"Children's Books - Sleeping Princess" - читать интересную книгу автора (Children's Books)

THE SLEEPING PRINCESS

Once upon a time there was a Queen who had a beautiful baby daughter. She
asked all the fairies in the kingdom to the christening, but unfortunately
forgot to invite one of them, who was a bit of a witch as well. She came
anyway, but as she passed the baby's cradle, she said:
"When you are sixteen, you will injure yourself with a spindle and die!"
"Oh, no!" screamed the Queen in horror. A good fairy quickly chanted a
magic spell to change the curse. When she hurt herself, the girl would fall
into a very deep sleep instead of dying.
The years went by, the little Princess grew and became the most beautiful
girl in the whole kingdom. Her mother was always very careful to keep her away
from spindles, but the Princess, on her sixteenth birthday, as she wandered
through the castle, came into a room where an old servant was spinning.
"What are you doing?" she asked the servant.
"I'm spinning. Haven't you seen a spindle before?"
"No. Let me see it!" The servant handed the girl the spindle ... and she
pricked herself with it and. with a sigh, dropped to the floor.
The terrified old woman hurried to tell the Queen. Beside herself with
anguish, the Queen did her best to awaken her daughter but in vain. The court
doctors and wizards were called, but there was nothing they could do. The girl
could not be wakened from her deep sleep. The good fairy who managed to avoid
the worst of the curse came too, and the Queen said to her,
"When will my daughter waken?"
"I don't know," the fairy admitted sadly.
"In a year's time, ten years or twenty?" the Queen went on.
"Maybe in a hundred years' time. Who knows?" said the fairy.
"Oh! What would make her waken?" asked the Queen weeplng.
"Love," replied the fairy. "If a man of pure heart were to fall in love
with her, that would bring her back to life!"
"How can a man fall in love with a sleeping girl?" sobbed the Queen, and so
heart-broken was she that, a few days later, she died. The sleeping Princess
was taken to her room and laid on the bed surrounded by garlands of flowers.
She was so beautiful, with a sweet face, not like those of the dead, but pink
like those who are sleeping peacefully. The good fairy said to herself,
"When she wakens, who is she going to see around her? Strange faces and
people she doesn't know? I can never let that happen. It would be too painful
for this unfortunate girl."
So the fairy cast a spell; and everyone that lived in the castle -
soldiers, ministers, guards, servants, ladies, pages, cooks, maids and
knights - all fell into a deep sleep, wherever they were at that very moment.
"Now," thought the fairy, "when the Princess wakes up, they too will
awaken, and life will go on from there." And she left the castle, now wrapped
in silence. Not a sound was to be heard, nothing moved except for the clocks,
but when they too ran down, they stopped, and time stopped with them. Not even
the faintest rustle was to be heard, only the wind whistling round the
turrets, not a single voice, only the cry of birds.
The years sped past. In the castle grounds, the trees grew tall. The bushes
became thick and straggling, the grass invaded the courtyards and the creepers
spread up the walls. In a hundred years, a dense forest grew up.