ars.

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THE STORY

OF

=Princess Rosetta=.

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=Edited by Madame de Chatelain.=

=Princess Rosetta.=

There once lived a king and a queen who had two very fine boys. The
queen always invited the fairies, on the birth of her children, to
foretel their fortunes; so when, some years after, a daughter was born,
she again applied to her old friends. The little girl was so beautiful
that the fairies were struck with admiration; but when questioned by the
mother as to the future fate of Princess Rosetta (for such was her
name), they one and all pretended to have left their conjuring-book at
home, and said they would come another time. "Alas!" cried the queen,
"this bodes no good. Yet I do entreat you to tell me the worst." The
more unwilling the fairies seemed to speak, the greater desire the queen
felt to know what was the matter; so at length the principal fairy said:
"We are afraid, Madam, that Rosetta will prove unlucky to her brothers,
and that they will die in some adventure on her account. That is all
that we are able to foresee about your pretty little girl." They then
departed, and left the queen very sad.

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Some time after, the queen was told that there was an old hermit, who
lived in the trunk of a tree, in a neighbouring wood, and whom everybody
went to consult. So she went and consulted the hermit, and he answered,
that the best thing would be to shut the princess up in a tower, and
never allow her to go abroad. The queen thanked him, and having made him
a handsome present, came back and told the king what he had said. The
king immediately ordered a high tower to be built, and when it was
finished, he shut the princess up in it, though he went daily to see his
daughter, accompanied by the queen and the two princes, who were
devotedly attached to their sister. By the time the princess was fifteen
years of age the king and queen fell ill and died the same day, to the
great grief of Rosetta and her brothers. The eldest son was now raised
to the throne, when he said to his brother: "It is time we should let
our sister out of the tower in which she has been so long shut up."
Accordingly they crossed the garden, and having entered the tower,
Rosetta came to meet them, and said: "I hope, Sire, now that you are
king, you will let me out of this tower, where I am so tired of being
shut up." And so saying she burst into tears. But the king told her not
t