reached a great plain, where they found a
beautiful palace all of crystal; the eagle knocked at the door and said:
"Open, my ladies, open! for I have brought you a pretty girl." When the
people in the palace opened the door, and saw that lovely girl, they
were amazed, and kissed and caressed her. Meanwhile the door was closed,
and they remained peaceful and contented.

Let us return to the eagle, who thought she was doing a spite to the
stepmother. One day the eagle flew away to the terrace where the
stepmother was watering the basil. "Where is your daughter?" asked the
eagle. "Eh!" she replied, "perhaps she fell from this terrace and went
into the river; I have not heard from her in ten days." The eagle
answered: "What a fool you are! I carried her away; seeing that you
treated her so harshly I carried her away to my fairies, and she is very
well." Then the eagle flew away.

The stepmother, filled with rage and jealousy, called a witch from the
city, and said to her: "You see my daughter is alive, and is in the
house of some fairies of an eagle which often comes upon my terrace; now
you must do me the favor to find some way to kill this stepdaughter of
mine, for I am afraid that some day or other she will return, and my
husband, discovering this matter, will certainly kill me." The witch
answered: "Oh, you need not be afraid of that: leave it to me."

What did the witch do? She had made a little basketful of sweetmeats, in
which she put a charm; then she wrote a letter, pretending that it was
her father, who, having learned where she was, wished to make her this
present, and the letter pretended that her father was so glad to hear
that she was with the fairies.

Let us leave the witch who is arranging all this deception, and return
to Ermellina (for so the young girl was named). The fairies had said to
her: "See, Ermellina, we are going away, and shall be absent four days;
now in this time take good care not to open the door to any one, for
some treachery is being prepared for you by your stepmother." She
promised to open the door to no one: "Do not be anxious, I am well off,
and my stepmother has nothing to do with me." But it was not so. The
fairies went away, and the next day when Ermellina was alone, she heard
a knocking at the door, and said to herself: "Knock away! I don't open
to any one." But meanwhile the blows redoubled, and curiosity forced her
to look out of the window. What did she see? She saw one of t