CHAPTER IV
And now came the time for the most important part of the ceremony, when the fairy godmothers should declare their gifts to the royal child. All this time the little Princess Briar-Rose had been quietly sleeping in her cradle in the nursery, watched over by an old servant who had tended her mother as a child. Now the King gave orders for the baby to be brought into the banqueting hall. The guests ceased their laughter and talk, and the musicians laid by their instruments.
