garret at the top of a turret, where an
old woman sat alone spinning with distaff and spindle, for this good
woman had never heard the King's proclamation forbidding the use of the
spindle.

"What are you doing there?" asked the Princess.

"I am spinning, my pretty child," answered the old woman, who did not
know who she was.

"Oh, how pretty it is!" exclaimed the Princess. "How do you do it? Give
it to me, that I may see if I can do it as well."

She had no sooner taken hold of the spindle, than, being very hasty, and
rather thoughtless, and moreover, the fairies having ordained that it
should be so, she pierced her hand with the point of it, and fainted
away. The poor old woman was in great distress, and called for help.
People came running from all quarters; they threw water in the
Princess's face, they unlaced her dress, they slapped her hands, they
rubbed her temples with Queen of Hungary's water, but nothing would
bring her to. The King, who had run upstairs at the noise, then
remembered the prediction of the fairies, and wisely concluded that this
accident must have happened as the fairies had said it would. He ordered
the Princess to be carried into a beautiful room of the palace, and laid
on a bed embroidered with silver and gold. One might have thought it was
an angel lying there, so lovely did she look, for the rich colours of
her complexion had not faded in her swoon; her cheeks were still rosy,
and her lips like coral. Only, her eyes were closed, but they could hear
her breathing softly, which showed that she was not dead.

The King gave orders that she was to be left to sleep there in quiet,
until the hour of her awaking should arrive. The good fairy who had
saved her life, by condemning her to sleep for a hundred years, was in
the Kingdom of Mataquin, twelve thousand leagues away, when the Princess
met with her accident, but she was informed of it instantly by a little
dwarf, who had a pair of seven-league boots, that is, boots which
enabled the wearer to take seven leagues at a stride.

[Illustration: "_She fell into a swoon._"

_The Sleeping Beauty_]

The fairy set out immediately, and an hour afterwards she was seen
arriving in a chariot of fire, drawn by dragons.

The King advanced to hand her out of the chariot. She approved of all he
had done, but being gifted with great foresight, she bethought her that
the Princess would feel very lost and bewildered on awaking and finding
herself all