The Princess had been named Mayblossom, because she was as
fresh and blooming as Spring itself, and she grew up tall and
beautiful, and everything she did and said was charming. Every time the
King and Queen came to see her they were more delighted with her
than before, but though she was weary of the tower, and often
begged them to take her away from it, they always refused. The
Princess's nurse, who had never left her, sometimes told her about
the world outside the tower, and though the Princess had never
seen anything for herself, yet she always understood exactly, thanks
to the second Fairy's gift. Often the King said to the Queen:

`We were cleverer than Carabosse after all. Our Mayblossom
will be happy in spite of her predictions.'

And the Queen laughed until she was tired at the idea of having
outwitted the old Fairy. They had caused the Princess's portrait to
be painted and sent to all the neighbouring Courts, for in four days she
would have completed her twentieth year, and it was time to decide
whom she should marry. All the town was rejoicing at the thought
of the Princess's approaching freedom, and when the news came
that King Merlin was sending his ambassador to ask her in marriage
for his son, they were still more delighted. The nurse, who kept
the Princess informed of everything that went forward in the town,
did not fail to repeat the news that so nearly concerned her, and
gave such a description of the splendour in which the ambassador
Fanfaronade would enter the town, that the Princess was wild to
see the procession for herself.

`What an unhappy creature I am,' she cried, `to be shut up in
this dismal tower as if I had committed some crime! I have never