tomed to tell falsehoods, and knew not that she was speaking to a fairy. Fairies were not so common in those days as they have since become. She cast down her eyes; her face was suffused with deep blushes; at last she said, "When I am sent out into the fields, I dare not go home again till night. I beg of you, Madam, not to oblige me to do what would make my mother angry, who will beat me, perhaps, if I disobey her."
"Ah! Princess, Princess," said the Fairy smiling, "you cannot support a falsehood—neither can you play the part you have assumed if I do not assist you; take this—it is a bouquet of gillyflowers; be sure that as long as you hold it, the humpback, who is seeking you, will not know you; remember, when you reach the Great Forest, to ask the shepherds, who feed their flocks there, where Sublime lives; go to him, and tell him that you come from the Fairy Amazon, who begs he will place you with his wife and daughters. Adieu, beautiful Carpillon, I have been one of your friends for a long time." "Alas! Madam," exclaimed the Princess, "since you know me, and love me, and I have so much need of your assistance, will you abandon me?" "The bouquet of gillyflowers will not fail you," replied she; "my moments are precious; I must leave you to fulfil your destiny." In saying these words, she vanished from Carpillon's sight, who was so frightened, she thought she should die of it. After recovering herself a little, she continued her journey; not knowing at all where the Great Forest was; but she said to herself, "This clever Fairy, who appears and disappears, who knows me in a peasant's dress, without ever having seen me, will conduct me whither she wishes me to go." Walking or resting, the Princess always held her bouquet; she advanced, however, but slowly. Her courage was greater than her strength. Where the road was stony she often stumbled; her feet began to bleed; she was forced to lie down upon the ground under the shelter of some trees; she feared everything, and often thought, with great anxiety, of her governess. It was not without reason that she did think of that poor woman—her zeal and her fidelity have been rarely equalled. She dressed up a large doll, in the Princess's lace pinners,[1] fontanges,[2] and fine linen; she went very softly about the
- ↑ Cornettes. The pinners, or lappets, sometimes the caps themselves.
- ↑ Knots of riband. See note to page 123.
