Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Ten

The guards of the wicked king went to the poultry-yard. There instead of the turkey-maiden, they found a beautiful girl who was dressed like a princess. 

The guard looked at the girl warily. “We are looking for a girl called Delicia.”

The girl was taken aback. “I am Delicia. What do you want with me?”

The guards then tied her hands and feet with thick ropes and took her to the wicked king and the dwarf son.

The king looked at the tied Delicia with disdain. “Why don’t you love my son who is far too handsome and good for you?” The king suddenly looked threatening. “If you don’t agree to marry my son, you will be tarred and feathered.”

Delicia was afraid because she was sure that the king would carry out his threat. “Please don’t hurt me. Give me two or three days to decide.”

The king then ordered that Delicia be shut up in the dark dungeon.

Meanwhile the good fairy and queen came to the poultry-yard and they were stunned not to find anything there.

The queen was miserable again, because she was sure that this time she would see her daughter finally.

Then the two of them learned what had happened to the turkey-maiden and the two of them were even more miserable.

However, this time the fairy decided that she was going to save Delicia.

That night when the wicked king went to bed, the fairy changed herself into a mouse. The mouse then went under the pillow of the wicked king and nibbled the wicked king’s ear.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Nine

The old woman studied the young girl keenly. “You are more valuable than ten kingdoms. But how is it that you neither have a father, mother or friend?”

The turkey-maiden sighed. “I lived with a fairy called Cancaline. While I was with her, all she did was hit me and treat me harshly. I ran away from there. As I ran through the forests, I saw a prince. He offered me a job to be in charge of his poultry. I accepted the offer, but I did not realize at that time that I would have to see that prince everyday.” The turkey-maiden seemed annoyed. “This was the evil prince and he comes here everyday to pester me to marry him.”

The old woman immediately realized that this was Princess Delicia.

“What is your name?” The old woman asked the turkey-maiden.

“I am Delicia.” 

The fairy hugged the girl. “I am an old friend of yours. Now wear this precious dress, instead of what you are wearing.” The fairy said giving the girl a lovely robe and precious diamonds.

The fairy asked the turkey-maiden to wait till the next day while she brought some pleasant news for the turkey-maiden. The fairy went to her castle to bring the queen to this place.

Meanwhile while the turkey-maiden waited, the wicked prince went back to his own palace and cried in rage.

The king heard the prince and was annoyed. “What is the matter?”

“The turkey-maiden would not marry me.” The prince told the king angrily.

The king was furious on hearing it. He ordered his guards to bring Delicia to his own palace so that he could talk to her himself.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Eight

 

Fifteen years later a very strange news reached the queen.

The son of the wicked king wanted to marry a girl who maintained turkeys.

The son was sure that the girl would say yes and he had even had wedding

dresses made and had arranged the festivities. However, the girl finally

refused to marry the son of the wicked king.

The queen was curious as to why a poor little turkey-maiden did

not want to be a queen. 

The queen told the fairy about this.

The fairy decided to investigate. She changed herself into a little mouse

and went to the poultry yard of the turkey-maiden.

The turkey-maiden was dressed in a coarse dress and she was sitting

on a stone and there were many robes made of gold and silver and

some diamonds and pearls at her feet and the turkey-maiden

looked miserable.

The ugly looking dwarf son of the wicked king was there. “If you

do not marry me, I will kill you.”

The turkey-maiden looked proud and shook her head. “You are as

ugly as your wicked father. I want nothing more than to be left

in peace with my turkeys. Please leave me alone.”

The son of the wicked king fumed, fretted and finally left the place.

After that the good fairy changed herself to look like an old woman.

“You have some fine turkey birds here.”

The girl turned to the old woman. “I want to be with my birds. But those

people want me to marry the prince. They just do not leave me alone.”

The old woman shook her head. “You do not know the weight or the

price of a crown. That is why you have refused it.”

The girl sighed. “I know well all about the crown though I do not know

who my father or mother is and neither do I have a single friend.”

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Seven

The fairy ran back to the prison and looked terrified.

“What happened?”

“Cancaline is a cruel fairy who hates me. She is older and more powerful than me. Cancaline stole the princess when she was alone in the basket outside the prison.”

The queen was heart-broken and she begged the fairy to try her best to find the princess.

It was at this time that the man looking after the prison came and saw that the princess was not in the prison. He immediately went and told the king about this.

Soon, the king stormed into the tower-prison.

“What has happened to the princess?” The king thundered angrily.

The queen was crestfallen and she mumbled an answer. “A fairy whose name I do not know came and carried off the princess.”

The wicked king was furious. “I will hang you now. You are of no use to me now.”

The king himself dragged the queen to the nearest tree to try and hang her. 

When the king climbed the tree to look for a branch, the fairy who had made herself invisible appeared behind the king and gave the king a push.

The king fell off the branch and broke four of teeth. He was trying to mend it when the fairy carried the queen off in her flying chariot to a beautiful castle.

The queen and the fairy lived in the castle henceforth.

Other than the loss of her daughter, the queen lived well there in the castle with the fairy.

Fifteen years passed this way and the queen had recovered from the loss of her child.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Six

The queen was astonished when she realized that the mouse had spoken.

Before the queen’s eyes, the mouse changed into the fairy who had come with the wicked king to visit her.

“I wanted to see whether you were faithful and capable of feeling real friendship towards me.” The fairy sighed. “We fairies are very rich but we do not have many friends.”

The queen hugged the fairy and kissed her. “Anyone would want to be your friend.”

The fairy shook her head. “There are many who are friendly because it is to their advantage. That does not count.” The fairy studied the queen. “You cared for a little mouse. You could not know that there was nothing that you could gain by being nice to me, but you were.” The fairy smiled again. “I wanted to test you and I took the form of the old woman who had talked from the window and then I realized that you were a really good friend."

Saying this, the fairy kissed the little princess. “Little one, I promise that you will be richer than your father and you will live a hundred years looking pretty and being happy.”

The queen was delighted when she heard this. She asked the fairy to take the princess away from the tower and bring her up as her own.

The fairy agreed to this.

So the two women first lowered the baby in the basket outside the prison walls on the streets below.

After that the fairy changed herself into a mouse to leave the prison and get out of there.

This took some time and disaster struck because of this delay.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Five

The old woman looked at the queen from inside the prison in the tower. “What is it? You seem like you are in trouble. How can I help?”

The queen was thrilled on hearing the old woman’s words. “If you stay there, I will send my baby down in a basket. If you bring up the child well, when I am rich again, I will reward you.”

The old woman thought for some time. “I do not want your reward. But I would like to have a tender good mouse. If you can give me that, I will do what you ask and look after your baby.”

The queen did not reply and she started crying when she heard this.

The old woman was surprised. “What is wrong?”

“There is one mouse in this prison and I cannot bear for the mouse to get hurt.” The queen cried.

The old woman was shocked. “You care more about a mouse than your old baby!” The old woman shook her head. “I am leaving now.”

The old woman walked away grumbling and cursing under her breath.

The queen was sad and that night she could neither enjoy the mouse’s dancing nor could she eat the delicious food that had appeared in the prison.

The queen realized that she just had to hope for the best and act now if she had to save her baby. She placed her child in the basket and wrote on a note that the child’s name was Delicia and decided to lower the basket out of the prison and hoped that someone good would find the child and raise her well.

Before sending the basket down, the queen looked at the mouse in the prison. “I am now not sure whether my Delicia would be taken care of well or not. But I could not let the old woman hurt you.”

“You will never regret your kindness!” The words came from the tiny little mouse.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy

Princess Delicia and the Good Fairy - Part Four

The queen realized that the kindness she had shown to the mouse had been rewarded.

After that, the queen gave whatever was left to the little mouse

The mouse danced merrily.

The next day when the man who brought the food for the queen and the princess brought the three peas, the mouse came and ate up the peas immediately.

The queen was enraged when she saw this, but delicious food suddenly appeared on the plate where the three peas had been brought for the queen.

The queen and the princess had a hearty meal. 

Now as the queen sat at the spinning wheel, she wondered how she could help her daughter escape the clutches of the wicked king and the dwarf.

At that time, the queen saw the mouse playing with some straw in the corner of the prison.

 The queen began to plait all the straws to make it into a basket.

Throughout the entire time, the mouse danced for the queen and the queen gave the three peas and a piece of the black bread that she got, to the mouse and in return she found delicious food for her and Delia. Though the queen did not know how the food appeared, she accepted it as such.

The queen spent all her free time on making the straw basket.

The queen wanted to place the princess in the basket and let her escape from the prison to any good passerby who outside the prison.

After finishing the basket, the queen looked down from the window to decide how much cord she would have to make to lower the basket to the ground from the tower prison.

That was when the queen saw an old woman leaning on a stick looking up at her from outside the prison.

Adapted from the Fairy Tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy