There was once a gentleman who took for his second wife the proudest
and most haughty lady that was ever seen. She had two daughters who
were exactly like her in character, as in everything else. The
gentleman had likewise a young daughter, but of uncommon sweetness and
gentleness of disposition, which she took from her mother, who was the
best person in the world.
The wedding was hardly over when the stepmother began to give full vent
to her bad temper. She could not bear this young girl, whose good
qualities made her own daughters appear even more hateful in contrast.
She gave her the meanest work in the house to do: it was she who washed
the dishes and tables, and scrubbed the stairs, and cleaned the
chambers of madam and her young lady daughters. She slept at the top of
the house in a garret, on a miserable straw bed, while her sisters were
in rooms with inlaid floors, where they had beds of the newest fashion,
and mirrors in which they could see themselves from head to foot.
All this the poor girl bore patiently. She dared not complain to her
father, who would only have reproved her, for his wife governed him
entirely. When she had done her work she used to go into the chimney
corner and sit among the cinders; so they commonly called her
“Cinder-wench.” The younger sister, who was not so rude and uncivil as
the elder, called her “Cinderella.” But Cinderella, for all her mean
dress, was still a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters,
although they were always dressed magnificently.
It happened that the King’s son gave a ball, to which he invited all
persons of fashion. Our two young ladies were invited, for they were
people of distinction in the country. They were much delighted and were
absorbed in selecting the gowns and headdresses which would best become
them. Here was fresh trial for Cinderella, for it was she who ironed
her sisters’ linen and starched their ruffles. All day long they talked
of nothing but how they should be dressed.
“For my part,” said the elder, “I will wear my red velvet dress with
French trimmings.”
“And I,” said the younger, “shall have only my ordinary skirt; but to
make amends for that I shall wear my gold-flowered mantle and my
diamond necklace, which are very far from being ordinary.”
They sent for the best hairdresser to arrange their hair in the most
stylish way, and bought patches for their cheeks from the most
fashionable maker. They called in Cinderella to consult with them, for
she had good taste. She gave them the best advice she could, and even
offered to arrange their headdresses, a proposal which they were very
ready to accept.
While she was doing this they said to her, “Cinderella, should you not
like to go to the ball?”
“Ah!” replied Cinderella, “you mock me! It is not for me to go to
balls.”
“You are right,” said they; “people might well laugh to see a
cinder-wench at a ball.” Any one but Cinderella might have left their
hair awry, but she was good-humored and did it to perfection.
For almost two days they scarcely ate anything, so transported were
they with joy. They broke a dozen or more laces by drawing them too
tight in their efforts to make themselves look as slender as possible,
and they spent all their time before the mirror.
At last the happy day came; they departed, and Cinderella followed them
with her eyes as long as she could. When she could see them no longer
she began to cry.
Her godmother, seeing her in tears, asked her what was the matter.
“I wish—I w-i-s-h”—but she could not finish for weeping.
Her godmother, who was a fairy, said to her, “You wish you could go to
the ball, do you not?”
“Alas, yes!” said Cinderella, sighing.
“Well,” said her godmother, “be a good girl, and I will see to it that
you go.”
She led her into her chamber, and said to her, “Run into the garden, my
child, and fetch me a pumpkin.”
Cinderella went at once to pick the finest she could find, although she
could not imagine how this pumpkin could help her to go to the ball.
Her godmother scooped out the inside, leaving nothing but the rind;
then she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin immediately became a
beautiful gilded coach.
She then went to look into the mouse trap, where she found six mice,
all alive. She told Cinderella to lift the door of the trap, and as
each mouse passed out the godmother gave it a little tap with her wand
and it was turned into a fine horse. The six made a splendid team of
six horses of a fine dapple-gray mouse color.
While she was wondering what she should do for a coachman, Cinderella
said, “I will run and see if there is not a rat in the rat trap; we
will turn him into a coachman.”
“You are right,” said her godmother; “go and look.”
Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there were three huge
rats. The fairy chose the one which had the largest beard, and,
touching him with her wand, turned him into an imposing coachman with
the finest mustache and whiskers ever seen.
Then she said to Cinderella, “Go into the garden and you will find six
lizards behind the watering pot; bring them to me.”
She had no sooner done this than her godmother changed them into six
footmen, who jumped up at once behind the coach in their laced
liveries, and held on as if they had done nothing else all their lives.
The fairy then said to Cinderella, “Well, here is something in which to
go to the ball; are you not pleased with it?”
“Yes; but am I to go like this,—in these miserable rags?”
Her godmother simply touched her with her wand, and in the same instant
her clothes were changed into apparel of cloth of gold and silver, all
decked with jewels. Then she gave her a pair of the prettiest glass
slippers in the world. Thus attired, she got into the carriage. Her
godmother charged her on no account to stay beyond midnight, and warned
her that, if she stayed one moment longer, her coach would become a
pumpkin again, her horses mice, her footmen lizards, and her clothes
just as they were before. She promised her godmother that she would not
fail to leave the ball before midnight, and set off, almost beside
herself with joy.
The King’s son, when he was told that a great Princess, whom nobody
knew, had arrived, ran out to receive her; he gave her his hand as she
alighted from the coach and conducted her to the hall where the company
was assembled. A deep silence at once fell upon every one; they stopped
dancing and the violins ceased to play, so taken up was every one with
gazing at the marvelous beauty of this unknown arrival. Nothing was
heard but the confused murmur of voices saying, “Ah! how beautiful she
is!”
The King himself, old as he was, could not keep his eyes off her, and
whispered to the Queen that it was a long time since he had seen so
beautiful and so lovely a creature.
All the ladies were taken up with studying her headdress and her
costume, in order to have some made for themselves after the same
pattern the next day,—provided they could find materials which would be
fine enough and work-people clever enough to make them.
The King’s son conducted her to the seat of honor, and soon took her
out to dance with him. She danced with such grace that every one
admired her still more. A fine collation was served, but the young
Prince was so absorbed in gazing at her that he did not touch a morsel.
She seated herself beside her sisters and showed them a thousand
courtesies, sharing with them, among other things, the oranges and
citrons which the Prince had presented to her. This astonished them
very much, for they did not know her.
While they were conversing together Cinderella heard the clock strike a
quarter to twelve. She rose at once, courtesied to the company, and
hastened away as fast as she could.
As soon as she got home she ran to find her godmother, and, after
having thanked her, told her how much she wished to go to the ball the
next day, because the King’s son had begged her to come. While she was
telling her godmother all that had happened at the ball her two sisters
knocked at the door.
Cinderella opened it. “How long you have stayed!” she said, yawning,
rubbing her eyes, and stretching herself as if she had just been
awakened. (She had not, however, had any great desire for sleep since
they left her.)
“If you had been at the ball,” said one of her sisters, “you would not
have been sleepy or bored. There came thither the most beautiful
Princess, the very loveliest ever seen; she paid us a thousand
attentions, and gave us oranges and citrons.”
Cinderella asked the name of this Princess, but they replied that no
one knew it; that the King’s son was very much disturbed by this, and
would give anything in the world to know who she was.
Cinderella smiled and said: “How very beautiful she must be! How
fortunate you are! Could I not see her? Ah, dear Miss Charlotte, do
lend me the yellow gown that you wear every day!”
“Indeed!” said Charlotte, “I should think so! Lend my dress to a dirty
cinder-wench like you! I must be out of my mind indeed if I would do
that.”
Cinderella expected this refusal and was very glad of it, for she would
have been greatly embarrassed if her sister had been willing to lend
her the gown.
The next day the two sisters went to the ball, and so did Cinderella,
but dressed much more magnificently than before. The King’s son was
always by her side, and made all manner of pretty speeches to her. The
young lady was far from being wearied by them, and completely forgot
her godmother’s commands, so that she heard the clock begin to strike
twelve when she had no idea that it was even eleven o’clock yet. She
rose at once, and fled as nimbly as a deer. The Prince followed, but
could not overtake her; but she dropped one of her glass slippers,
which he picked up very carefully.
Cinderella reached home quite out of breath, without either coach or
footmen, and in her old clothes, having nothing left of all her finery
but one of her little glass slippers, the mate of the one which she had
dropped. The guards at the palace gates were questioned as to whether
they had not seen a princess go out, and they replied that they had
seen no one go out but a little ragged girl who looked more like a
peasant than a princess.
When her two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked them if
they had had a good time, and if the beautiful lady was there. They
told her Yes, but that she had hurried away as the clock struck twelve,
and in such great haste that she had dropped one of her little glass
slippers, the prettiest in the world. They told, too, how the Prince
had picked it up, and how he had done nothing but look at it all the
rest of the evening, and agreed that he was undoubtedly very much in
love with the beautiful owner of the little slipper.
They spoke truly, for a few days after, the Prince had it proclaimed,
at the sound of the trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot this
slipper fitted exactly. They began to try it on the princesses, then on
the duchesses, and then on all the ladies of the court, but to no
purpose. They brought it to the two sisters, and each one did all she
possibly could to squeeze a foot into the slipper; but neither could
manage to do it. Cinderella, who was watching them and recognized her
slipper, said laughingly, “Let me see if it will not fit me!”
Her sisters burst out laughing, and made fun of her. The gentleman who
was trying on the slipper looked at her earnestly, and finding her very
beautiful, said that it was but fair she should try, and that he had
orders to let every young lady try it on. He made Cinderella sit down,
and putting the slipper to her little foot, he saw that it slipped on
easily and fitted like wax.
The astonishment of the two sisters was great, but it was even greater
when Cinderella pulled from her pocket the other little slipper and put
it on her foot. Thereupon in came her godmother, who, touching
Cinderella’s clothes with her wand, made them become more magnificent
than those which she had worn before.
Now her sisters recognized her as the beautiful stranger whom they had
seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet and asked her
forgiveness for all the ill treatment she had received from them.
Cinderella raised them up and, embracing them, said that she forgave
them with all her heart, and begged them to love her always.
She was conducted to the young Prince, dressed as she was. He found her
more beautiful than ever, and a few days later married her. Cinderella,
who was as good as she was beautiful, gave her two sisters apartments
in the palace, and married them that same day to two great lords of the
court.