Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/482



following is one of the numerous stories related by Mexican mothers to their children, and one which Señora Calderon often told her little son, Pepito, in my presence:

Once there lived a king, who had a very beautiful wife. The king went off to a dreadful and tedious war, and on his return, the queen's bosom friend told him many false and malicious stories of the queen's unbecoming conduct during his absence.

Without waiting to have an explanation with his wife, or endeavoring to ascertain the truthfulness of the woman's assertions, he determined to rid himself of her as quickly as possible.

The queen never suspected the cause of her husband's displeasure, nor that her bosom friend had been the cause of her sudden misfortune.

One day, without warning, the king caused her to be placed in a close carriage, and accompanied by her mother, he proceeded with them, over a rough and uninhabited country, to a famous but isolated castle. On arriving there, the great doors sprang open as if by magic, the carriage drove in, and then the doors clanged together again, with such force and fury as to startle the queen, who had no idea that she was to be thus imprisoned; for when those great portals closed in that manner, no human voice or power, save that of the king, could cause them to open.