The sisters heard their sentence in sullen
silence, and quitted the country shortly afterwards, amid the curses of
the crowd, and established themselves in a foreign land, where, out of
spite, they gave themselves over to witchcraft, and leagued with the
queen of the witches, who was also exiled there, to work all sorts of
spells upon their sister from afar; but they all failed, as the pigmy
queen was too powerfully protected by the fairies. King Hans grew in wisdom every day under the sage counsel of his spouse,
till at length his subjects bestowed on him the name of "The wisest and
the bravest king living." In proportion as Hans' intelligence and good manners improved, grew the
love of Bertha for her husband. They soon knew how to appreciate and
respect each other, till at length there was not a more loving couple in
the whole world. About a year after King Hans and Queen Bertha had ascended the throne a
war broke out between his and a neighbouring country. The latter was the
same land where the wicked princesses had fled into exile, and this was
to be the seat of war. One day, as the queen was seated in the boudoir of the palace in a
pensive attitude, while her husband was putting on his armour, previous
to departing for the war, she was startled by a sound of chattering,
screeching, and the fluttering of wings. As she was about to ring the
bell for the servant to inquire the meaning of this strange noise the
door opened, and an ape and crow entered, followed by a large spider,
which, making towards the queen and bowing low, cried out, "A boon, a
boon! O gracious queen, according to thy promise." And immediately the little queen recognised the ape that had escaped
with her from the hands of the showman and carried her to the top of a
tree, the crow that had carried her down again and left her on the banks
of a stream, and the spider that had saved her life by catching her in
its web and carrying her safely to the bottom of the precipice, when her
cruel sister Clothilde thought to rid herself for ever of her rival by
precipitating her into the lake below. She remembered that she had
promised a boon to all three when she came to be queen. "A boon, a boon!" chattered the monkey. "A boon, a boon!" screeched the crow. "A boon, a boon!" whispered the spider, whose voice was less strong than
the other two, being an insect. "What boon do ye ask?" demanded her majesty. "Change us to our proper forms again!" cried all at once. "We have heard
that thou possessest a fairy wand. Disenchant us, O queen, and give us
back our natural forms." Queen Bertha then waving her wand over the head of each, they suddenly
resumed their respective shapes. The ape and the spider became two
handsome youths, while the crow took the form of a comely and dignified
matron in the habiliments of a queen. Each of the two youths recognised
the other, though after a lapse of many years, as his lost brother, and
rushed into each other's arms. The venerable lady who had hitherto figured as a crow, but who was
neither more nor less than a queen herself, recognised in these two
youths her long lost sons, and they, in their turn, recognised the late
crow as their mother, and fell upon her neck and kissed her. The old
queen wept for joy, and knew not how to thank Bertha for what she had
done. "O favoured of the fairies!" pleaded the mother of the two princes,
"think me not bold if I further trespass on thy benevolence and crave
another boon." "Ask, and it is granted," quoth the smaller queen. "I have yet another son and I know not what has become of him--my eldest
boy--also three daughters, whom the queen witch has metamorphosed into a
bat, a toad, and an owl. Let me set eyes again on my eldest son, if he,
indeed, be living, and, prithee, O gracious queen, disenchant my
daughters." "It shall be done," responded the pigmy queen, and waving her wand,
there immediately flew through the window, which was open, an owl and a
bat, the owl bearing in its beak a toad by the leg, which it immediately
dropped on entering the royal boudoir, and the three stood in a row
before Bertha. "Obnoxious beings," said the pigmy queen, "resume your respective
forms." So saying, she waved her wand over each, and they were suddenly
converted into three beautiful maidens, who immediately recognising
their mother and their two brothers, fell into their arms and devoured
them with kisses. At the same moment that the three unsightly objects made their
appearance at the window the door opened, and in walked--who? Hans, clad
in complete armour, and the old queen recognised her lost eldest son. Hans remained stupefied at the group before him; then, when everything
was explained, he wept upon his mother's neck, and embraced his brothers
and sisters. But Hans had little time to lose; his army was about to march, so taking
a hasty farewell of his relatives, he placed his diminutive spouse
within his helmet, as was his wont, and mounted his charger. His two
younger brothers, Otto and Oscar, were determined to follow him to
battle, so Queen Bertha changed two black pigs that had strayed into the
palace garden, and were uprooting the plants, into two fiery war horses,
nobly caparisoned, and the three brothers started for the war, while
their mother and three sisters waved their handkerchiefs after them
until they were out of sight, and uttered prayers for their safe return. Now, this war had been brought about by the evil spells of the queen
witch and Bertha's two malicious sisters, who, wishing to avenge
themselves on their pigmy sister, caused the monarch in whose country
they lived to pick a quarrel with King Hans, which should lead to a war,
by which they hoped to be the gainers. But Hans and Bertha were in
favour with the good fairies, and the luck was, as usual, on their side. The foreign monarch's city was besieged, and many put to the sword. The
king himself, together with the witch queen and the two wicked sisters
were taken prisoners. The witch queen was burnt alive publicly, as a
punishment for her many sins, and the twin sisters imprisoned for life. Queen Bertha was naturally of a benevolent disposition, and would have
pardoned her sisters, but her prudence conquered this feeling, and she
deemed it expedient to put it out of their power to do harm to anyone
by shutting them up in prison, where, after languishing for some years,
they died still impenitent. After the death of the witch queen the spell which she had wrought upon
Bertha while yet unborn was broken, and the pigmy queen took suddenly to
growing, and increased each day six inches in height, till she reached
the stature of an ordinary full-grown woman. She preserved her surpassing beauty till her death, and lived to bless
her husband with a family of twelve children. Hans' two brothers returned unhurt from battle, and lived with their
mother and sisters in the splendid palace that Bertha had raised on the
spot where had stood the wizard's castle.