Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/301

Rh the moment she is born; it will preserve her from many perils." She gave her the sprig, and vanished like lightning.

The Queen remained sad and thoughtful. "Why should I wish," she said, "for a daughter who will cost me many tears and sighs? should I not be happier without any children?" The presence of the King, whom she loved dearly, a little dissipated her grief, and when she found that she should soon become a mother, all her care was to desire her friends, the moment the Princess should be born, to lay on her head the hawthorn flower, which she kept in a box of gold covered with diamonds, as the most valuable thing she possessed.

At length the Queen gave birth to the most beautiful creature that had ever been seen; they instantly attached to her head the sprig of hawthorn, when, at the same moment, oh! wondrous! she became a little monkey, jumping, running, and skipping about the room just as a monkey would. At this metamorphose all the ladies uttered the most horrible cries, and the Queen, who was more frightened than any one, thought she should have died of despair. She called to them to remove the sprig of hawthorn that they had placed behind the ear; but after the greatest trouble in catching the little ape, they found it useless to remove the fatal flowers; she was a monkey still, a confirmed monkey, refusing to be nursed like a child, and would eat nothing but nuts and chestnuts. "Barbarous Fanferluche," said the Queen, sadly, "what have I done to thee that thou shouldst use me thus? What will become of me! what a disgrace to me! all my subjects will think I have given birth to a monster. What will be the King's horror at such a child!" She wept, and prayed the ladies to advise her how to act in such an emergency. "Madam," said the oldest of her attendants, "you must persuade the King that the Princess is dead, and then shut up this ape in a box, and sink it to the bottom of the sea; for it would be horrible to preserve any longer a little brute of such a kind." The Queen found it difficult to agree to this proposal, but as they told her the King was coming to her apartments, she was so confused and agitated, that without further deliberation she told her maid of honour to do what she pleased with the monkey.

They took it into another room, shut it up in a box, and