exactly where the Blue Bird
had perched himself, to keep an eye upon her proceedings, and try to
avert danger from his beloved Princess, and now he cried:

'Beware, Fiordelisa! Your false enemy is plotting against you.'

This strange voice so frightened the Queen that she took the letter and
went away hastily with Turritella, and they held a council to try and
devise some means of finding out what Fairy or Enchanter was favouring
the Princess. At last they sent one of the Queen's maids to wait upon
Fiordelisa, and told her to pretend to be quite stupid, and to see and
hear nothing, while she was really to watch the Princess day and night,
and keep the Queen informed of all her doings.

Poor Fiordelisa, who guessed she was sent as a spy, was in despair, and
cried bitterly that she dared not see her dear Blue Bird for fear that
some evil might happen to him if he were discovered.

The days were so long, and the nights so dull, but for a whole month she
never went near her little window, lest he should fly to her as he used
to do.

However, at last the spy, who had never taken her eyes off the Princess
day or night, was so overcome with weariness that she fell into a deep
sleep, and as soon as the Princess saw that, she flew to open her window
and cried softly:

'Blue Bird, blue as the sky,
Fly to me now, there's nobody by.'

And the Blue Bird, who had never ceased to flutter round within sight
and hearing of her prison, came in an instant. They had so much to say,
and were so overjoyed to meet once more, that it scarcely seemed to them
five minutes before the sun rose, and the Blue Bird had to fly away.

But the next night the spy slept as soundly as before, so that the Blue
Bird came, and he and the Princess began to think they were perfectly
safe, and to make all sorts of plans for being happy as they were before
the Queen's visit. But, alas! the third night the spy was not quite so
sleepy, and when the Princess opened her window and cried as usual:

'Blue Bird, blue as the sky,
Fly to me now, there's nobody nigh,'

she was wide awake in a moment, though she was sly enough to keep her
eyes shut at first. But presently she heard voices, and peeping
cautiously, she saw by the moonlight the most lovely blue bird in the
world, who was talking to the Princess, while she stroked and caressed
it fondly.

The spy did not lose a single word of the conversation, and as soon as
the day dawned, and the Blue Bi