which
seemed to come from above. Agnella raised her head and saw a lark
perched on the top of the front door. "You revenge yourself too cruelly
for an injury inflicted, not upon you in your character of a fairy but
upon the ugly and disgusting form in which it has pleased you to
disguise yourself. By my power, which is superior to yours, I forbid you
to exaggerate the evil which you have already done in your blind rage
and which, alas! it is not in my power to undo. And you, poor mother,"
she continued, turning to Agnella, "do not utterly despair; there is a
possible remedy for the deformity of your child. I will accord to him
the power of changing his skin with any one whom he may, by his goodness
and service rendered, inspire with sufficient gratitude and affection to
consent to the change. He will then resume the handsome form which would
have been his if my sister, the fairy Furious, had not given you this
terrible proof of her malice and cruelty."

"Alas! madam Lark," replied Agnella, "all this goodness cannot prevent
my poor, unhappy son from being disgusting and like a wild beast. His
very playmates will shun him as a monster."

"That is true," replied the fairy Drolette; "and the more so as it is
forbidden to yourself or to Passerose to change skins with him. But I
will neither abandon you nor your son. You will name him Ourson until
the day when he can assume a name worthy of his birth and beauty. He
must then be called the prince Marvellous."

Saying these words, the fairy flew lightly through the air and
disappeared from sight.

The fairy Furious withdrew, filled with rage, walking slowly and turning
every instant to gaze at Agnella with a menacing air. As she moved
slowly along, she spat her venom from side to side and the grass, the
plants and the bushes perished along her course. This was a venom so
subtle that nothing could ever flourish on the spot again and the path
is called to this day the Road of the Fairy Furious.

When Agnella found herself alone, she began to sob. Passerose, who had
finished her work and saw the hour of supper approaching, entered the
dining-room and with great surprise saw her mistress in tears.

"Dear queen, what is the matter? Who can have caused you this great
grief? I have seen no one enter the house."

"No one has entered, my dear, except those who enter everywhere. A
wicked fairy under the form of a toad and a good fairy under the
appearance of a lark."

"And wha