears, bill-hooks, and
sickles, so that when the Blue Bird heard the Princess call, and flew
towards her, his wings were cut, and his little black feet clipped off,
and all pierced and stabbed in twenty places, he fell back bleeding into
his hiding place in the tree, and lay there groaning and despairing, for
he thought the Princess must have been persuaded to betray him, to
regain her liberty.
‘Ah! Fiordelisa, can you indeed be so lovely and so faithless?' he
sighed, ‘then I may as well die at once!' And he turned over on his side
and began to die. But it happened that his friend the Enchanter had
been very much alarmed at seeing the Frog chariot come back to him
without King Charming, and had been round the world eight times
seeking him, but without success. At the very moment when the King
gave himself up to despair, he was passing through the wood for the
eighth time, and called, as he had done all over the world:
‘Charming! King Charming! Are you here?'
The King at once recognised his friend's voice, and answered very
faintly:
‘I am here.'
The Enchanter looked all round him, but could see nothing, and then
the King said again:
‘I am a Blue Bird.'
Then the Enchanter found him in an instant, and seeing his pitiable
condition, ran hither and thither without a word, until he had collected a
handful of magic herbs, with which, and a few incantations, he speedily
made the King whole and sound again.

‘Now,' said he, ‘let me hear all about it. There must be a Princess at the
bottom of this.'
‘There are two!' answered King Charming, with a wry smile.
And then he told the whole story, accusing Fiordelisa of having
betrayed the secret of his visits to make her peace with the Queen, and
indeed saying a great many hard things about her fickleness and her
deceitful beauty, and so on. The Enchanter quite agreed with him, and
even went further, declaring that all Princesses were alike, except
perhaps in the matter of beauty, and advised him to have done with
Fiordelisa, and forget all about her. But, somehow or other, this advice
did not quite please the King.
‘What is to be done next?' said the Enchanter, ‘since you still have five
years to remain a Blue Bird.'
‘Take me to your palace,' answered the King; ‘there you can at least
keep me in a cage safe from cats and swords.'
‘Well, that will be