Then they all went into the great tapestried room where the tiny
Princess lay sleeping in her mother-o'-pearl cradle, and the seven
fairies began to say what they would each give her.
The first stepped forward and said: "She shall always be as good as
gold"; the second: "She shall be the cleverest Princess in the world";
the third: "She shall be the most beautiful"; the fourth: "She shall
be the happiest"; the fifth: "She shall have the sweetest voice that
was ever heard"; the sixth: "Everyone shall love her." And then the
wicked old cross fairy strode over to the cradle with long quick
steps, and said, shaking her black crooked stick at the King and
Queen: "_And I say that she shall prick her hand with a spindle and
die of the wound_!"
At this the Queen fell on her knees and begged and prayed Tormentilla
to call back her cruel words; but suddenly the seventh fairy, the
youngest of all, who knew Tormentilla well, and had hidden herself
behind the curtains for fear that some such thing might happen, came
out and said:
"Do not cry so, dear Queen; I cannot quite undo my cousin's wicked
enchantment, but I can promise you that your daughter shall not die,
but only fall asleep for a hundred years.
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