touching them, they all fell asleep, that they
might not awake before their mistress, and that they might be ready to
wait upon her when she wanted them. The very spits at the fire, as
full as they could hold of partridges and pheasants, did fall asleep,
and the fire likewise. All this was done in a moment. Fairies are not
long in doing their business.

And now the King and the Queen, having kissed their dear child without
waking her, went out of the palace, and put forth a proclamation, that
nobody should dare to come near it. This, however, was not necessary;
for, in a quarter of an hour's time, there grew up, all round about
the park, such a vast number of trees, great and small, bushes and
brambles, twining one within another, that neither man nor beast could
pass thro'; so that nothing could be seen but the very top of the
towers of the palace; and that too, not unless it was a good way off.
Nobody doubted but the Fairy gave herein a sample of her art, that the
Princess, while she continued sleeping, might have nothing to fear
from any curious people.

* * * * *

When a hundred years were gone and past, the son of the King then
reigning, and who was of another family from that of the sleeping
Princess, being gone a-hunting on that side of the country, asked,
what were those towers which he saw in the middle of a great thick
wood? Every one answered according as they had heard; some said that
it was a ruinous old castle, haunted by spirits; others, that all the
sorcerers and witches of the country kept there their sabbath, or
nights meeting. The common opinion was that an Ogre[1] lived there,
and that he carried thither all the little children he could catch,
that he might eat them up at his leisure, without any-body's being
able to follow him, as having himself, only, the power to pass thro'
the wood.

[Footnote 1: OGRE is a giant, with long teeth and claws, with a raw
head and bloody-bones, who runs away with naughty little boys and
girls, and eats them up. [Note by the translator.]]

The Prince was at a stand, not knowing what to believe, when a very
aged countryman spake to him thus: "May it please your Royal Highness,
it is now above fifty years since I heard my father, who had heard my
grandfather, say that there then was in this castle, a Princess, the
most beautiful was ever seen; that she must sleep there a hundred
years, and should be awaked by a king's son; for whom s