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14 THE GREEN FAIRY BOOK. |
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beautiful things for the princess—diamonds, and rubies, and opals; and at night she decked herself with them to please him, but by day she hid them in her straw mattress. When the sun shone the blue bird, hidden in the tall fir tree, sang to her so sweetly that all the passers-by wondered and said that the wood was inhabited by a spirit. And so two years slipped away, and still the princess was a prisoner and Turritella was not married. The queen had offered her hand to all the neighboring princes, but they always answered that they would marry Fiordelisa with pleasure, but not Turritella on any account. This displeased the queen terribly. "Fiordelisa must be in league with them to annoy me!" she said. "Let us go and accuse her of it."
So she and Turritella went up into the tower. Now, it happened that it was nearly midnight, and Fiordelisa, all decked with jewels, was sitting at the window with the blue bird, and as the queen paused outside the door to listen she heard the princess and her lover singing together a little song he had just taught her. These were the words:
"Ob! what a luckless pair are we, One in a prison and one in a tree. All our trouble and anguish came From our faithfulness spoiling our enemies' game. But vainly they practice their cruel arts, For naught can sever our two fond hearts."
They sound melancholy perhaps, but the two voices sang them gayly enough, and the queen burst open the door, crying: "Ah! my Turritella, there is some treachery going on here!"
As soon as she saw her, Fiordelisa, with great presence of mind, hastily shut her little window, that the blue bird might have time to escape, and then turned to meet the queen, who overwhelmed her with a torrent of reproaches.
"Your intrigues are discovered, madam," she said furiously, "and you need not hope that your high rank will save you from the punishment you deserve."
"And with whom do you accuse me of intriguing, madam?" said the princess. "Have I not been your prisoner these two years, and whom have I seen except the jailers sent by you?" |
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