to a child. She took her and put her in
the wall she had had built, where there was neither light nor air, and
where the wicked woman hoped that she would die. But it was not so. The
scullion went every day to wash the dishes at the sink near where poor
Diana was buried alive. While attending to his business, he heard a
lamentation, and listened to see where it could come from. He listened
and listened, until at last he perceived that the voice came from the
wall that had been newly built. What did he do then? He made a hole in
the wall, and saw that the queen was there. The scullion asked how she
came there; but she only made signs that she was about to give birth to
a child. The poor scullion had his wife make a fine cushion, on which
Diana reposed as well as she could, and gave birth to the most beautiful
boy that could be seen. The scullion's wife went to see her every
moment, and carried her broth, and cared for the child; in short, this
poor woman, as well as her husband, did everything she could to
alleviate the poor queen, who tried to make them understand by signs
what she needed. One day it came into Diana's head to look into her
memorandum book and see how long she still had to keep silent, and she
saw that only two minutes yet remained. As soon as they had passed, she
told the scullion all that had happened. At that moment the king
arrived, and the scullion drew the queen from out the hole, and showed
her to the king. You can imagine how delighted he was to see again his
Diana, whom he believed to be dead. He embraced her, and kissed her and
the child; in short, such was his joy that it seemed as if he would go
mad. Diana related everything to him: why she had left her home, and why
she had played dumb so long, and finally how she had been treated by the
queen-mother, and what she had suffered, and how kind those poor people
had been to her. When he had heard all this, he said: "Leave the matter
to me; I will arrange it."

The next day the king invited all the nobles and princes of his realm to
a great banquet. Now it happened that in setting the tables the servants
laid six plates besides the others; and when the guests sat down, six
handsome youths entered, who advanced and asked what should be given to
a sister who had done so and so for her brothers. Then the king sprang
up and said: "And I ask what shall be done to a mother who did so and so
to her son's wife?" and he explained everything. One said: "Bur