Beauty could not help shuddering when she saw the horrible face of the frightful creature, but she made a brave effort to overcome her fear.
Her godmother simply touched her with her wand, and, at the same moment, her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all decked with jewels.
The young Princess threw herself at the feet of the King her father and conjured him not to constrain her to consent to his unnatural desire.
The poor child said to the Wolf: ‘I am going to see my grandmother, and carry her a custard and a little pot of butter from my mamma.’
There came a very bad year, and the famine was so great that these poor people resolved to rid themselves of their children.
‘Madam,’ said the good King, ‘since you are a fairy, you know all that I wish. I have only one son, whom I love with all my heart, so that people generally name him Prince Darling. If you wish to do me a kindness, promise me to be a good friend to my boy.’
He was born with a little tuft of hair upon his head, which made them call him Riquet with the Tuft, for Riquet was the family name.
The unfortunate child had to go twice a day to draw water more than a mile and a half from the house, and bring home a pitcherful of it.
The Cat said to his master with a grave and serious air: ‘Do not thus afflict yourself, and you shall see that you have not so poor a portion in me as you think.’
The Princess had no sooner taken the spindle than it ran into her hand, and she fell down in a swoon.
‘I am going to put your obedience to a new and final test,’ the King told his sons. ‘Go and travel for another year and whichever one of you brings back with him the most beautiful Princess shall marry her and be crowned King on his wedding day.’