everybody knows that though the fairies live hundreds of years they do sometimes die, and especially as they are obliged to pass one day in every week under the form of some animal, when of course they are liable to accident. it was in this way that death once overtook the queen of the fairies, and it became necessary to call a general assembly to elect a new sovereign. after much discussion, it appeared that the choice lay between two fairies, one called surcantine and the other paridamie; and their claims were so equal that it was impossible without injustice to prefer one to the other. under these circumstances it was unanimously decided that whichever of the two could show to the world the greatest wonder should be queen; but it was to be a special kind of wonder, no moving of mountains or any such common fairy tricks would do. surcantine, therefore, resolved that she would bring up a prince whom nothing could make constant. while paridamie decided to display to admiring mortals a princess so charming that no one could see her without falling in love with her. they were allowed to take their own time, and meanwhile the four oldest fairies were to attend to the affairs of the kingdom.
now paridamie had for a long time been very friendly with king bardondon, who was a most accomplished prince, and whose court was the model of what a court should be. his queen, balanice, was also charming; indeed it is rare to find a husband and wife so perfectly of one mind about everything. they had one little daughter, whom they had named ‘rosanella,’ because she had a little pink rose printed upon her white throat. from her earliest infancy she had shown the most astonishing intelligence, and the courtiers knew her smart sayings by heart, and repeated them on all occasions. in the middle of the night following the assembly of fairies, queen balanice woke up with a shriek, and when her maids of honour ran to see what was the matter, they found she had had a frightful dream.
‘i thought,’ said she, ‘that my little daughter had changed into a bouquet of roses, and that as i held it in my hand a bird swooped down suddenly and snatched it from me and carried it away.’
‘let some one run and see that all is well with the princess,’ she added.
so they ran; but what was their dismay when they found that the cradle was empty; and though they sought high and low, not a trace of rosanella could they discover. the queen was inconsolable, and so, indeed, was the king, only being a man he did not say quite so much about his feelings. he presently proposed to balanice that they should spend a few days at one of their palaces in the country; and to this she willingly agreed, since her grief made the gaiety of the capital distasteful to her. one lovely summer evening, as they sat together on a shady lawn shaped like a star, from which radiated twelve splendid avenues of trees, the queen looked round and saw a charming peasant-girl approaching by each path, and what was still more singular was that everyone carried something in a basket which appeared to occupy her whole attention. as each drew near she laid her basket at balanice’s feet, saying:
‘charming queen, may this be some slight consolation to you in your unhappiness!’
the queen hastily opened the baskets, and found in each a lovely baby-girl, about the same age as the little princess for whom she sorrowed so deeply. at first the sight of them renewed her grief; but presently their charms so gained upon her that she forgot her melancholy in providing them with nursery-maids, cradle-rockers, and ladies-in-waiting, and in sending hither and thither for swings and dolls and tops, and bushels of the finest sweetmeats.
oddly enough, every baby had upon its throat a tiny pink rose. the queen found it so difficult to decide on suitable names for all of them, that until she could settle the matter she chose a special colour for everyone, by which it was known, so that when they were all together they looked like nothing so much as a nosegay of gay flowers. as they grew older it became evident that though they were all remarkably intelligent, and profited equally by the education they received, yet they differed one from another in disposition, so much so that they gradually ceased to be known as ‘pearl,’ or ‘primrose,’ or whatever might have been their colour, and the queen instead would say:
‘where is my sweet?’ or ‘my beautiful,’ or ‘my gay.’
of course, with all these charms they had lovers by the dozen. not only in their own court, but princes from afar, who were constantly arriving, attracted by the reports which were spread abroad; but these lovely girls, the first maids of honour, were as discreet as they were beautiful, and favoured no one.
but let us return to surcantine. she had fixed upon the son of a king who was cousin to bardondon, to bring up as her fickle prince. she had before, at his christening, given him all the graces of mind and body that a prince could possibly require; but now she redoubled her efforts, and spared no pains in adding every imaginable charm and fascination. so that whether he happened to be cross or amiable, splendidly or simply attired, serious or frivolous, he was always perfectly irresistible! in truth, he was a charming young fellow, since the fairy had given him the best heart in the world as well as the best head, and had left nothing to be desired but — constancy. for it cannot be denied that prince mirliflor was a desperate flirt, and as fickle as the wind; so much so, that by the time he arrived at his eighteenth birthday there was not a heart left for him to conquer in his father’s kingdom — they were all his own, and he was tired of everyone! things were in this state when he was invited to visit the court of his father’s cousin, king bardondon.
imagine his feelings when he arrived and was presented at once to twelve of the loveliest creatures in the world, and his embarrassment was heightened by the fact that they all liked him as much as he liked each one of them, so that things came to such a pass that he was never happy a single instant without them. for could he not whisper soft speeches to sweet, and laugh with joy, while he looked at beauty? and in his more serious moments what could be pleasanter than to talk to grave upon some shady lawn, while he held the hand of loving in his own, and all the others lingered near in sympathetic silence? for the first time in his life he really loved, though the object of his devotion was not one person, but twelve, to whom he was equally attached, and even surcantine was deceived into thinking that this was indeed the height of inconstancy. but paridamie said not a word.
in vain did prince mirliflor’s father write commanding him to return, and proposing for him one good match after another. nothing in the world could tear him from his twelve enchantresses.
one day the queen gave a large garden-party, and just as the guests were all assembled, and prince mirliflor was as usual dividing his attentions between the twelve beauties, a humming of bees was heard. the rose-maidens, fearing their stings, uttered little shrieks, and fled all together to a distance from the rest of the company. immediately, to the horror of all who were looking on, the bees pursued them, and, growing suddenly to an enormous size, pounced each upon a maiden and carried her off into the air, and in an instant they were all lost to view. this amazing occurrence plunged the whole court into the deepest affliction, and prince mirliflor, after giving way to the most violent grief at first, fell gradually into a state of such deep dejection that it was feared if nothing could rouse him he would certainly die. surcantine came in all haste to see what she could do for her darling, but he rejected with scorn all the portraits of lovely princesses which she offered him for his collection. in short, it was evident that he was in a bad way, and the fairy was at her wits’ end. one day, as he wandered about absorbed in melancholy reflections, he heard sudden shouts and exclamations of amazement, and if he had taken the trouble to look up he could not have helped being as astonished as everyone else, for through the air a chariot of crystal was slowly approaching which glittered in the sunshine. six lovely maidens with shining wings drew it by rose-coloured ribbons, while a whole flight of others, equally beautiful, were holding long garlands of roses crossed above it, so as to form a complete canopy. in it sat the fairy paridamie, and by her side a princess whose beauty positively dazzled all who saw her. at the foot of the great staircase they descended, and proceeded to the queen’s apartments, though everyone had run together to see this marvel, till it was quite difficult to make a way through the crowd; and exclamations of wonder rose on all sides at the loveliness of the strange princess. ‘great queen,’ said paridamie, ‘permit me to restore to you your daughter rosanella, whom i stole out of her cradle.’
after the first transports of joy were over the queen said to paridamie:
‘but my twelve lovely ones, are they lost to me for ever? shall i never see them again?’
but paridamie only said:
‘very soon you will cease to miss them!’ in a tone that evidently meant ‘don’t ask me any more questions.’ and then mounting again into her chariot she swiftly disappeared.
the news of his beautiful cousin’s arrival was soon carried to the prince, but he had hardly the heart to go and see her. however, it became absolutely necessary that he should pay his respects, and he had scarcely been five minutes in her presence before it seemed to him that she combined in her own charming person all the gifts and graces which had so attracted him in the twelve rose-maidens whose loss he had so truly mourned; and after all it is really more satisfactory to make love to one person at a time. so it came to pass that before he knew where he was he was entreating his lovely cousin to marry him, and the moment the words had left his lips, paridamie appeared, smiling and triumphant, in the chariot of the queen of the fairies, for by that time they had all heard of her success, and declared her to have earned the kingdom. she had to give a full account of how she had stolen rosanella from her cradle, and divided her character into twelve parts, that each might charm prince mirliflor, and when once more united might cure him of his inconstancy once and for ever.
and as one more proof of the fascination of the whole rosanella, i may tell you that even the defeated surcantine sent her a wedding gift, and was present at the ceremony which took place as soon as the guests could arrive. prince mirliflor was constant for the rest of his life. and indeed who would not have been in his place? as for rosanella, she loved him as much as all the twelve beauties put together, so they reigned in peace and happiness to the end of their long lives.
