till at last she came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow
staircase ending with a little door. In the door there was a golden
key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old
lady spinning away very busily. 'Why, how now, good mother,' said the
princess; 'what are you doing there?' 'Spinning,' said the old lady,
and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. 'How
prettily that little thing turns round!' said the princess, and took
the spindle and began to try and spin. But scarcely had she touched
it, before the fairy's prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded
her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.

However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and
the king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court,
fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in
the court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the very flies slept upon
the walls. Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to
sleep; the jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a
goose upon it for the king's dinner stood still; and the cook, who was
at that moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box
on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell
asleep; the butler, who was slyly tasting the ale, fell asleep with
the jug at his lips: and thus everything stood still, and slept
soundly.

A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it
became higher and thicker; till at last the old palace was surrounded
and hidden, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen.
But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping
Briar Rose (for so the king's daughter was called): so that, from time
to time, several kings' sons came, and tried to break through the