ly. 'Who are you, I should like to know,
that you dare to call me a scold? A miserable King who breaks his word,
and goes about in a chariot drawn by croaking frogs out of a marsh!'

'Let us have no more of these insults,' cried the Fairy. 'Fly from that
window, ungrateful King, and for seven years be a Blue Bird.' As she
spoke the King's face altered, his arms turned to wings, his feet to
little crooked black claws. In a moment he had a slender body like a
bird, covered with shining blue feathers, his beak was like ivory, his
eyes were bright as stars, and a crown of white feathers adorned his
head.

As soon as the transformation was complete the King uttered a dolorous
cry and fled through the open window, pursued by the mocking laughter
of Turritella and the Fairy Mazilla. He flew on until he reached the
thickest part of the wood, and there, perched upon a cypress tree, he
bewailed his miserable fate. 'Alas! in seven years who knows what may
happen to my darling Fiordelisa!' he said. 'Her cruel stepmother may
have married her to someone else before I am myself again, and then what
good will life be to me?'

In the meantime the Fairy Mazilla had sent Turritella back to the Queen,
who was all anxiety to know how the wedding, had gone off. But when her
daughter arrived and told her all that had happened she was terribly
angry, and of course all her wrath fell upon Fiordelisa. 'She shall have
cause to repent that the King admires her,' said the Queen, nodding her
head meaningly, and then she and Turritella went up to the little room
in the tower where the Princess was imprisoned. Fiordelisa was immensely
surprised to see that Turritella was wearing a royal mantle and a
diamond crown, and her heart sank when the Queen said: 'My daughter
is come to show you some of her wedding presents, for she is King
Charming's bride, and they are the happiest pair in the world, he loves
her to distraction.' All this time Turritella was spreading out lace,
and jewels, and rich brocades, and ribbons before Fiordelisa's unwilling
eyes, and taking good care to display King Charming's ring, which she
wore upon her thumb. The Princess recognised it as soon as her eyes fell
upon it, and after that she could no longer doubt that he had indeed
married Turritella. In despair she cried, 'Take away these miserable
gauds! what pleasure has a wretched captive in the sight of them?' and
then she fell insensible upon the floor, and the cruel Queen la