The serving man in whose pocket Bertha had hidden herself had never seen
the princess, for he was not one of the servants of the palace; besides
which, the diminutive princess was usually hidden from the vulgar gaze,
the family being rather ashamed of her than otherwise; but one among the
crowd, who happened to have seen the princess once or twice on rare
occasions at the palace, cried out, "By my troth, that is the Princess
Bertha herself, and none other! How comes it that she is made a puppet
of in this man's vile show? Citizens, I arrest this man for high
treason!" The little princess, seeing the showman in danger, said to the
gentleman, "No, worthy sir; do this man no harm, seeing I came here by
my own free will, without his knowledge, for the purpose of making the
country acquainted with its future sovereign." The gentleman pushed his way through the crowd, and was about to lay his
hand on the princess to bring her back to the palace, when a monkey near
at hand, also the property of the showman, and who happened at that
moment to be loose, seized the diminutive princess in his arms, and
clambering up the side of a house by the water spout, was soon out of
sight. Now, when the news of this catastrophe reached the palace, the twin
princesses were delighted that harm was likely to befall their elder
sister, so that their right to the throne might be no longer disputed;
nevertheless they ordered a strict search to be made for the body of the
little princess. Two parties, each headed by one of the princesses, started in different
directions to search for the missing sister, but for a long time nothing
was heard of her. Wearied at length with long search, the Princess
Clothilde, one of the twins, gave out to her followers that she had
found the body of her elder sister, but that it was so far decayed that
she could not permit anyone to see it; so, making believe to wrap up the
body of the princess with a handkerchief, she carried it under her cloak
and returned to the city, shedding false tears as she went. Having arrived at the palace, she ordered a coffin to be made just large
enough to contain the corpse she was supposed to have found, and when it
was ready she filled it with rubbish and ordered it to be interred with
due honours. Now, at that time there were two factions, one voting for the Princess
Clothilde and another for her sister Carlotta. It was decided,
therefore, that each should choose a champion, and she whose champion
should prove victorious should rule the land. Great were the preparations for this grand spectacle. Two stalwart
knights, the stoutest and the ablest that the land could produce, each
of whom had gained great reputation for feats of arms, faced each other
to decide their cause. The day had arrived for the combat, and the
jousts were crowded with all the great people of the land. The
combatants appeared, and charged at each other furiously, but the good
fairies who had already prophesied that the Princess Bertha should
reign, willed not that either of the champions should win, and they
caused a thick mist to rise between them, by which means they could
neither of them see the other; nor was the sound of their horses' hoofs
audible. The spectators, finding that nothing could be decided on that day, went
away discontented, and the fight was deferred till the next day. Again
the combatants appeared in the lists, and no obstacle seemed likely to
interfere with the combat; but at the moment they commenced to charge at
one another the good fairies, through their art, rendered their horses
so ungovernable that each knight had enough to do to preserve his seat,
and this continued all day. A second time the spectators were disappointed, but they insisted upon
the champions making a third trial. The third day arrived, but with no
better success, for this time the fairies struck both knights and both
horses with paralysis, so that neither could move an inch, but stood
looking at each other all day, like two fools. At first the people laughed at so droll a sight, but at length getting
impatient, they heaped showers of abuse upon the two champions, calling
them fools and cowards to be afraid of one another. Other champions at
length took the place of the former, but the good fairies again
interfered, using all sorts of impediments, so that neither could
vanquish the other, and this lasted for many days, until the people
despaired of ever witnessing a fight again. Let us now return to the Princess Bertha. The fright that she
experienced at finding herself in the grasp of this horrid monkey caused
her to swoon away but on recovering her senses she found herself on the
top of a tree in the midst of a forest, still in the monkey's grasp. It
was out of her power to escape, so she thought she would try and
ingratiate herself with her captor, so she said, "Good monkey, do me no
harm, for I am a king's daughter and the rightful heiress to the crown. When I am queen I will grant you any boon you ask." "Agreed," said the monkey; "I will hold you to your promise, for I am
not a common monkey, but an enchanted prince, forced to wear this
loathsome form through the malice of the witch queen in the reign of the
late king, because I would not wed her daughter." "Alas! poor monkey," said the princess, "and how long art thou doomed to
wander about the earth in this disguise?" "Until the death of the witch queen," said the monkey, "when I shall
resume my customary shape." "Ah," said the princess, "there is then hope that I may yet attain to
the stature of my fellow mortals, for I, too, am under her curse." While thus discoursing together a passer-by, perceiving the monkey in
the tree, but without seeing the princess, aimed a stone at the poor ape
with such force on the back of its head, that it fell senseless to the
foot of the tree. The princess deeming the animal dead, grieved much for
it, and called after the man who threw the stone, scolding him; but her
tiny voice was unheard, and the man was already far off. Left alone on the top of a tree in the middle of a forest, what could
she do? She began to look around her, and on the next branch she saw a
crow hatching her eggs. "Good crow," she said, "I am a king's daughter, have pity on me and
carry me on thy back to a stream, for I thirst." "I will carry you thus far," said the crow, "if you promise to grant me
a boon when you wear the crown, for I am not a common crow, but an
enchanted queen suffering under the evil spell of the queen of the
witches." When the princess had promised to grant her request the crow suffered
her to mount on her back, and away she flew till she came to a winding
stream, where she left the princess, saying, "I must now return to my
eggs." The princess having quenched her thirst, began to reflect upon the step
she should next take. She knew not which way to wander, and did not care
much, as long as it was far away from her sisters.