Stranica 98 [98]
70 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
gave her also the Queen’s form and countenance, only she
could not restore the lost eye. So, in order that the King
might not remark it, she had to lie on the side where there
was no eye. In the evening, when the King came home and
heard that a little son was born to him, he rejoiced with all
his heart, and was going at once to his dear wife’s bedside
to see how she did. ‘Then the old woman cried hastily,
“For your life, do not draw back the curtains, to let in
the light upon her; she must be kept quiet.” So the King
went away, and never knew that a false Queen was lying 1 in the
bed.
Now, when it was midnight, and every one was asleep, the
nurse, who was sitting by the cradle in the nursery and watch¬
ing there alone, saw the door open, and the true Queen come
in. She took the child out of the cradle, laid it in her bosom,
and fed it. ‘Then she shook out its little pillow, put the child
back again, and covered it with the coverlet. She did not
forget the fawn either: she went to him where he lay in the
corner, and stroked his back tenderly. Then she went in
perfect silence out at the door, and the nurse next morning
asked the watchmen if any one had entered the castle during
the night, but they said they had seen no one. And the
Queen came many nights, and never said a word ; the nurse
saw her always, but she did not dare speak of it to any one.
After some time had gone by in this manner, the Queen
seemed to find voice, and said one night,
c My child my fawn twice more I come to see,
Twice more I come, and then the end must be.”
The nurse said nothing, but as soon as the Queen had
disappeared she went to the King and told him all. The
King said,
‘Ah, heaven! what do I hear! I will myself watch by
the child to-morrow night.”
So at evening he went into the nursery, and at midnight
the Queen appeared, and said,
cc My child my fawn once more I come to see,
Once more I come, and then the end must be.”
And she tended the child, as she was accustomed to do,