for it was very curious to see those nobles as
quiet and motionless as though they had been waxworks in a show. Some of
them were frowning as though in deep thought, and some smiling as though
they had suddenly remembered something clever to say. The King himself,
at the head of the Council table, had evidently fallen asleep in the
very midst of a speech, for his arm lay outstretched on the table with
pointing finger, and, by his side, his secretary's fingers still held
the pen with which he was inscribing on a roll of parchment the royal
words.

So the Prince hurried through the castle from top to bottom until he had
glanced into every room and opened every door. And still he knew that
there was something more to see, for nowhere had he come across the
sleeping Princess. Many maidens he had seen of surpassing beauty, but
his heart told him that none of them all was the maiden whom he had come
to awaken.

Down he went into the courtyard again and found another stairway which
led to the battlements. There stood the watchmen whose duty it was to
look out over the country and report the arrival of travellers, but
they, too, were all asleep, though one of them had his horn in his hand
as though he had been about to blow it when he was suddenly overcome by
the charmed slumber.

From the battlements the Prince climbed, in turn, into each of the
turrets, but there was nobody in them at all, and no living thing except
the owls asleep in the crevices of the walls, and the bats that hung
head downward from the rafters. Now only one small turret remained to be
explored. It was the oldest of the turrets, almost a ruin, and plainly
long unused, for the iron door was rusty and the ivy trailed about the
walls.

The Prince approached it with a beating heart, for there he knew he
should find what he sought. He threw open the creaking door; with
impatient feet he mounted the crazy, winding stair, opened the door at
the top and entered a little dark room.

And then--and then he started forward with a cry of joy and wonder, for
lying on the couch below the narrow window he saw the Princess.

She was lying upon a couch with her lovely hair spread out like a stream
of gold; and, oh! no words can tell how beautiful she was. Softly the
Prince came near and bent over her. He touched her hand; it was warm as
in life, but she did not stir. No sound of breathing came from her
parted lips, fresh and sweet as the petals of a rose; her eyes we