ad given. 'How can you do this?' she cried.

At this the Prince and his father were so angry that they did not reply
at all, but simply had the false Princess clapped in irons and put into
prison.

The Prince was so heart-broken at this new trouble that he resolved to
go and shut himself up for the remainder of his life, alone. At once he
summoned the faithful Becafigue, and told him all. Then he wrote a
letter to his father and sent it by Becafigue.

'If I never see my real Princess again,' he wrote, 'I beg of you that
at least you will keep that sham one locked up, and guard her close.'

Now all this time the Princess was in the wood, running hither and
thither as hinds do. Once or twice she looked at herself in the water of
the fountain, and saw herself so changed that she cried out: 'Is it I?
Am I this hind?' Then at last she got very hungry, and began to eat
berries and herbs, and finally sought a quiet spot and went to sleep.

The Fairy Tulip had always loved the Princess, and said that if she left
the castle before she was fifteen, she was sure that the Fairy of the
Fountain would relent and do her no harm. But, as for Giroflee, she was
all this time wandering round looking for the little Princess. She had
walked so much and now felt so tired that she lay down and went to sleep
in the forest. The next morning the Princess, seeking moss among the
ferns, found her. When she saw that it was Giroflee, she went up to her
and caressed her with her nozzle, as hinds do, and looked into her eyes
until at last Giroflee knew full well that it was the Princess turned
into a White Hind. She watched the Hind attentively and saw two large
tears fall from her eyes, and then there was not a single doubt that it
was her dear little Princess; so she put her arms around her neck, and
they wept together.

Then Giroflee told the Princess that she would never leave her, and that
she would stay with her until the end.

The Hind understood, and, to show her gratitude, took Giroflee into the
very deepest part of the forest to find her some luscious fruit which
she had seen there; but on the way Giroflee called out in alarm: she
would die of fright if she had to spend the night in such a desolate
spot; and then they both began to cry. Their cries were so pitiful that
they touched the heart of the good Fairy Tulip, and she came to their
aid.

Giroflee begged her to have pity on her young mistress, and to give her
back her natural f