Page:Sleeping beauty in the wood (2).pdf/7

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IN THE WOOD.
7

every thing in the palace whether animate or inanimate, did fall asleep also.

All this was done in a moment; for Fairies are not long in doing their business.

And now the King and Queen having kissed their dear child, without waking her, went out of the palace, and put forth a proclamation, that nobody should come near it. This however was unnecessary, for in less than a quarter of an hour, there grew up all round the park, such a vast number of trees, great and small bushes, and brambles twining one with another, that neither man nor beast could pass thro', so that nothing could be seen but the very tops of the towers of the palace; and not that too unless it was a good way off. Nobody doubted but the Fairy gave therein, a very extraordinary sample of her art, that the Princess, while she continued sleeping, might have nothing to fear from any curious people.

When an hundred years were gone and past, the son of a King then reigned, and who was of another family from that of the sleeping Princess, being out a hunting, on that side of the country, asked what these towers were which he saw in the middle of a great thick wood; every one answered according as they had heard; some said, is was an old ruinous castle haunted by spirits; others, that all the sorcerers and witches of the country kept their sabbath or weekly meeting in that place.