orange fairy book

Chapter 17 The Enchanted Garland (2)

A few days later, the stepmother heard that there was going to be a big hunting event in the palace, and the prince would leave the palace early, so that the princess would be alone for the whole day.This was an excellent opportunity that should not be missed, so she took her daughter to the palace.The princess was very happy in her new home, and forgot all the troubles she had suffered at home, and welcomed them both with great joy, and gave them many beautiful things to take home, and at last she took them to Go to the beach to see the cruise ship that the prince built for her.It was there that the stepmother saw an opportunity, sneaked up behind her and pushed her off the rocks into the sea. The princess sank to the bottom of the sea in one fell swoop. Then, the stepmother quickly put the mask on her daughter and draped her in the princess overboard The velvet cloak that fell from her body at the time, finally covered her head with a lace veil.

"When the prince came back, you put your hands on your cheeks as if you were sick," said the stepmother, "do whatever you want but don't talk. I'll go back to the witch and see if she can help you get rid of that nasty The spell that the birds of the world have placed on you."

After the prince came back, as soon as he entered the palace, he hurried to the princess' room, and found her lying on the sofa, looking very distressed.

"My dear wife, what is the matter with you?" he said.He knelt beside the False Princess, and tried to take her hand, but she took it away from the Prince, and pointed to her cheek, and murmured something which the Prince could not quite hear.

"What's wrong with you? Tell me! Is it serious? When did it start? Do you want me to ask the maid to rub some medicine on your sore spot?" The prince asked a series of these questions, and many other questions , and she just shook her head.

"But I can't just let you do this," he stood up abruptly, and continued, "I'm going to call all the imperial doctors to come and apply some pain-relieving balm on your painful place!" He stood up and looked for The imperial doctor has gone.

After hearing this, the fake princess was very frightened.She knew that if the imperial doctor approached her, her trick would be exposed immediately.So, she forgot her mother's warning to her not to speak, and even the spell on her body, grabbed the prince's shirt, and said in a pleading tone: "Dirty thing!"

The prince froze, he couldn't believe his ears, but he thought it must be the pain that made the princess so irritable, and he guessed that maybe she wanted to be alone for a while, so he said, "Well, sleep for a while, I will Wanting to sleep will help your illness, and you'll wake up feeling better tomorrow."

It happened to be very hot that night, and there was no wind, so the prince could not sleep at all. Later, he got up and went to the window. Suddenly he saw a figure wearing a rose wreath coming out of the sea and walking onto the beach, facing the palace. arms. "How strange, this girl is so like my wife," he thought, "I'll take a closer look at her!" The princess) has disappeared, and the prince began to wonder if he had read it wrong.

The next morning, when he came to the false princess' room, the maids told him that although the "princess" had eaten all the food that was set before her, she neither wanted to talk nor to get up.The prince was very perplexed and wondered what had happened to her.Of course he didn't know that the fake princess was anxiously waiting for her mother to come back to help her break the spell that the pigeon had placed on her, and she dared not speak to avoid revealing her details.Finally, the prince decided to call all the royal doctors to treat her. He did not tell the false princess that he planned to do so, so as not to aggravate her condition. The princess sees a doctor.

Unfortunately, as soon as the imperial doctors entered the room, the princess lost her temper when she saw them, and forgot the dove's spell, screaming: "Dirty thing! Dirty thing!" This offended the imperial doctors, and they turned around and left immediately room, no matter what the prince said, they could not be persuaded to stay.The prince tried to persuade his wife to send a message to the physicians, apologizing for her rudeness, but she would not say a word.

That night, after finishing his official duties, the prince rested tiredly by the window, breathing the breeze from the sea, and relaxing for a while.He recalled the morning scene and began to wonder if he had made a mistake in marrying such a lowborn person, beautiful as she was.

How could he have imagined that the quiet, elegant and charming wife when he first got married turned into a rude and violent woman who couldn't control her temper at all!The prince thought to himself that if she could not change herself in a short time, then he had no choice but to drive her out of the palace.

Just as he was thinking, his eyes suddenly fell on the surface of the sea. Just like last time, there was a figure resembling his wife standing in the water, raising his arms to face him.

"Wait for me! Wait for me! Wait for me!" he cried unconsciously.But when he came to the shore, all he saw was the shadow cast by the moonlight.

The next day, the prince was going to attend a state celebration in a neighboring city, so he had to ride to that city early in the morning, without seeing his "wife" again before leaving.

"Perhaps tomorrow she'll come to her senses," he thought. "Anyway, if it's decided to send her back to her father, it's best we don't see each other for a while." He stopped thinking This question, focus on the duties he is going to perform.

It was almost midnight when he returned to the palace after attending the ceremony in that city.But instead of entering the palace, he went to the sea and hid behind a rock.He had hardly hidden himself when the girl whom he had seen the night before came out of the sea and stretched out her arms to the window of his room in the palace.The prince immediately jumped out and quickly grabbed her hand!Although the girl struggled in panic and wanted to go back into the sea-she ran away because she was also cursed-but the prince still held her tightly.

"You are my wife and I will never let you go again!" he said.But as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, he found that he was holding the paw of a hare, and then the hare became a fish, and the fish became a bird, and the bird became a slippery, wriggling animal. snake.The Prince was about to let go, but he held his fingers together, and drew his sword, and cut off the snake's head.In this way, the spell set on the girl was lifted.She stood before the prince as he had seen her for the first time, with a wreath on her head, and the birds sang merrily on it.

The next morning the stepmother came to the palace with the ointment the old witch had given her.The old hag said that if the real princess had really drowned in the sea, she only had to put the ointment on her daughter's tongue, and it would break the spell on the dove.If she wasn't dead, the ointment wouldn't work.The stepmother assured the witch that she had seen the princess sink with her own eyes, and there was no need to worry that she would come up again.But in order for everything to go smoothly, the old witch said that she could put a spell on the princess. It was this spell that made the princess turn into various animals when she saw the prince. Fortunately, the prince cut off the snake's head in time. The spell was lifted.

Besides, the vicious stepmother, after everything was settled, she rushed to the palace overnight and walked into her daughter's room.

"I've got it! I've got it!" she exclaimed triumphantly, spreading the ointment on her daughter's tongue. "Now try to talk!" she said proudly.

"Dirty! Dirty!" said her daughter.The stepmother wept bitterly when she found that all her plans had failed.

Just at that moment the Prince entered with his real wife. "Both of you deserve to die!" he said. "You deserve to die if I have my way. But the princess begged me to spare your lives, so I decided to put you on a boat, which would take you You go to a desert island, and you stay there for the rest of your life."

The boat was ready, and the wicked woman and her daughter were taken aboard.The ship sailed away, and nothing was heard of them after that, and the prince and princess lived happily ever after and managed the country well.

(End of this chapter)