A LONG time ago there lived a King and a Queen who loved each other
dearly. They had both fallen in love at first sight; and as their love
began so it went on through all their life. Yet this, which was the
cause of all their happiness, was the cause also of all their
misfortunes.
In his youth, when he was a beautiful young bachelor, the King had had
the ill-luck to attract the heart of a jealous and powerful Fairy; and
though he never gave her the least hope or encouragement, when she heard
that his love had been won at first sight by a mere mortal, her rage and
resentment knew no bounds. She said nothing, however, but bided her
time.
After they had been married a year the Queen presented her husband with
a little daughter; before she was yet a day old she was the most
beautiful object in the world, and life seemed to promise her nothing
but fortune and happiness.
The family Fairy came to the blessing of the new-born; and she, looking
at it as it lay beautifully asleep in its cradle, and seeing that it had
already as much beauty and health as the heart could desire, promised it
love as the next best gift it was within her power to offer. The Queen,
who knew how much happiness her own love had brought her, was kissing
the good Fairy with all the warmth of gratitude, when a black kite came
and perched upon the window-sill crying: "And I will give her love at
first sight! The first living thing that she sets eyes on she shall love
to distraction, whether it be man or monster, prince or pauper, bird,
beast or reptile." And as the wicked Fairy spoke she clapped her wings,
and up through the boards of the floor, and out from under the bed, and
in through the window, came a crowd of all the ugliest shapes in the
world. Thick and fast they came, gathering about the cradle and lifting
their heads over the edge of it, waiting for the poor little Princess to
wake up and fall in love at first sight with one of them.
Luckily the child was asleep; and the good Fairy, after driving away the
black kite and the crowd of beasts it had called to its aid, wrapped the
Princess up in a shawl and carried her away to a dark room where no
glimmer of light could get in.
She said to the Queen: "Till I can devise a better way, you must keep
her in the dark; and when you take her into the open air you must
blindfold her eyes. Some day, when she is of a fit age, I will bring a
handsome Prince for her; and only to him shall you unblindfold her at
last, and make love safe for her."
She went, leaving the King and Queen deeply stricken with grief over the
harm which had befallen their daughter. They did not dare to present
even themselves before her eyes lest love for them, fatal and consuming,
should drive her to distraction. In utter darkness the Queen would sit
and cherish her daughter, clasping her to her breast, and calling her by
all sweet names; but the little face, except by stealth when it was
sound asleep, she never dared to see, nor did the baby-Princess know the
face of the mother who loved her.
By and by, however, the family Fairy came again, saying: "Now, I have a
plan by which your child may enjoy the delights of seeing, and no ill
come of it." And she caused to be made a large chamber, the whole of one
side of which was a mirror. High up in the opposite wall were windows so
screened that from below no one could look out of them, but across on to
the mirror came all the sweet sights of the world, glimpses of wood and
field, and the sun and the moon and the stars, and of every bird as it
flew by. So the little Princess was brought and set in a screened place
looking towards the mirror, and there her eyes learned gradually all the
beautiful things of the world. Over the screen, in the glass before her,
she learned to know her mother's face, and to love it dearly in a gentle
child-like fashion; and when she could talk she became very wise,
understanding all that was told her about the danger of looking at
anything alive, except by its reflection in the glass.
When she went out into the open air for her health, she always wore a
bandage over her eyes, lest she should look, and love something too
well: but in the chamber of the mirror her eyes were free to see
whatever they could. The good Fairy, making herself invisible, came and
taught her to read and make music, and draw; so that before she was
fifteen she was the most charming and accomplished, as well as the most
beautiful Princess of her day.
At last the Fairy said that the time was come for her world of
reflections to be made real, and she went away to fetch the ideal Prince
that the Princess might at first sight fall in love with him.
The very day after she was gone, as the morning was fine, the Princess
went out with one of her maids for a wait through the woods. Over her
patient eyes she wore a bandage of green silk, through which she felt
the sunlight fall pleasantly.
Out of doors the Princess knew most things by their sounds. She passed
under rustling leaves, and along by the side of running water; and at
last she heard the silence of the water, and knew that she was standing
by the great fish-pond in the middle of the wood. Then she said to her
waiting-woman, "Is there not some great bird fishing out there, for I
hear the dipping of his bill, and the water falling off it as he draws
out the fish?"
And just as she was saying that, the wicked Fairy, who had long bided
her time, coming softly up from behind, pushed the waiting-woman off the
bank into the deep water of the pond. Then she snatched away the silk
bandage, and before the Princess had time to think or close her eyes,
she had lost her heart to a great heron that was standing half-way up to
his feathers fishing among the reeds.
The Princess, with her eyes set free, laughed for joy at the sight of
him. She stretched out her arms from the bank and cried most musically
for the bird to come to her; and he came in grave, stately fashion, with
trailing legs, and slow sobbing creak of his wings, and settled down on
the bank beside her. She drew his slender neck against her white
throat, and laughed and cried with her arms round him, loving him so
that she forgot all in the world beside. And the heron looked gravely at
her with kind eyes, and, bird-like, gave her all the love he could, but
not more; and so, presently, casting his grey wings abroad, lifted
himself and sailed slowly back to his fishing among the reeds.
The waiting-woman had got herself out of the water, and stood wringing
her clothes and her hands beside the Princess. "O, sweet mistress," she
cried, with lamentation, "now is all the evil come about which it was
our whole aim to avoid! And what, and what will the Queen your mother
say?"
But the Princess answered, smiling, "Foolish girl, I had no thought of
what happiness meant till now! See you where my love is gone? and did
you notice the bend of his neck, and the exceeding length of his legs,
and the stretch of his grey wings as he flew? This pond is his hall of
mirrors, wherein he sees the reflection of all his world. Surely I, from
my hall of mirrors, am the true mate for him!"
Her maid, seeing how far the evil had gone, and that no worse could now
happen, ran back to the palace and curdled all the court's blood with
her news. The King and the Queen and all their nobility rushed down, and
there they found the Princess with the heron once more in her arms,
kissing and fondling it with all the marks of a sweet and maidenly
passion. "Dear mother," she said, as soon as she saw the Queen, "the
happiness, which you feared would be sorrow, has come; and it is such
happiness I have no name for it! And the evil that you so dreaded, see
how sweet it is! And how sweet it is to see all the world with my own
eyes and you also at last!" And for the first time in her life she
kissed her mother's face in the full light of day.
But her mother hung sobbing upon her neck, "O, my darling, my
beautiful," she wept, "does your heart belong for ever to this grey
bird?"
Her daughter answered, "He is more than all the world to me! Is he not
goodly to look upon? Have you considered the bend of his neck, the
length of his legs, and the waving of his wings; his skill also when he
fishes: what imagination, what presence of mind!"
"Alas, alas," sorrowed the Queen, "dear daughter, is this all true to
you?"
"Mother," cried the Princess, clinging to her with entreaty, "is all the
world blind but me?"
The heron had become quite fond of the Princess; wherever she went it
followed her, and, indeed, without it nowhere would she go. Whenever it
was near her, the Princess laughed and sang, and when it was out of her
sight she became sad as night. All the courtiers wept to see her in such
bondage. "Ah," said she, "your eyes have been worn out with looking at
things so long; mine have been kept for me in a mirror."
When the good family Fairy came (for she was at once sent for by the
Queen, and told of all that had happened), she said, "Dear Madam, there
are but two things you can do: either you can wring the heron's neck,
and leave the Princess to die of grief; or you can make the Princess
happy in her own way, by----" Her voice dropped, and she looked from
the King to the Queen before she went on. "At her birth I gave your
daughter love for my gift; now it is hers, will you let her keep it?"
The King and the Queen looked softly at each other. "Do not take love
from her," said they, "let her keep it!"
"There is but one way," answered the Fairy.
"Do not tell me the way," said the Queen weeping, "only let the way be!"
So they went with the Fairy down to the great pond, and there sat the
Princess, with the grey heron against her heart. She smiled as she saw
them come. "I see good in your hearts towards me!" she cried. "Dear
godmother, give me the thing that I want, that my love may be happy!"
Then the Fairy stroked her but once with her wand, and two grey herons
suddenly rose up from the bank, and sailed away to a hiding-place in the
reeds.
The Fairy said to the Queen, "You have made your daughter happy; and
still she will have her voice and her human heart, and will remember you
with love and gratitude; but her greatest love will be to the grey
heron, and her home among the reeds."
So the changed life of the Princess began; every day her mother went
down to the pool and called, and the Princess came rising up out of the
reeds, and folded her grey wings over her mother's heart. Every day her
mother said, "Daughter of mine, are you happy?"