her what she jestingly asked for. The next day the two sisters went to
the ball, and so did Cinderella, but dressed more magnificently than
before. The King's son was always by her side, and his pretty speeches
to her never ceased. These by no means annoyed the young lady. Indeed,
she quite forgot her godmother's orders to her, so that she heard the
clock begin to strike twelve when she thought it could not be more than
eleven. She then rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The Prince
followed, but could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass
slippers, which the Prince took up most carefully. She got home, but
quite out of breath, without her carriage, and in her old clothes,
having nothing left her of all her finery but one of the little
slippers, fellow to the one she had dropped. The guards at the palace
gate were asked if they had not seen a princess go out, and they replied
they had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and
who had more the air of a poor country girl than of a young lady.

When the two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderella asked them if
they had had a pleasant time, and if the fine lady had been there. They
told her, yes; but that she hurried away the moment it struck twelve,
and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little glass
slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the King's son had taken up.
They said, further, that he had done nothing but look at her all the
time, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the
beautiful owner of the glass slipper.

What they said was true; for a few days after the King's son caused it
to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose
foot this slipper would fit exactly. They began to try it on the
princesses, then on the duchesses, and then on all the ladies of the
Court; but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters, who did all they