e wicked nurse kept awake, and went presently to
fetch the boatman. She took him into the Princess's room, and together
they lifted her up, feather bed, mattress, sheets, coverlet, and all,
and threw them into the sea, the Princess all the while so fast
asleep, that she never woke. But fortunately, her bed was made of
Phoenix-feathers, which are extremely rare, and have the property of
always floating on water; so that she was carried along in her bed as in
a boat. The water, however, began gradually first to wet her feather
bed, then her mattress, and Rosette began to feel uncomfortable, and
turned from side to side, and then Fretillon woke up. He had a capital
nose, and when he smelt the soles and cod-fish so near, he started
barking at them, and this awoke all the other fish, who began swimming
about. The bigger ones ran against the Princess's bed, which, not being
attached to anything, span round and round like a whirligig. Rosette
could not make out what was happening. "Is our boat having a dance on
the water?" she said. "I am not accustomed to feeling so uneasy as I am
to-night," and all the while Fretillon continued barking, and going on
as if he was out of his mind. The wicked nurse and the boatman heard him
from afar, and said: "There's that funny little beast drinking our
healths with his mistress. Let us make haste to land," for they were now
just opposite the town of the King of the Peacocks.

He had sent down a hundred chariots to the landing-place; they were
drawn by all kinds of rare animals, lions, bears, stags, wolves, horses,
oxen, asses, eagles, and peacocks: and the chariot which was intended
for the Princess was harnessed with six blue monkeys, that could jump,
dance on the tight rope, and do endless clever tricks; they had
beautiful trappings of crimson velvet, overlaid with plates of gold.
Sixty young maids of honour were also in attendance, who had been chosen
by the King for the amusement of the Princess; they were dressed in all
sorts of colours, and gold and silver were the least precious of their
adornments.

The nurse had taken great pains to dress her daughter finely; she had
put on her Rosette's best robe, and decked her all over from head to
foot with the Princess's diamonds; but with all this, she was still as
ugly as an ape, with greasy black hair, crooked eyes, bowed legs, and a
hump on her back; and, added to these deformities, she was besides of a
disagreeable and sulky temper, and