mercy on her, but he only mocked her and said, "Cry and complain! it makes me laugh, and amuses me." He carried her into his own country, and vowed all the way that he would hang her, but he was told it would be a pity, as she was about to become a mother. When he discovered that, it occurred to him, that if she had a daughter, he would marry his son to her, and to ascertain which it would be, he sent for a Fairy who lived near to his dominions. When she arrived, he entertained her better than was his custom; he then took her up into a tower, at the top of which the poor Queen occupied a very small and ill-furnished room. She was lying on the ground, upon a mattress not worth two-pence, and where she cried day and night. When the Fairy saw her, she could not help pitying her; she curtsied to her, and, embracing her, said in a low voice, "Take courage, Madam, your misfortunes will not last for ever. I hope to hasten the term of them." The Queen was consoled a little by these words, returned the Fairy's embraces, and begged her to have pity upon a poor princess who had enjoyed the greatest happiness, and was now equally miserable. They were in close conversation, when the wicked King exclaimed, "Come! no more compliments. I brought you here to tell me if this slave will have a boy or a girl?" The Fairy said, "She will have a girl, who will be the handsomest and best informed princess that was ever seen;" and forthwith she endowed the unborn princess with innumerable virtues and honours.
"Should she not be handsome and well informed," said the wicked King, "I will hang her to her mother's neck, and her mother on a tree, and nothing shall prevent me." So saying, he left the room with the Fairy, not condescending to look at the good Queen, who was crying bitterly, for said she to herself, "Alas! what shall I do? Should I have a beautiful little girl, he will give her to his monkey of a son; and should she be ugly, he will hang us together. To what an extremity am I reduced! Could I not hide my infant somewhere, so that he should never see it?" The time drew near for the little princess to be brought into the world, and the Queen's anxieties increased—she had no one to complain to, or to console her. The jailor who had the care of her gave her each morning but three boiled peas, with a little piece of black bread. She became as thin as a herring—she was
