excellent in the world. When eleven had done
blessing her, the thirteenth, who had not been invited, and was very
angry on that account, came in, and determined to take her revenge.
So she cried out, "The King's daughter shall in her fifteenth year be
wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead." Then the twelfth, who had
not yet given her gift, came forward and said that the bad wish
must be fulfilled, but that she could soften it, and that the king's
daughter should not die, but fall asleep for a hundred years.

[Illustration]

But the king hoped to save his dear child from the threatened evil,
and ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up
and destroyed. All the fairies' gifts were in the meantime fulfilled;
for the princess was so beautiful, and well-behaved, and amiable, and
wise, that everyone who knew her loved her. Now it happened that on
the very day she was fifteen years old the king and queen were not
at home, and she was left alone in the palace. So she roved about by
herself, and poked at all the rooms and chambers, till at last she
came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow staircase ending
with a little door. In the door there was a golden key, and when she
turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning
away very busily.

"Why, how now, good mother," said the princess, "what are you doing
there?"

"Spinning," said the old lady, and nodded her head.

"How prettily that little thing turns round!" said the princess, and
took the spindle and began to spin. But scarcely had she touched it
before the prophecy was fulfilled, and she fell down, as if lifeless,
on the ground.

However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and
the king and queen, who just then came home, and all their court, fell
asleep too, and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in the
court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the flies on the walls. Even
the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to sleep; and the
meat that was roasting stood still; and the cook, who was at that
moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the
ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep;
and so everything stood still, and slept soundly.

[Illustration]

A large hedge of thorns soon grew around the palace, and every year it
became higher and thicker, till at last the whole place was surrounded
and hidden, so that not even the r