CHAPTER VII
THE little Princess Briar-Rose, of course, knew nothing of the strange events that had happened at the feast of her christening, and the King gave orders that nobody should even mention the subject to her. It is not a pleasant thing to know that the fairies have decreed that one shall fall asleep for a hundred years on one's fifteenth birthday, even though one is to be awakened by a handsome Prince at the end of that time. So all the lords-in-waiting and the ladies-in-waiting had to be very careful and discreet. If they told the Princess a story, they had to keep the word "spinning" out of it; and if they showed her a book they had to take pains to see it did not contain a picture of a spinning-wheel, or any reference to a distaff or spindle, lest she should ask what they were. The King's Customs officers, on the boundaries of the kingdom, had to examine every waggon-load of merchandise that came into the country for fear it should contain a spinning-wheel; and if anybody was found trying to smuggle one in he was brought before the judges and punished.
By these devices the King felt certain that he had averted the fate laid upon his daughter.
But the promises of the other wise women were fulfilled to the letter, for the young Princess grew up to be the most beautiful, gifted and gracious maiden in all the world. That, at any rate, was what everybody in the palace said, from the lords and ladies down to the scullions in the kitchen, and although people are inclined sometimes to flatter Royalty, in this case there was reason for their admiration.
To begin with, the Princess was as lovely as a spring morning, with eyes of the purest, softest blue, and hair in which the rays of the sun seemed to be entangled. When she came into a room people stopped whatever they were doing to look at her, and everyone felt happier because she was there.
And her cleverness! She never had any trouble with her letters or her multiplication table. She could cipher as easily as she could spell; she knew the history of her own country and of every country round it; and nobody could puzzle her with the hardest question in geography. She could sew and embroider, and knit and paint and draw; she could repeat poetry in five different languages; she studied mathematics and botany and astronomy and even law. In short, there was no end to her knowledge, and all because she had those fairies for her godmothers.
