IN that very moment the charm was broken and the castle awoke.
[Illustration]
Instead of the profound silence there came a hustle and confusion of
noise. Clocks began to strike, doors began to slam, dogs began to bark,
cocks began to crow and hens to cluck; a breeze sprang up outside and
set the branches of the trees swaying and creaking; the doves began to
coo upon the roofs, the swallows to twitter under the eaves, flies came
out and buzzed about the window, mice squeaked in the wainscot and ran
scampering along the rafters. The fountain in the garden leapt up sixty
feet into the air, and the goldfish swam among the water-lily leaves;
ants left their nests and foraged about the paths, the butterflies
danced and fluttered over the flowers, which lifted their heads as
though to drink in the rays of the sun. In every tree in the garden a
thrush woke up and began to sing; sparrows chirped, jays screamed,
blue-tits chattered, and the chiff-chaff uttered his strange note. In
the woods a cuckoo called and blackbird fluted to blackbird in the
hedge. In the stables the horses awoke and champed at their stalls; the
cat jumped down and ran after a mouse which crept out from under the
straw. The sentry at the courtyard gate woke up and rubbed his eyes and
came smartly to attention, looking round uneasily, for he thought he had
only been asleep for a few minutes and was afraid that somebody might
have seen him who would report him to the sergeant. The pikemen also
woke with a start, and the sergeant woke too, and bellowed an order in a
loud and angry voice, for he was ashamed of himself for sleeping in
front of his men. The young squire who was going hawking fitted his
falcon's hood and mounted his steed; the page-boy with the hound went
off to his master. On the topmost tower of the castle the royal
standard, which had been drooping against the flagstaff, filled out and
waved freely in the breeze.
[Illustration]
The hedge which had grown up to surround the enchanted castle broke in
and disappeared; peacocks squalled and strutted on the lawns, martins
flitted to and from their nests under the eaves, pigs began to grunt,
oxen to low, sheep to bleat, rooks to caw and children to laugh and
sing. In short, all the sounds which we hear every day and all the time
and never notice, began again and seemed so loud in contrast to the
deadly silence that they almost cracked the ears.
And in every room in the castle the people who had been lying asleep for
a hundred years woke up and went on with what they had been doing just
as though nothing had happened. In the kitchen the flames of the fire
leapt up with a hiss and a roar. The kettle began to boil, the stew-pot
to bubble, and the meat before the fire to steam and hiss as the little
boy turned the spit.
"Take that," cried the cook, giving the scullion the clout she had
promised a hundred years before. "Take that for a lazy knave."
"Goodness," yawned the maid who had been plucking the black hen; "I
wonder what made me drop off to sleep like that? Well, well, it's to be
hoped the cook didn't see me!" And my word, how she made the feathers
fly!
[Illustration]
_Miaou!_ cried the cat in disgust as he made a pounce at the mouse-hole
he had been watching, for the little mouse who had poked his nose
out a hundred years before drew it back like a flash and scampered away.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"Dear me!" said the servant who was washing the dishes; "I do believe I
have been to sleep with this crock in my hand. It's a mercy I didn't let
it fall!" And he went on with his scouring. It was the same thing in the
dairy where the maids had fallen asleep while they were skimming the
cream and churning the butter. And the cream was not sour for all that a
hundred years had passed, nor was the butter rank. But a fly which had
been sleeping on the edge of one of the milk-pans woke up and flew down
to taste the milk, and fell in and was drowned, so he was none the
better because the spell had been taken off the castle.
[Illustration]
In the Queen's ante-chamber the maids-of-honour and the
ladies-in-waiting sat up and yawned and stretched themselves. Each one
of them thought that she was the only one who had fallen asleep, and
they all began to explain at the same time that they had only closed
their eyes for forty seconds. "It was the heat," they all said to each
other. "The sun is very hot for this time of year."
In the King's council chamber the King and all his ministers woke up
with a start. The ministers rubbed their eyes and looked very sheepish,
for each of them thought that he was alone in being caught napping.
"Your Majesty was saying . . . ?" said the Prime Minister respectfully,
leaning forward.
"I was saying . . ." said the King. "What was I saying?" And he stretched
out his arms and yawned. "I crave your pardon, my lords. I do believe
I've been asleep. Heigho! but my joints are stiff."
"It was but an after-dinner nap," said the Prime Minister. "Your Majesty
is overspent with the hard hunting yesterday. Is it your Majesty's will
that we should proceed with our business, or shall the Council rise
until to-morrow?"
"Go on, my lords, go on," cried the King heartily. "My little nap has
wonderfully refreshed me. What say you, shall we pass that bill we were
discussing a few minutes ago?"
But at this moment a page came into the room with a message from the
Queen, and as soon as he received it the King left his seat in the
council chamber and went to her.
Alone, among all the people in the castle, the Queen had realised
immediately she awoke from her charmed sleep, exactly what had happened.
She remembered the words of the fairy godmother, and she knew that what
she had foretold had come to pass, and that the sleep from which she and
everybody else in the castle had just awakened had lasted a hundred
years.
Her first thought was of her daughter, the Princess Briar-Rose. Where
was she, and what had happened to her? If she, too, had merely fallen
asleep, all was well, but suppose the doom first spoken by the
thirteenth fairy had taken effect?
In a few words she told the King all that was in her mind, and without
delay messengers were sent all over the castle to look for the Princess.
In the meantime Briar-Rose and the young Prince were talking together in
the ruined tower. For the first time she heard the story of the
enchantment, and her eyes grew round with wonder as she listened to her
lover's account of the strange things that had happened in the castle.
When he told of the great hedge and its cruel thorns, and of the many
young men who died in trying to force their way through it, her eyes
filled with tears.
"How great their courage was," she sighed. "Oh, if only I could bring
them back to life."
But the Prince kissed her tears away, and hastened past that part of his
tale, and presently she was smiling again and happy, because she
understood that everything had happened as it was bound to happen.
Then the Prince took her hand and raised her from the couch on which she
had slept so long, and they went down the winding stair together and
came to the battlements, where they found a score of breathless people
who had been running up and down in search of her.
And how surprised these people were to find her in that place,
accompanied by a young man they had never seen before! She seemed to
have grown more beautiful than ever during her long sleep, and they were
amazed by her loveliness.
[Illustration]
And how may we describe the joy of the King and Queen when they saw
their daughter again and knew that the good fairy had kept her word? The
King was so delighted that all he could say was "Bless my soul! bless my
soul!" And the Queen could say nothing at all, for she was weeping for
joy.
What a feast there was that night! In spite of the hundred years that
had gone by it was still the Princess's birthday, and she was in reality
no more than fifteen years old, for time had stood still for her. So she
had her birthday feast just the same, and it was her betrothal feast
too, for the King joined the hands of the young Prince and his daughter
and gave them his blessing.
THE END
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E. 1,
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Transcriber's Note:
Page 78, a closing quote was added after (can force his way through.)