Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 21, 2025
But they had hardly gone twenty yards when a tremendous noise behind her made Graciosa look back, and she saw the palace of crystal fly into a million splinters, like the spray of a fountain, and vanish. 'Oh, Percinet! she cried, 'what has happened? The palace is gone. 'Yes, he answered, 'my palace is a thing of the past; you will see it again, but not until after you have been buried.
The princess, who sat behind her stepmother, felt sure that the unknown knight was Percinet; but she dared say nothing. The contest was fixed for next day; but in the meantime, Grognon, wild with anger, commanded Graciosa to be taken in the middle of the night to a forest a hundred leagues distant, full of wolves, lions, tigers, and bears.
This he did, and she went back to Percinet, who was waiting for her, and they set out together for the palace. You may imagine that they did not go the shortest way, but the Princess did not find it too long, and before they parted she had promised that if the Queen was still cruel to her, and tried again to play her any spiteful trick, she would leave her and come to Percinet for ever.
On the last day, Graciosa, who had often felt anxious to know what was going on in her father's palace, said to Percinet that she was sure that he could find out for her, if he would, what reason the Queen had given her father for her sudden disappearance. Percinet at first offered to send his courier to find out, but the Princess said: 'Oh! isn't there a quicker way of knowing than that?
I had thought on the subject several days with something like the despair which seized the fair princess, commanded by her ugly step-mother to assort a whole garret full of tangled silk threads of every kind and colour, when in comes Prince Percinet with a wand, whisks it over the miscellaneous mass, and lo! all the threads are as nicely arranged as in a seamstress' housewife.
Without more ado, he abandoned his daughter to her stepmother's will. Grognon, transported with joy, dragged her to a dark prison, took away her clothes, made her dress in rags, feed on bread and water, and sleep upon straw. Forlorn and hopeless, Graciosa dared not now call upon Percinet; she doubted if he still loved her enough to come to her aid.
"Percinet, Percinet, do not reproach me; I am only too unhappy." "It is your own fault. Come with me, and make us both happy." But she said nothing, and the fairy-prince disappeared. At sunset, Grognon eagerly came to the prison-door with her three keys, and found Graciosa smiling and fair, her task all done.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking