welcome back the prince and his lovely bride, who was
thenceforward nicknamed, both by her contemporaries and by the
chroniclers who handed down the legend, the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.

[Illustration]

THE STORY

OF THE

=Fair One with Golden Locks=.

[Illustration]

=Edited by Madame de Chatelain.=

=The Fair One With Golden Locks.=

There was once a princess who had such a beautiful head of hair,
streaming down in curls to her feet, and brilliant as a sunbeam, that
she was universally called the Fair One with Golden Locks. A
neighbouring king, having heard a great deal of her beauty, fell in love
with her upon hearsay, and sent an ambassador with a magnificent suite
to ask her in marriage, bidding him be sure and not fail to bring the
princess home with him. The ambassador did his best to fulfil the king's
commands, and made as fair a speech as he could to persuade the lady;
but, either she was not in a good temper that day, or his eloquence
failed to move her, for she answered, that she thanked the king, but had
no mind to marry. So the ambassador returned home with all the presents
he had brought, as the princess would not accept anything of a suitor
whom she refused, much to the grief of the king, who had made the most
splendid preparations to receive her, never doubting but what she would
come.

[Illustration]

Now there happened to be at court a very handsome young man, named
Avenant, who observed, that had he been sent to the Fair One with Golden
Locks, he would certainly have persuaded her to come; whereupon some
ill-natured persons, who were jealous of the favour he enjoyed, repeated
his words to the king, as though he had meant to boast that, being
handsomer than his majesty, the princess would certainly have followed
him. This threw the king into such a rage, that he ordered poor Avenant
to be thrown into a dungeon, where he had nothing but straw to lie upon,
and where he would have died of exhaustion had it not been for a little
spring that welled forth at the foot of the tower in which he was
confined. One day, when he felt as if he were near his end, he could not
help exclaiming: "What have I done? and what can have hardened the
king's heart against the most faithful of all his subjects?" It chanced
that the king passed by just as he uttered these words, and, being
melted by his former favourite's grief, he ordered the prison door to be
opened, and bid him come forth. Aven