When Princess Rosette read the letter of her brothers that she had to pack all her treasures and come to the kingdom of the King of Peacocks because the king wanted to marry her, her joy knew no bounds.
She had ruled the kingdom well in the absence of her brothers. Now she placed the kingdom in the care of the wisest old men of the kingdom, telling them to take charge of everything and not spend any money, but save it for the return of the King.
After packing everything Princess Rosette and her dog Frisk set out for the Kingdom of Peacocks. Princess Rosette’s nurse and the nurse’s daughter also accompanied them on the journey.
However disaster struck the royal family at that time.
The nurse who had come along with Princess Rosette was an evil woman. Seeing the entire thing, she realized that she had a golden opportunity here.
The nurse right from the beginning of the boat journey kept talking to the boat man. Finally she managed to convince and she also bribed the boatman to help her drown the princess in sea. The nurse had the idea of dressing up her own daughter as Princess Rosette so that her own daughter would be able to marry the King of Peacock and the nurse’s daughter would be able to live a luxurious and lavish life.
One night when the princess was fast asleep in her mattress which was made of phoenix feathers the nurse and the boat man together threw the Princess along with her mattress, pillows and blanket into the sea. Frisk was near the princess on the bed.
The nurse and the boatman managed to do this without waking up the princess.
The phoenix feathers were a very special kind of feather and it could keep afloat on water, no matter what the weight that was placed on it.
That was the reason that Princess Rosette and Frisk did not drown at sea.
However, unaware of all this, the nurse dressed her daughter up as Princess Rosette and they reached the kingdom of the King of Peacocks.
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales
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