r
thousands, and a very fine sight it was to see the enormous flames
shooting up into the air and to hear the crackle and hiss of the burning
wood that sounded like the discharge of a hundred muskets.

The King laughed aloud in his relief, and even the Queen smiled, while
the little Princess Briar-Rose, who was held up to a window of the
palace to see the bonfire, stretched out her arms to the pretty flames
and crowed. But the people were not very much amused by the sight
because they were their spinning-wheels which were being burnt.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

"I've had my wheel for twenty years," said one woman, "and now I've none
at all, and how on earth I can get along without it I don't know, with
six growing lads to find breeches for!"

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

"Five silver crowns my wheel cost my good man last Candlemass," said
another, "and there it goes up in flames and smoke."

"What is a wheel if the burning of it saves our little Princess?" quoth
a third. "Come, cheer up, Mother, the King has reason for what he does
and he will not see us want."

And this man was right. The King had no wish to oppress his subjects,
for no sooner was the pile reduced to ashes than he caused another
proclamation to be issued, saying that the owner of every spinning-wheel
should be paid for its loss. And not only so, but the King told his
merchants to buy spun yarn from neighbouring countries so that the
people might be able to weave, even though they could not spin.

CHAPTER VII

THE little Princess Briar-Rose, of course, knew nothing of the strange
events that had happened at the feast of her christening, and the King
gave orders that nobody should even mention the subject to her. It is
not a pleasant thing to know that the fairies have decreed that one
shall fall asleep for a hundred years on one's fifteenth birthday, even
though one is to be awakened by a handsome Prince at the end of that
time. So all the lords-in-waiting and the ladies-in-waiting had to be
very careful and discreet. If they told the Princess a story, they had
to keep the word "spinning" out of it; and if they showed her a book
they had to take pains to see it did not contain a picture of a
spinning-wheel, or any reference to a distaff or spindle, lest she
should ask what they were. The King's Customs officers, on the
boundaries of the kingdom, had to examine every waggon-load of
merchandise that came into the country fo