gardens.

Now all this time the wicked stepmother, who had been the cause of these
poor children's misfortunes and trying adventures, was feeling fully
persuaded that sister had been torn to pieces by wild beasts, and
brother shot to death in the shape of a Roe. When she heard how happy
and prosperous they were, her heart was filled with envy and hatred,
and she could think of nothing but how to bring some fresh misfortune
on them. Her own daughter, who was as hideous as night and had only one
eye, reproached her by saying, 'It is I who ought to have had this good
luck and been Queen.'

'Be quiet, will you,' said the old woman; 'when the time comes I shall
be at hand.'

Now after some time it happened one day when the King was out hunting
that the Queen gave birth to a beautiful little boy. The old witch
thought here was a good chance for her; so she took the form of the lady
in waiting, and, hurrying into the room where the Queen lay in her bed,
called out, 'The bath is quite ready; it will help to make you strong
again. Come, let us be quick, for fear the water should get cold.' Her
daughter was at hand, too, and between them they carried the Queen, who
was still very weak, into the bath-room and laid her in the bath; then
they locked the door and ran away.

They took care beforehand to make a blazing hot fire under the bath, so
that the lovely young Queen might be suffocated.

As soon as they were sure this was the case, the old witch tied a cap on
her daughter's head and laid her in the Queen's bed. She managed, too,
to make her figure and general appearance look like the Queen's, but
even her power could not restore the eye she had lost; so she made
her lie on the side of the missing eye, in order to prevent the King's
noticing anything.

In the evening, when the King came home and heard the news of his son's
birth, he was full of delight, and insisted on going at once to his dear
wife's bedside to see how she was getting on. But the old witch cried
out, 'Take care and keep the curtains drawn; don't let the light get
into the Queen's eyes; she must be kept perfectly quiet.' So the King
went away and never knew that it was a false Queen who lay in the bed.

When midnight came and everyone in the palace was sound asleep, the
nurse who alone watched by the baby's cradle in the nursery saw the door
open gently, and who should come in but the real Queen. She lifted the
child from its cradle, laid it on her arm,