Princess Stories

Babiole

By Madame D'Aulnoy

There was once a queen who had nothing left to wish for but to have children. She could talk of nothing else, and would constantly say that the Fairy Fanferluche, who had been present at her birth, and who bore a grudge against the queen, her mother, had flown into a rage, and had wished her no thing but ill-luck.

One day, as she sat alone grieving by the fireside, she saw a little old woman, no bigger than your hand, come down the chimney, riding on three reeds. On her head was a branch of hawthorn; her gown was of flies' wings, and two nutshells served for shoes. She rode through the air, sweeping three times round the room, and then stopped in front of the queen. "For a long time," she said, "you have been grumbling at me, saying I am to blame for your misfortunes, and that I am responsible for all that happens to you. You think, madam, that it is my fault you have no children. I come to announce to you the birth of an infanta, but I warn you she will cost you many a tear." "Ah! noble Fanferluche," exclaimed the queen, "do not deny me your pity and your aid; I undertake to do everything in my power for you if you will promise that the princess shall be a comfort to me and not a grief." "Fate is stronger than I," replied the fairy. "All that I can do to prove my affection for you is to give you this hawthorn. Fasten it to your daughter's head as soon as she is horn; it will protect her from many perils." And, giving her the haw thorn, she vanished like a flash of lightning.

The queen remained sad and pondering. "What!" she said, "do I really desire a daughter who is to cost me many sighs and tears? Should I not be happier without her?" When the king, whom she dearly loved, was with her her troubles seemed more bearable. Her child would soon be born, and in preparation for the event she gave her attendants strict charge to fasten the haw thorn on the princess's head directly she should come into the world. She kept the branch in a golden box covered with diamonds, and valued it above all her possessions.

At length the queen gave birth to the loveliest creature that ever was seen. Without delay the hawthorn was fastened on her head, and at the same instant, wonderful to relate! she turned into a little monkey, and jumped and ran and capered about the room a perfect monkey and no mistake! At this metamorphosis all the ladies uttered horrible cries, and the queen, more alarmed than any one, thought she should die of despair. She ordered the flowers to be taken off the creature's head. With the greatest difficulty the monkey was caught but it was in vain that the fatal flowers were removed. She was already a monkey, a confirmed monkey. She could not suck nor do anything else like a child, and cared only about nuts and chestnuts.

"Wicked Fanferluche!" exclaimed the queen, sorrowfully, "what have I done that you should treat me so cruelly? What is to become of me? What a disgrace for me, that all my subjects should think I have brought a monster into the world! and how horrified the king will be at seeing such a child!" In tears she entreated her ladies to advise her what to do in this serious case. "Madam," said the oldest, "you must persuade the king that the princess is dead, and we must shut up this monkey in a box and cast it to the bottom of the sea; it would be a terrible thing to keep an animal of this sort any longer."

The queen had some scruple in making up her mind; but when she was told that the king was coming into her room, she became so confused and distressed that without further consideration, she bid the lady-in-waiting do what she liked with the monkey.

It was carried into another apartment and shut up in a box. One of the queen's servants was ordered to throw it into the sea; and he at once set off with it. Now was the princess in the greatest danger; for the man, seeing that the box was beautiful, was very unwilling to throw it away. Sitting down by the sea-shore, he took the monkey out of the box, and, not knowing it was his sovereign, resolved to kill her. But while he held it in his hand a loud noise startled him and made him turn his head. He saw an open chariot drawn by six unicorns, glittering with gold and precious stones, and in front marched several trumpeters. A queen in royal robes and with a crown on her head was seated on cushions of cloth of gold, and held her four-year-old son on her knee.