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
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