her virtue, another beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all
that was 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.

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 every one 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
looked 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 lifeless on the
ground.

However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and
the king and the 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.

A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it
became higher and thicker till at last the whole palace was surrounded