Inside her room was the Princess’s favourite little maid Doris, folding up her dresses.
“Doris,” she said, “you look very merry. Why are you so happy?”
“Please your Royal Highness, I am going to the fair,” answered Doris, “and Luke is to meet me there; only,” she added, pouting a little, “I wish I had a pretty new hat to wear with my new dress.”
“Then you are not perfectly happy, so you cannot teach me,” said Princess Fernanda, and then she sighed again.
In the evening at sunset she arose, and went out into the village, and at the door of the first cottage to which she came, sat a woman nursing a baby, and hushing it to sleep. The baby was fat and rosy, and the mother looked down at it proudly.
The Princess stopped, and spoke to her.
“You have a fine little child there,” she said. “Surely you must be very happy.”
The woman smiled.
“Yes,” she said, “so I am; only just now my goodman is out fishing, and as he’s rather late, it makes me anxious.”
“Then you could not teach me,” said the Princess, sighing to herself as she moved away. She wandered on till she came to a church, which she entered. All was still within, for the church was empty; but before the altar, on a splendid bier, lay the body of a young man, who had been killed in the war. He was dressed in his gay uniform, and his breast was covered with medals, and his sword lay beside him. He was shot through the heart, but his face was peaceful and his lips were smiling. The Princess walked to his side, and looked at the quiet face. Then she stooped and kissed the cold forehead, and envied the soldier. “If he could speak,” she said, “he surely could teach me. No living mouth could ever smile like that.” Then she looked up and saw a white angel standing on the other side of the bier, and she knew it was Death.
“You have taught him,” she said, holding out her arms. “Will you not teach me to smile like that?”
“Nay,” said Death, pointing to the medals on the dead man’s breast, “I taught him whilst he was doing his duty. I cannot teach you.” And so saying he vanished from her sight.
She went out from the church down to the seashore. There was a high sea, and a great wind, a little child had been playing on a row of rocks, and had slipped off them into the water, and was struggling among the waves, and would soon be drowned, for he was beyond his depth in the water.
When the Princess saw him, she plunged into the water and swam to where the child was, and taking him in her arms, placed him safely on the rocks again, but the waves were so strong that she could scarcely keep above them. As she tried to seize the rocks, she saw Death coming over the water towards her, and she turned to meet him gladly.
“Now,” said he, clasping her in his arms, “I will teach you all you want to know;” and he drew her under the water, and she died.
The Kings servants found her lying on the shore, with her face white and her lips cold, but smiling as they had never smiled before, and her face was very calm. They carried her home, and she was laid out in great state, covered with gold and silver.
“She was so wise,” sobbed her little maid, as she placed flowers in the cold hand, “she knew everything.”
“Not everything,” said the skylark from the window; “for she asked me, ignorant though I am, to teach her how to be happy.”
“That was the one thing I could not teach her,” said the old Wizard, looking at the dead Princess’s face. “Yet I think now she must be wiser than I, and have learned that too. For see how she smiles.”
Colophon
The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde
was published in by
Mary De Morgan.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Hendrik Kaiber,
and is based on a transcription produced in by
David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci, and Distributed Proofreaders
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
Juliet,
a painting completed in by
John William Waterhouse.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in and by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/mary-de-morgan/the-necklace-of-princess-fiorimonde.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
Uncopyright
May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
Copyright pages exist to tell you that you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The United States public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the United States to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission.
Copyright laws are different all over the world, and the source text or artwork in this ebook may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws before using this ebook. Standard Ebooks makes no representations regarding the copyright status of the source text or artwork in this ebook in any country other than the United States.
Non-authorship activities performed on items
