Page 598 - Child's own book

witch taking the form of the waiting woman, got into the room
where the queen lay, and said to her, “ The bath is ready,
which will refresh you, and give you fresh strength. Be quick*,
or it will get cold.’’ Her daughter was near at hand, and
they bote the weak queen into the room and laid her in the
bath; and then, shutting the door, they slipped off. But they
bad made such a hot fire in the bath-room that the beautiful
young queen most soon be suffocated.
When that was done, the old woman took her daughter,
and putting on her a cap, laid her in the bed, in the place of
the queea. She gave her also the form and appearance of the
queen, but the lost eye she could not replace ; and that the
king might not remark it, she bade her lie on that side which
had no eye. In the evening, when the king came home and
heard that a little son was bom to him, he was very gbd, and
prepared to go to his wife's bedside and see bow she was. Then
the old woman exclaimed, *c On no account draw the curtain—
the queen must not see the light, and must be kept quiet.” So
the king went away, not knowing that a false queen lay in the bed.
Bnt when it was midnight, the nurse, who sat in the
nursery near the cradle, watching alone, saw the door open,
and tbe real queen come in, and taking the child out of the cradle
into her ara$, give it suck. Then she shook np his pil­
low, laid him down again, and covered him with the bed-
things. She did not forget the little fawn either, hut going to
the corner where he lay, she stroked his back. Then she
went silently out again at the door, and the nuise asked the
guards the nest morning if any one had passed into the castle
during the night; but they answered 41 No, we have seen no
one.v For many nights running she came, and did not speak
a word; and tbe nurse saw her every time, but dare not trust
herself to speak of it.