en the Princess grew sleepy, twenty-four charming maidens put her to
bed in the prettiest room she had ever seen, and then sang to her so
sweetly that Graciosa's dreams were all of mermaids, and cool sea waves,
and caverns, in which she wandered with Percinet; but when she woke up
again her first thought was that, delightful as this fairy palace seemed
to her, yet she could not stay in it, but must go back to her father.
When she had been dressed by the four-and-twenty maidens in a charming
robe which the Queen had sent for her, and in which she looked
prettier than ever, Prince Percinet came to see her, and was bitterly
disappointed when she told him what she had been thinking. He begged her
to consider again how unhappy the wicked Queen would make her, and how,
if she would but marry him, all the fairy palace would be hers, and his
one thought would be to please her. But, in spite of everything he could
say, the Princess was quite determined to go back, though he at last
persuaded her to stay eight days, which were so full of pleasure and
amusement that they passed like a few hours. On the last day, Graciosa,
who had often felt anxious to know what was going on in her father's
palace, said to Percinet that she was sure that he could find out for
her, if he would, what reason the Queen had given her father for her
sudden disappearance. Percinet at first offered to send his courier to
find out, but the Princess said:

'Oh! isn't there a quicker way of knowing than that?'

'Very well,' said Percinet, 'you shall see for yourself.'

So up they went together to the top of a very high tower, which, like
the rest of the castle, was built entirely of rock-crystal.

There the Prince held Graciosa's hand in his, and made her put the tip
of her little finger into her mouth, and look towards the town, and
immediately she saw the wicked Queen go to the King, and heard her say
to him, 'That miserable Princess is dead, and no great loss either. I
have ordered that she shall be buried at once.'

And then the Princess saw how she dressed up a log of wood and had it
buried, and how the old King cried, and all the people murmured that the
Queen had killed Graciosa with her cruelties, and that she ought to have
her head cut off. When the Princess saw that the King was so sorry for
her pretended death that he could neither eat nor drink, she cried:

'Ah, Percinet! take me back quickly if you love me.'

And so, though he did not want