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The Bound Princess
I The Fire-Eaters |
II The Galloping Plough |
III The Thirsty Well |
IV The Princess Melilot |
V The Burning Rose |
VI The Camphor-Worm
IV
THE PRINCESS MELILOT
THEN Noodle, carrying the crystal with him, set foot once more upon dry land, straightway he was
again upon the back of the Galloping Plough, with the world flying away under
him. But now weariness came over him,
and his head weighed this way and that, so
that earth and sky mixed themselves before
his gaze, and he was so drugged with sleep
that he had no wits to bid the Plough
slacken from its speed. Therefore it
happened that as they passed a wood, a
hanging bough caught him, and brushed
him like a feather from his place, landing
him on a green bosom of grass, where he slept the sleep of the weary, nor ever
lifted his head to see the Plough fast disappearing over hill and valley and plain,
out of sound of his voice or sight of his
eye.
When Noodle awoke and found that
the Plough was gone, he was bitter against
himself for his folly. 'So poor a use to
make of so noble a steed!' he cried; 'no
wonder it has gone from me to seek for a
worthier master! If by good fortune I find
it again, needs must I do great things by
its aid to be worthy of its service.' So he
set out, following the furrow of its course,
determined, however far he must seek, to
journey on till he found it.
For a whole year he travelled, till at
length he came, footsore and weary, to a
deserted palace standing in the midst of
an overgrown garden. The great gates,
which lay wide open, were overrun with
creepers, and the paths were green with weeds. That morning he had thought
that he saw far away on the hills the gleam
of his silver Plough, and now hope rose
high, for he could see by its track that the
Plough had passed before him into the
garden of the palace. 'O my moonbeam,'
he thought, 'is it here I shall find you at
last?'
Within the garden there was a sound
of cross questions and crooked answers,
of many talking with loud voices, and of
one weeping apart from the rest. When
he got quite close, he was struck still with
awe, and joy, and wonder. For first there
lay the Galloping Plough in the middle
of a green lawn, and round it a score of
serving-men, tugging at it and trying to
make it move on. Near by stood an old
woman, wringing her hands and begging
them to leave it alone: 'For,' cried she,
'if the Plough touches but the feet of the
Princess, she will be uprooted, and will presently wither away and die. Of what
use is it to break one, if the other enchantments cannot be broken ? '
In the centre of the lawn grew a bower
of roses, and beneath the bower stood the
loveliest princess that ever eye beheld ;
but she stood there motionless, and with-
out sign of life. She seemed neither to
hear, nor see, nor breathe ; her feet were
rooted to the ground ; though they seemed
only to rest lightly under her weight upon
the grass, no man, nor a hundred men,
could stir her from where she stood. And,
as the spell that held her fast bound to
the spot, even so was the spell that sealed
her senses, no man might lift it from
her. When Noodle set eyes upon her he
knew that for the third time his heart had
been stolen from him, and that to be happy
he must possess her, or die.
He ran quickly to the old woman, who,
unregarded by the serving-men, stood weeping and wringing her hands. c Tell
me,' said Noodle, 'who is this sleeper who
stands enchanted and rooted like a flower
to earth? And who are you, and these
others who work and cry at cross purposes?'
The old woman cried from a wide
mouth: 'It is my mistress, the honey-
jewel of my heart, whom you see here so
grievously enchanted. All the gifts of the
fairies at her christening did not prevent
what was foretold of her at her birth. In
her seventeenth year, as you see her now,
so it was told of her that she should be,'
'Does she live?' asked Noodle; 'is
she asleep? She is not dead ; when will
she wake? Tell me, old woman, her history, and how this fate has come upon
her,'
'She was the daughter of the king of
this country by his first wife,' said the old
woman, and heir to the throne after his death ; but when her mother died the king
married again, and the three daughters
he had by his second wife were jealous of
the beauty, and charm, and goodness which
raised their sister so high above them in
the estimation of all men. So they asked
their mother to teach them a spell that
should rob Melilot of her charms, and
make them useless in the eyes of men.
And their mother, who was wise in such
arts, taught to each of them a spell, so that
together they might work their will.
'One day they came running to Melilot, and said, " Come and play with us a
new game that our mother has taught us!"
Then they began turning themselves into
flowers. "I will be a hollyhock!" said
one. "And I will be a columbine!" said
another; and saying the spell over each
other they became each the flower they
had named.
'Then they unloosed the spells, and became themselves again. " Oh, it is so
nice to be a flower!" they cried, laughing
and clapping their hands. But Melilot
knew no spell.
At last, seeing how her sisters turned
into flowers, and came back safe again, "I
will be a rose!" she cried; "turn me into
a rose and out again!"
Then her three sisters joined their
tongues together, and finished the spell
over her. And so soon as she had become
a rose-tree, the three sisters turned into
three moles, and went down under the
earth and gnawed at the roots.
'Then they came up, and took their own forms again, and sang,
'"Sister, sister, here you are now,
Till the ploughman come with the Galloping Plough!"
'Then they turned into bees, and sucked out the honey from the roses, and coming to themselves again they sang,
'" Sister, here you must doze and doze,
Till they bring you a flower of the Burning Rose!"
'Then they shook the dewdrops out of her eyes, crying,
'"Sister, your brain lies under our spell,
Till water be brought from the Thirsty Well!"
'Then they took the top blossom of all, and broke it to pieces, and threw the petals away as they cried,
'"Sister, your life goes down for a term,
Till they bring you breath from the CamphorWorm!"
And when they had done all this, they
turned her back into her true shape, and
left her standing even as you see her now,
without warmth, or sight, or memory, or
motion, dead saving for her beauty, that
never changes or dies. And here she
must stand till the spells which have been
fastened upon her have been unloosed.
No long time after, the wickedness of the
three sisters and of their cruel mother was discovered to the king, and they were all
put to death for the crime. Yet the ill
they had done remained; and the king's
grief became so great to see his loved
daughter standing dead before him that he
removed with his court to another place,
and left this palace to the care of only a
few serving-men, and myself to keep watch
and guard over the Princess.
'So now four-fold is the spell that
holds her, and to break the lightest of
them the water of the Thirsty Well is
needed ; with two of its drops laid upon
her eyes memory will come back to her,
and her mind will remember of the things
of the past. And for the breaking of the
second spell is needed a blossom of the
Burning Rose, and the plucking of that
no man's hand can achieve ; but when the
Rose is laid upon her breast, her heart
will belong to the world once more, and
will beat again under her bosom. And for the breaking of the third spell one must
bring the breath of the Camphor-Worm
that has lain for a whole year inside its
body, and breathe it between her lips ;
then she will breathe again, and all her five
senses will return to her. And for the
last spell only the Galloping Plough can
uproot her back to life, and free her feet
for the ways of earth. Now, here we
have the Galloping Plough with no man
who can guide it, and what aid can it be?
If these fools should be able to make it so
much as but touch the feet of my dear
mistress, she will be mown down like
grass, and die presently for lack of earth ;
for only the three other charms I have told
you of can put whole life back into her.'
'As for the mastery of the Plough,' said
Noodle, 'I will fetch that from them in a
breath. See, in a moment, how marvellous
will be the uplifting of their eyes!' He
put to his lips the firestone ring the Sweetener and blew but one note through
it. Then in a moment the crowd divided
hither and thither, with cries of wonder
and alarm, for the Plough turned and
bounded back to its master quickly, as an
Arab mare at the call of her owner.
The old woman, weeping for gladness,
cried: 'Thou art master of the Plough!
art thou master of all the other things as
well?'
He said: 'Of one thing only. Tell
me of the Burning Rose and the CamphorWorm ; what and where are they? For
I am the master of the ends of the earth
by reason of the speed with which this
carries me; and I am lord of the Thirsty
Well, and have the Fire-eaters for my
friends.'
The old woman clapped her hands, and
blessed him for his youth, and his wisdom,
and his courage. 'First,' she said, 'restore
to the Princess her memory by means of the water of the Thirsty Well ; then I will
show you the way to the Burning Rose,
for the easier thing must be done first,'
Then Noodle drew out the crystal and
breathed in it, calling on the Well-folk for
the two drops of water to lay on Princess
Melilot's eyes. Immediately in the bottom
of the cup appeared two blue drops of
water, that came climbing up the sides of
the glass and stood trembling together on
the brim. And Noodle, touching them
with the firestone ring to make the memory
of things sweet to her, bent back the
Princess's face, and let them fall under her
closed lids.
'Look!' cried the faithful nurse, 'light
trembles within those eyes of hers! In
there she begins to remember things; but
as yet she sees and hears nothing. Now
it is for you to be swift and fetch her the
blossom of the Burning Rose. Be wise,
and you shall not fail!'
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