Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/314

270 it would be best to do in so sad a conjuncture. Some suggested that the ape should be smothered, others were for shutting it up in some hole, and a third party proposed sending it again to be drowned in the sea. The Queen wept and sobbed, and said, "She has so much good sense, what a pity to see her reduced by a magic bouquet to this miserable condition. But after all," she continued, "it is my child. It is I who have drawn down upon her the wrath of the wicked Fanferluche; is it just she should suffer for the hate that fairy bears to me?"

"Yes, Madam," said her old maid of honour, "you must protect your own fame. What would the world think of you if you declared yourself the mother of a monkey Infanta. It is not natural for one so handsome as you are to have such children."

The Queen lost all patience at such reasoning, whilst the old lady and the others all insisted with equal warmth that the little monster ought to be exterminated. Finally the Queen determined to have Babiole locked up in a château, where she could be well fed and well treated for the rest of her days.

When the Princess heard the Queen express her resolution to put her in prison, she slipped quietly out at the side of the bed, and leaping from a window on to a tree in the garden, escaped into the great forest, and left everybody wondering what had become of her.

She passed the night in the hollow of an oak, where she had time to moralize on the cruelty of her destiny; but what gave her the most pain was the necessity she was under of quitting the Queen. Still she preferred a voluntary exile which left her the enjoyment of her liberty, to remaining a captive for ever.

As soon as it was light she continued her journey, without knowing where to go, turning in her mind over and over again a thousand times, this strange, this most extraordinary adventure. "What a difference," she exclaimed, "between that which I am, and that which I ought to have been!" The tears flowed fast from the little eyes of poor Babiole.

Every morning at daybreak she resumed her flight. She feared the Queen would have her pursued, or that some of the monkeys, escaped from the cellar, would seize and carry