to listen she heard the Princess and her lover singing together a
little song he had just taught her. These were the words:--

'Oh! what a luckless pair are we,
One in a prison, and one in a tree.
All our trouble and anguish came
From our faithfulness spoiling our enemies' game.
But vainly they practise their cruel arts,
For nought can sever our two fond hearts.'

They sound melancholy perhaps, but the two voices sang them gaily
enough, and the Queen burst open the door, crying, 'Ah! my Turritella,
there is some treachery going on here!'

As soon as she saw her, Fiordelisa, with great presence of mind, hastily
shut her little window, that the Blue Bird might have time to escape,
and then turned to meet the Queen, who overwhelmed her with a torrent of
reproaches.

'Your intrigues are discovered, Madam,' she said furiously; 'and you
need not hope that your high rank will save you from the punishment you
deserve.'

'And with whom do you accuse me of intriguing, Madam?' said the
Princess. 'Have I not been your prisoner these two years, and who have I
seen except the gaolers sent by you?'

While she spoke the Queen and Turritella were looking at her in the
greatest surprise, perfectly dazzled by her beauty and the splendour of
her jewels, and the Queen said:

'If one may ask, Madam, where did you get all these diamonds? Perhaps
you mean to tell me that you have discovered a mine of them in the
tower!'

'I certainly did find them here,' answered the Princess.

'And pray,' said the Queen, her wrath increasing every moment, 'for
whose admiration are you decked out like this, since I have often seen
you not half as fine on the most important occasions at Court?'

'For my own,' answered Fiordelisa. 'You must admit that I have had
plenty of time on my hands, so you cannot be surprised at my spending
some of it in making myself smart.'

'That's all very fine,' said the Queen suspiciously. 'I think I will
look about, and see for myself.'

So she and Turritella began to search every corner of the little room,
and when they came to the straw mattress out fell such a quantity of
pearls, diamonds, rubies, opals, emeralds, and sapphires, that they were
amazed, and could not tell what to think. But the Queen resolved to hide
somewhere a packet of false letters to prove that the Princess had been
conspiring with the King's enemies, and she chose the chimney as a good
place. Fortunately for Fiordelisa this was