Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 Read Online Free PDF

out came a chariot, drawn by two white
doves, and Fiordelisa got into it, and was floated softly away.
After a night and a day the doves alighted outside the gate of
King Charming's kingdom. Here the Queen got out of the chariot,
and kissed the doves and thanked them, and then with a beating
heart she walked into the town, asking the people she met where
she could see the King. But they only laughed at her, crying:
    'See the King? And pray, why do you want to see the King, my
little kitchen-maid? You had better go and wash your face first,
your eyes are not clear enough to see him!' For the Queen had
disguised herself, and pulled her hair down about her eyes, that
no one might know her. As they would not tell her, she went on
farther, and presently asked again, and this time the people
answered that to-morrow she might see the King driving through
the streets with the Princess Turritella, as it was said that at
last he had consented to marry her. This was indeed terrible news
to Fiordelisa. Had she come all this weary way only to find
Turritella had succeeded in making King Charming forget her?
    She was too tired and miserable to walk another step, so she sat
down in a doorway and cried bitterly all night long. As soon as
it was light she hastened to the palace, and after being sent
away fifty times by the guards, she got in at last, and saw the
thrones set in the great hall for the King and Turritella, who
was already looked upon as Queen.
    Fiordelisa hid herself behind a marble pillar, and very soon saw
Turritella make her appearance, richly dressed, but as ugly as
ever, and with her came the King, more handsome and splendid even
than Fiordelisa had remembered him. When Turritella had seated
herself upon the throne, the Queen approached her.
    'Who are you, and how dare you come near my high-mightiness, upon
my golden throne?' said Turritella, frowning fiercely at her.
    'They call me the little kitchen-maid,' she replied, 'and I come
to offer some precious things for sale,' and with that she
searched in her old sack, and drew out the emerald bracelets King
Charming had given her.
    'Ho, ho!' said Turritella, those are pretty bits of glass. I
suppose you would like five silver pieces for them.'
    'Show them to someone who understands such things, Madam,'
answered the Queen; 'after that we can decide upon the price.'
    Turritella, who really loved King Charming as much as she could
love anybody, and was always delighted to get a chance of talking
to him, now showed him the bracelets, asking how much he
considered them worth. As soon as he saw them he remembered those
he had given to Fiordelisa, and turned very pale and sighed
deeply, and fell into such sad thought that he quite forgot to
answer her. Presently she asked him again, and then he said, with
a great effort:
    'I believe these bracelets are worth as much as my kingdom. I
thought there was only one such pair in the world; but here, it
seems, is another.'
    Then Turritella went back to the Queen, and asked her what was
the lowest price she would take for them.
    'More than you would find it easy to pay, Madam,' answered she;
'but if you will manage for me to sleep one night in the Chamber
of Echoes, I will give you the emeralds.'
    'By all means, my little kitchen-maid,' said Turritella, highly
delighted.
    The King did not try to find out where the bracelets had come
from, not because he did not want to know, but because the only
way would have been to ask Turritella, and he disliked her so
much that he never spoke to her if he could possibly avoid it. It
was he who had told Fiordelisa about the Chamber of Echoes, when
he was a Blue Bird. It was a little room below the King's own
bed-chamber, and was so ingeniously built that the softest
whisper in it was plainly heard in the King's room. Fiordelisa
wanted to reproach him for his faithlessness, and could not
imagine a better way than this. So when, by Turritella's orders,
she was left there she began to weep and lament, and