een lay there shaking, and hoping she would not be
found. But very soon the wicked King clattered into the room, and in a
fury because the Queen would not answer when he called to her, he tore
back her silken coverings and tweaked off her lace cap, and when all
her lovely hair came tumbling down over her shoulders, he wound it three
times round his hand and threw her over his shoulder, where he carried
her like a sack of flour.

The poor Queen held her little daughter safe in her arms and shrieked
for mercy, but the wicked King only mocked her, and begged her to go on
shrieking, as it amused him, and so mounted his great black horse, and
rode back to his own country. When he got there he declared that he
would have the Queen and the little Princess hanged on the nearest tree;
but his courtiers said that seemed a pity, for when the baby grew up she
would be a very nice wife for the King's only son.

The King was rather pleased with this idea, and shut the Queen up in
the highest room of a tall tower, which was very tiny, and miserably
furnished with a table and a very hard bed upon the floor. Then he sent
for a fairy who lived near his kingdom, and after receiving her with
more politeness than he generally showed, and entertaining her at a
sumptuous feast, he took her up to see the Queen. The fairy was so
touched by the sight of her misery that when she kissed her hand she
whispered:

'Courage, madam! I think I see a way to help you.'

The Queen, a little comforted by these words, received her graciously,
and begged her to take pity upon the poor little Princess, who had met
with such a sudden reverse of fortune. But the King got very cross when
he saw them whispering together, and cried harshly:

'Make an end of these fine speeches, madam. I brought you here to tell
me if the child will grow up pretty and fortunate.'

Then the Fairy answered that the Princess would be as pretty, and
clever, and well brought up as it was possible to be, and the old King
growled to the Queen that it was lucky for her that it was so, as they
would certainly have been hanged if it were otherwise. Then he stamped
off, taking the Fairy with him, and leaving the poor Queen in tears.

'How can I wish my little daughter to grow up pretty if she is to
be married to that horrid little dwarf, the King's son,' she said to
herself, 'and yet, if she is ugly we shall both be killed. If I could
only hide her away somewhere, so that the cruel King