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Once upon
a time...
Once upon a time there were three Princesses who were all
three young and beautiful; but the youngest, although she was not
fairer than the other two, was the most loveable of them all.
About half a mile from the palace in which they lived there stood a
castle, which was uninhabited and almost a ruin, but the garden
which surrounded it was a mass of blooming flowers, and in this
garden the youngest Princess used often to walk.
One day when she was pacing to and fro under the lime trees, a black
crow hopped out of a rose-bush in front of her. The poor beast was
all torn and bleeding, and the kind little Princess was quite
unhappy about it. When the crow saw this it turned to her and said:
'I am not really a black crow, but an enchanted Prince, who has been
doomed to spend his youth in misery. If you only liked, Princess,
you could save me. But you would have to say good-bye to all your
own people and come and be my constant companion in this ruined
castle. There is one habitable room in it, in which there is a
golden bed; there you will have to live all by yourself, and don't
forget that whatever you may see or hear in the night you must not
scream out, for if you give as much as a single cry my sufferings
will be doubled.'
The good-natured Princess at once left her home and her family and
hurried to the ruined castle, and took possession of the room with
the golden bed.
When night approached she lay down, but though she shut her eyes
tight sleep would not come. At midnight she heard to her great
horror some one coming along the passage, and in a minute her door
was flung wide open and a troop of strange beings entered the room.
They at once proceeded to light a fire in the huge fireplace; then
they placed a great cauldron of boiling water on it. When they had
done this, they approached the bed on which the trembling girl lay,
and, screaming and yelling all the time, they dragged her towards
the cauldron. She nearly died with fright, but she never uttered a
sound. Then of a sudden the cock crew, and all the evil spirits
vanished.
At the same moment the crow appeared and hopped all round the room
with joy. It thanked the Princess most heartily for her goodness,
and said that its sufferings had already been greatly lessened.
Now one of the Princess's elder sisters, who was very inquisitive,
had found out about everything, and went to pay her youngest sister
a visit in the ruined castle. She implored her so urgently to let
her spend the night with her in the golden bed, that at last the
good-natured little Princess consented. But at midnight, when the
odd folk appeared, the elder sister screamed with terror, and from
this time on the youngest Princess insisted always on keeping watch
alone.
So she lived in solitude all the daytime, and at night she would
have been frightened, had she not been so brave; but every day the
crow came and thanked her for her endurance, and assured her that
his sufferings were far less than they had been.
And so two years passed away, when one day the crow came to the
Princess and said: 'In another year I shall be freed from the spell
I am under at present, because then the seven years will be over.
But before I can resume my natural form, and take possession of the
belongings of my forefathers, you must go out into the world and
take service as a maidservant.'
The young Princess consented at once, and for a whole year she
served as a maid; but in spite of her youth and beauty she was very
badly treated, and suffered many things. One evening, when she was
spinning flax, and had worked her little white hands weary, she
heard a rustling beside her and a cry of joy. Then she saw a
handsome youth standing beside her; who knelt down at her feet and
kissed the little weary white hands.
'I am the Prince,' he said, 'who you in your goodness, when I was
wandering about in the shape of a black crow, freed from the most
awful torments. Come now to my castle with me, and let us live there
happily together.'
So they went to the castle where they had both endured so much. But
when they reached it, it was difficult to believe that it was the
same, for it had all been rebuilt and done up again. And there they
lived for a hundred years, a hundred years of joy and happiness.
The Crow
from the Yellow Fairy Book
Story Edited
by Andrew Lang |
