Part 11 (1/2)

The Princess grew, from her very cradle Lovely and witty and good; And at last, in the course of years, had blossomed Into full sweet maidenhood.

And one day, in her father's summer palace, As blithe as the very air, She climbed to the top of the highest turret, Over an old worn stair

And there in the dusky cobwebbed garret, Where dimly the daylight shone, A little, doleful, hunch-backed woman Sat spinning all alone.

”O Goody,” she cried, ”what are you doing?”

”Why, spinning, you little dunce!”

The Princess laughed: ”'Tis so very funny, Pray let me try it once!”

With a careless touch, from the hand of Goody She caught the half-spun thread, And the fatal spindle p.r.i.c.ked her finger!

Down fell she as if dead!

And Goody shrieking, the frightened courtiers Climbed up the old worn stair Only to find, in heavy slumber, The Princess lying there.

They bore her down to a lofty chamber, They robed her in her best, And on a couch of gold and purple They laid her for her rest,

The roses upon her cheek still blooming, And the red still on her lips, While the lids of her eyes, like night-shut lilies, Were closed in white eclipse.

Then the fairy who strove her fate to alter From the dismal doom of death, Now that the vital hour impended, Came hurrying in a breath.

And then about the slumbering palace The fairy made up-spring A wood so heavy and dense that never Could enter a living thing.

And there for a century the Princess Lay in a trance so deep That neither the roar of winds nor thunder Could rouse her from her sleep.

Then at last one day, past the long-enchanted Old wood, rode a new king's son, Who, catching a glimpse of a royal turret Above the forest dun

Felt in his heart a strange wish for exploring The th.o.r.n.y and briery place, And, lo, a path through the deepest thicket Opened before his face!

On, on he went, till he spied a terrace, And further a sleeping guard, And rows of soldiers upon their carbines Leaning, and snoring hard.

Up the broad steps! The doors swung backward!

The wide halls heard no tread!

But a lofty chamber, opening, showed him A gold and purple bed.

And there in her beauty, warm and glowing, The enchanted Princess lay!

While only a word from his lips was needed To drive her sleep away.

He spoke the word, and the spell was scattered, The enchantment broken through!

The lady woke. ”Dear Prince,” she murmured, ”How long I have waited for you!”

Then at once the whole great slumbering palace Was wakened and all astir; Yet the Prince, in joy at the Sleeping Beauty, Could only look at her.

She was the bride who for years an hundred Had waited for him to come, And now that the hour was here to claim her, Should eyes or tongue be dumb?

The Princess blushed at his royal wooing, Bowed ”yes” with her lovely head, And the chaplain, yawning, but very lively, Came in and they were wed!