ich she lived for upwards of fifty years. The King ordered a cover to
be laid for her, but there was no possibility of giving her a massive
gold case, such as the others had, because there had been only seven
made expressly for the seven fairies. The old fairy thought she was
treated with contempt, and muttered some threats between her teeth. One
of the young fairies, who chanced to be near her, overheard her
grumblings, and was afraid she might bestow some evil gift on the young
Princess. Accordingly, as soon as they rose from table, she went and hid
herself behind the hangings, in order to be the last to speak, and so
enable herself to repair, as far as possible, any harm the old fairy
might have done. Meanwhile the fairies began bestowing their gifts on
the Princess. The youngest, as her gift, promised that she should be the
most beautiful person in the world; the next fairy, that she should have
the mind of an angel; the third, that every movement of hers should be
full of grace; the fourth, that she should dance to perfection; the
fifth, that she should sing like a nightingale; the sixth, that she
should play on every kind of instrument in the most exquisite manner
possible. It was now the turn of the old fairy, and she said, while her
head shook more with malice than with age, that the Princess should
pierce her hand with a spindle, and die of the wound.

The whole company trembled when they heard this terrible prediction, and
there was not one among them who did not shed tears. At this moment the
young fairy advanced from behind the tapestry, and said, speaking that
all might hear,--

"Comfort yourselves, King and Queen; your daughter shall not die of the
wound. It is true that I have not sufficient power to undo entirely what
my elder has done. The Princess will pierce her hand with a spindle,
but, instead of dying, she will only fall into a deep sleep, which will
last a hundred years, at the end of which time a king's son will come
and wake her."

The King, in the hope of preventing the misfortune foretold by the old
fairy, immediately sent forth a proclamation forbidding everyone, on
pain of death, either to spin with a spindle, or to have spindles in
their possession.

Fifteen or sixteen years had passed, when, the King and Queen being
absent at one of their country houses, it happened that the Princess,
while running about the castle one day, and up the stairs from one room
to the other, came to a little