The Orange Fairy Book (27 page)

The poor queen crouched under a rock for the rest of the night, and the
next morning, when she woke from her troubled dreams, she was cheered
at seeing the frog watching by her.

'I hear we shall have to build you another palace,' said she. 'Well,
this time we won't go so near the lake.' And she smiled with her funny
wide mouth, till the queen took heart, and they went together to find
wood for the new cabin.

The tiny palace was soon ready, and a fresh bed made of wild thyme,
which smelt delicious. Neither the queen nor the frog said anything
about it, but somehow, as always happens, the story came to the ears of
the Lion Fairy, and she sent a raven to fetch the culprit.

'What gods or men are protecting you?' she asked, with a frown. 'This
earth, dried up by a constant rain of sulphur and fire, produces
nothing, yet I hear that YOUR bed is made of sweet smelling herbs.
However, as you can get flowers for yourself, of course you can get
them for me, and in an hour's time I must have in my room a nosegay of
the rarest flowers. If not—! Now you can go.'

The poor queen returned to her house looking so sad that the frog, who
was waiting for her, noticed it directly.

'What is the matter?' said she, smiling.

'Oh, how can you laugh!' replied the queen. 'This time I have to bring
her in an hour a posy of the rarest flowers, and where am I to find
them? If I fail I know she will kill me.'

'Well, I must see if I can't help you,' answered the frog. 'The only
person I have made friends with here is a bat. She is a good creature,
and always does what I tell her, so I will just lend her my cap, and if
she puts it on, and flies into the world, she will bring back all we
want. I would go myself, only she will be quicker.'

Then the queen dried her eyes, and waited patiently, and long before
the hour had gone by the bat flew in with all the most beautiful and
sweetest flowers that grew on the earth. The girl sprang up overjoyed
at the sight, and hurried with them to the Lion Fairy, who was so
astonished that for once she had nothing to say.

Now the smell and touch of the flowers had made the queen sick with
longing for her home, and she told the frog that she would certainly
die if she did not manage to escape somehow.

'Let me consult my cap,' said the frog; and taking it off she laid it
in a box, and threw in after it a few sprigs of juniper, some capers,
and two peas, which she carried under her right leg; she then shut down
the lid of the box, and murmured some words which the queen did not
catch.

In a few moments a voice was heard speaking from the box.

'Fate, who rules us all,' said the voice, 'forbids your leaving this
place till the time shall come when certain things are fulfilled. But,
instead, a gift shall be given you, which will comfort you in all your
troubles.'

And the voice spoke truly, for, a few days after, when the frog peeped
in at the door she found the most beautiful baby in the world lying by
the side of the queen.

'So the cap has kept its word,' cried the frog with delight. 'How soft
its cheeks are, and what tiny feet it has got! What shall we call it?'

This was a very important point, and needed much discussion. A
thousand names were proposed and rejected for a thousand silly reasons.
One was too long, and one was too short. One was too harsh, and
another reminded the queen of somebody she did not like; but at length
an idea flashed into the queen's head, and she called out:

'I know! We will call her Muffette.'

'That is the very thing,' shouted the frog, jumping high into the air;
and so it was settled.

The princess Muffette was about six months old when the frog noticed
that the queen had begun to grow sad again.

'Why do you have that look in your eyes?' she asked one day, when she
had come in to play with the baby, who could now crawl.

The way they played their game was to let Muffette creep close to the
frog, and then for the frog to bound high into the air and alight on
the child's head, or back, or legs, when she always sent up a shout of
pleasure. There is no play fellow like a frog; but then it must be a
fairy frog, or else you might hurt it, and if you did something
dreadful might happen to you. Well, as I have said, our frog was
struck with the queen's sad face, and lost no time in asking her what
was the reason.

'I don't see what you have to complain of now; Muffette is quite well
and quite happy, and even the Lion Fairy is kind to her when she sees
her. What is it?'

'Oh! if her father could only see her!' broke forth the queen, clasping
her hands. 'Or if I could only tell him all that has happened since we
parted. But they will have brought him tidings of the broken carriage,
and he will have thought me dead, or devoured by wild beasts. And
though he will mourn for me long—I know that well—yet in time they
will persuade him to take a wife, and she will be young and fair, and
he will forget me.'

And in all this the queen guessed truly, save that nine long years were
to pass before he would consent to put another in her place.

The frog answered nothing at the time, but stopped her game and hopped
away among the cypress trees. Here she sat and thought and thought,
and the next morning she went back to the queen and said:

'I have come, madam, to make you an offer. Shall I go to the king
instead of you, and tell him of your sufferings, and that he has the
most charming baby in the world for his daughter? The way is long, and
I travel slowly; but, sooner or later, I shall be sure to arrive.
Only, are you not afraid to be left without my protection? Ponder the
matter carefully; it is for you to decide.'

'Oh, it needs no pondering,' cried the queen joyfully, holding up her
clasped hands, and making Muffette do likewise, in token of gratitude.
But in order that he may know that you have come from me I will send
him a letter.' And pricking her arm, she wrote a few words with her
blood on the corner of her handkerchief. Then tearing it off, she gave
it to the frog, and they bade each other farewell.

It took the frog a year and four days to mount the ten thousand steps
that led to the upper world, but that was because she was still under
the spell of a wicked fairy. By the time she reached the top, she was
so tired that she had to remain for another year on the banks of a
stream to rest, and also to arrange the procession with which she was
to present herself before the king. For she knew far too well what was
due to herself and her relations, to appear at Court as if she was a
mere nobody. At length, after many consultations with her cap, the
affair was settled, and at the end of the second year after her parting
with the queen they all set out.

First walked her bodyguard of grasshoppers, followed by her maids of
honour, who were those tiny green frogs you see in the fields, each one
mounted on a snail, and seated on a velvet saddle. Next came the
water-rats, dressed as pages, and lastly the frog herself, in a litter
borne by eight toads, and made of tortoiseshell. Here she could lie at
her ease, with her cap on her head, for it was quite large and roomy,
and could easily have held two eggs when the frog was not in it.

The journey lasted seven years, and all this time the queen suffered
tortures of hope, though Muffette did her best to comfort her. Indeed,
she would most likely have died had not the Lion Fairy taken a fancy
that the child and her mother should go hunting with her in the upper
world, and, in spite of her sorrows, it was always a joy to the queen
to see the sun again. As for little Muffette, by the time she was
seven her arrows seldom missed their mark. So, after all, the years of
waiting passed more quickly than the queen had dared to hope.

The frog was always careful to maintain her dignity, and nothing would
have persuaded her to show her face in public places, or even along the
high road, where there was a chance of meeting anyone. But sometimes,
when the procession had to cross a little stream, or go over a piece of
marshy ground, orders would be given for a halt; fine clothes were
thrown off, bridles were flung aside, and grasshoppers, water-rats,
even the frog herself, spent a delightful hour or two playing in the
mud.

But at length the end was in sight, and the hardships were forgotten in
the vision of the towers of the king's palace; and, one bright morning,
the cavalcade entered the gates with all the pomp and circumstance of a
royal embassy. And surely no ambassador had ever created such a
sensation! Door and windows, even the roofs of houses, were filled
with people, whose cheers reached the ears of the king. However, he
had no time to attend to such matters just then, as, after nine years,
he had at last consented to the entreaties of his courtiers, and was on
the eve of celebrating his second marriage.

The frog's heart beat high when her litter drew up before the steps of
the palace, and leaning forward she beckoned to her side one of the
guards who were standing in his doorway.

'I wish to see his Majesty,' said he.

'His Majesty is engaged, and can see no one,' answered the soldier.

'His Majesty will see ME,' returned the frog, fixing her eye upon him;
and somehow the man found himself leading the procession along the
gallery into the Hall of Audience, where the king sat surrounded by his
nobles arranging the dresses which everyone was to wear at his marriage
ceremony.

All stared in surprise as the procession advanced, and still more when
the frog gave one bound from the litter on to the floor, and with
another landed on the arm of the chair of state.

'I am only just in time, sire,' began the frog; 'had I been a day later
you would have broken your faith which you swore to the queen nine
years ago.'

'Her remembrance will always be dear to me,' answered the king gently,
though all present expected him to rebuke the frog severely for her
impertinence. But know, Lady Frog, that a king can seldom do as he
wishes, but must be bound by the desires of his subjects. For nine
years I have resisted them; now I can do so no longer, and have made
choice of the fair young maiden playing at ball yonder.'

'You cannot wed her, however fair she may be, for the queen your wife
is still alive, and sends you this letter written in her own blood,'
said the frog, holding out the square of handkerchief as she spoke.
'And, what is more, you have a daughter who is nearly nine years old,
and more beautiful than all the other children in the world put
together.'

The king turned pale when he heard these words, and his hand trembled
so that he could hardly read what the queen had written. Then he
kissed the handkerchief twice or thrice, and burst into tears, and it
was some minutes before he could speak. When at length he found his
voice he told his councillors that the writing was indeed that of the
queen, and now that he had the joy of knowing she was alive he could,
of course, proceed no further with his second marriage. This naturally
displeased the ambassadors who had conducted the bride to court, and
one of them inquired indignantly if he meant to put such an insult on
the princess on the word of a mere frog.

'I am not a "mere frog," and I will give you proof of it,' retorted the
angry little creature. And putting on her cap, she cried: Fairies that
are my friends, come hither!' And in a moment a crowd of beautiful
creatures, each one with a crown on her head, stood before her.
Certainly none could have guessed that they were the snails, water-
rats, and grasshoppers from which she had chosen her retinue.

At a sign from the frog the fairies danced a ballet, with which
everyone was so delighted that they begged to have to repeated; but now
it was not youths and maidens who were dancing, but flowers. Then
these again melted into fountains, whose waters interlaced and, rushing
down the sides of the hall, poured out in a cascade down the steps, and
formed a river found the castle, with the most beautiful little boats
upon it, all painted and gilded.

'Oh, let us go in them for a sail!' cried the princess, who had long
ago left her game of ball for a sight of these marvels, and, as she was
bent upon it, the ambassadors, who had been charged never to lose sight
of her, were obliged to go also, though they never entered a boat if
they could help it.

But the moment they and the princess had seated themselves on the soft
cushions, river and boats vanished, and the princess and the
ambassadors vanished too. Instead the snails and grasshoppers and
water-rats stood round the frog in their natural shapes.

'Perhaps,' said she, 'your Majesty may now be convinced that I am a
fairy and speak the truth. Therefore lose no time in setting in order
the affairs of your kingdom and go in search of your wife. Here is a
ring that will admit you into the presence of the queen, and will
likewise allow you to address unharmed the Lion Fairy, though she is
the most terrible creature that ever existed.'

By this time the king had forgotten all about the princess, whom he had
only chosen to please his people, and was as eager to depart on his
journey as the frog was for him to go. He made one of his ministers
regent of the kingdom, and gave the frog everything her heart could
desire; and with her ring on his finger he rode away to the outskirts
of the forest. Here he dismounted, and bidding his horse go home, he
pushed forward on foot.

Having nothing to guide him as to where he was likely to find the
entrance of the under- world, the king wandered hither and thither for
a long while, till, one day, while he was resting under a tree, a voice
spoke to him.

'Why do you give yourself so much trouble for nought, when you might
know what you want to know for the asking? Alone you will never
discover the path that leads to your wife.'