The queen broke out afresh into laughter, and laughed until she cried. Then, seeing the discomfiture of the prime minister, she decided that she had for to-day had enough of the animal world, and would indulge no more in such amusements until to-morrow.
"I beg ten thousand pardons, my dear lord," she said, shaking with suppressed laughter. "But if you could only have seen yourself! Ha, ha! However, we have nothing now to do but bow three times, thus"—suiting the action to the word, "and say—Kik-kuk-kik! Dear me, what is it we must say? I can't for the life of me remember it."
The prime minister was as much at a loss.
"Perhaps your Majesty has forgotten the price you were to pay for a laugh," he observed, bitterly.
Blondina looked at him in blank horror. Too truly had she forgotten the formula, and turkeys they must remain!
And now, how sad their plight! In the midst of their other tribulations, hunger assailed them, and they could not eat the food provided for the rest. So they wandered into the fields and forest, picking at berries here and there; though, when evening came, footsore and weary, they determined to go back into the palace barn-yard, and see what was taking place there.
They found all the animals and fowls excited over the events of the day, and soon heard the news that Queen Blondina had died suddenly that morning, leaving a will appointing her sister to reign in her stead.
Next day a funeral took place, when the coffin was filled by a lovely waxen image of the late queen, and was placed in the vault beside her father. The false Vixetta, dressed in mourning, had followed weeping after it.
Blondina and the prime minister now saw that they were indeed under the spell of a powerful enchantress, and resolved to travel to the dwelling of a certain wise woman in search of advice.
After a long journey, the two turkeys reached the hut of the wise woman, and told her their pitiful tale.