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ONCE there was
a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty
woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of
her own humor, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. He had
likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness
and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best
creature in the world.
No sooner were
the ceremonies of the wedding over but the mother-in-law began to show
herself in her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of this
pretty girl, and the less because they made her own daughters appear the
more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of the house: she scoured
the dishes, tables, etc., and scrubbed madam's chamber, and those of misses,
her
daughters; she lay up in a sorry garret, upon a wretched
straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms, with floors all inlaid,
upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had looking-glasses
so large that they might see themselves at their full length from head
to foot.
The poor girl
bore all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who would have rattled
her off; for his wife governed him entirely. When she had done her work,
she used to go into the chimney-corner, and sit down among cinders and
ashes, which made her commonly be called Cinderwench; but the youngest,
who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest, called her Cinderella. However,
Cinderella,
notwithstanding her mean apparel, was a hundred times
handsomer than her sisters, though they were always dressed very richly.
It happened that
the King's son gave a ball, and invited all persons of fashion to it. Our
young misses were also invited, for they cut a very grand figure among
the quality. They were mightily delighted at this invitation, and wonderfully
busy in choosing out such gowns, petticoats, and head-clothes as might
become them. This was a new trouble to Cinderella; for it was she who ironed
her sisters' linen, and plaited their ruffles; they talked all day long
of nothing but how they should be dressed.
"For my part,"
said the eldest, "I will wear my red velvet suit with French trimming."
"And I," said
the youngest, "shall have my usual petticoat; but then, to make amends
for that, I will put on my gold-flowered manteau, and my diamond stomacher,
which is far from being the most ordinary one in the world."
They sent for
the best tire-woman they could get to make up their head-dresses and adjust
their double pinners, and they had their red brushes and patches from Mademoiselle
de la Poche.
Cinderella was
likewise called up to them to be consulted in all these matters, for she
had excellent notions, and advised them always for the best, nay, and offered
her services to dress their heads, which they were very willing she should
do. As she was doing this, they said to her:
"Cinderella, would
you not be glad to go to the ball?"
"Alas!" said she,
"you only jeer me; it is not for such as I am to go thither."
"Thou art in the
right of it," replied they; "it would make the people laugh to see a Cinderwench
at a ball."
Anyone but Cinderella
would have dressed their heads awry, but she was very good, and dressed
them perfectly well They were almost two days without eating, so much were
they transported with joy. They broke above a dozen laces in trying to
be laced up close, that they might have a fine slender shape, and they
were continually at their looking-glass. At last the happy day came; they
went to Court, and Cinderella followed them with her eyes as long as she
could, and when she had lost sight of them, she fell a-crying.
Her godmother,
who saw her all in tears, asked her what was the matter.
"I wish I could
-- I wish I could -- "; she was not able to speak the rest, being interrupted
by her tears and sobbing.
This godmother
of hers, who was a fairy, said to her, "Thou wishest thou couldst go to
the ball; is it not so?"
"Y -- es," cried
Cinderella, with a great sigh.
"Well," said her
godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will contrive that thou shalt go."
Then she took her into her chamber, and said to her, "Run into the garden,
and bring me a pumpkin."
Cinderella went
immediately to gather the finest she could get, and brought it to her godmother,
not being able to imagine how this pumpkin could make her go to the ball.
Her godmother scooped out all the inside of it, having left nothing but
the rind; which done, she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was
instantly turned into a fine coach, gilded all over with gold.
She then went
to look into her mouse-trap, where she found six mice, all alive, and ordered
Cinderella to lift up a little the trapdoor, when, giving each mouse, as
it went out, a little tap with her wand, the mouse was that moment turned
into a fine horse, which altogether made a very fine set of six horses
of a beautiful mouse-colored dapple-gray. Being at a loss for a coachman,
"I will go and
see," says Cinderella, "if there is never a rat in the rat-trap -- we may
make a coachman of him."
"Thou art in the
right," replied her godmother; "go and look."
Cinderella brought
the trap to her, and in it there were three huge rats. The fairy made choice
of one of the three which had the largest beard, and, having touched him
with her wand, he was turned into a fat, jolly coachman, who had the smartest
whiskers eyes ever beheld. After that, she said to her:
"Go again into
the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the watering-pot, bring
them to me."
She had no sooner
done so but her godmother turned them into six footmen, who skipped up
immediately behind the coach, with their liveries all bedaubed with gold
and silver, and clung as close behind each other as if they had done nothing
else their whole lives. The Fairy then said to Cinderella:
"Well, you see
here an equipage fit to go to the ball with; are you not pleased with it?"
"Oh! yes," cried
she; "but must I go thither as I am, in these nasty rags?"
Her godmother
only just touched her with her wand, and, at the same instant, her clothes
were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all beset with jewels. This
done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole
world. Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother,
above all things, commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling
her, at the same time, that if she stayed one moment longer, the coach
would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen
lizards, and her clothes become just as they were before.
She promised her
godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before midnight; and then
away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for joy. The King's son
who was told that a great princess, whom nobody knew, was come, ran out
to receive her; he gave her his hand as she alighted out of the coach,
and led her into the ball, among all the company. There was immediately
a profound silence, they left off dancing, and the violins ceased to play,
so attentive was everyone to contemplate the singular beauties of the unknown
new-comer. Nothing was then heard but a confused noise of:
"Ha! how handsome
she is! Ha! how handsome she is!"
The King himself,
old as he was, could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly
that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies
were busied in considering her clothes and headdress, that they might have
some made next day after the same pattern, provided they could meet with
such fine material and as able hands to make them.
The King's son
conducted her to the most honorable seat, and afterward took her out to
dance with him; she danced so very gracefully that they all more and more
admired her. A fine collation was served up, whereof the young prince ate
not a morsel, so intently was he busied in gazing on her.
She went and sat
down by her sisters, showing them a thousand civilities, giving them part
of the oranges and citrons which the Prince had presented her with, which
very much surprised them, for they did not know her. While Cinderella was
thus amusing her sisters, she heard the clock strike eleven and three-quarters,
whereupon she immediately made a courtesy to the company and hasted away
as fast as she could.
When she got home
she ran to seek out her godmother, and, after having thanked her, she said
she could not but heartily wish she might go next day to the ball, because
the King's son had desired her.
As she was eagerly
telling her godmother whatever had passed at the ball, her two sisters
knocked at the door, which Cinderella ran and opened.
"How long you
have stayed!" cried she, gaping, rubbing her eyes and stretching herself
as if she had been just waked out of her sleep; she had not, however, any
manner of inclination to sleep since they went from home.
"If thou hadst
been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "thou wouldst not have been
tired with it. There came thither the finest princess, the most beautiful
ever was seen with mortal eyes; she showed us a thousand civilities, and
gave us oranges and citrons."
Cinderella seemed
very indifferent in the matter; indeed, she asked them the name of that
princess; but they told her they did not know it, and that the King's son
was very uneasy on her account and would give all the world to know who
she was. At this Cinderella, smiling, replied:
"She must, then,
be very beautiful indeed; how happy you have been! Could not I see her?
Ah! dear Miss Charlotte, do lend me your yellow suit of clothes which you
wear every day."
"Ay, to be sure!"
cried Miss Charlotte; "lend my clothes to such a dirty Cinderwench as thou
art! I should be a fool."
Cinderella, indeed,
expected well such answer, and was very glad of the refusal; for she would
have been sadly put to it if her sister had lent her what she asked for
jestingly.
The next day the
two sisters were at the ball, and so was Cinderella, but dressed more magnificently
than before. The King's son was always by her, and never ceased his compliments
and kind speeches to her; to whom all this was so far from being tiresome
that she quite forgot what her godmother had
recommended to her; so that she, at last, counted the
clock striking twelve when she took it to be no more than eleven; she then
rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The Prince followed, but could not
overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the Prince
took up most carefully. She got home but quite out of breath, and in her
nasty old clothes, having nothing left her of all her finery but one of
the little slippers, fellow to that she dropped. The guards at the palace
gate were asked:
If they had not
seen a princess go out.
Who said: They
had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and who had
more the air of a poor country wench than a gentlewoman.
When the two sisters
returned from the ball Cinderella asked them: If they had been well diverted,
and if the fine lady had been there.
They told her:
Yes, but that she hurried away immediately when it struck twelve, and with
so much haste that she dropped one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest
in the world, which the King's son had taken up; that he had done nothing
but look at her all the time at the ball, and that most certainly he was
very much in love with the beautiful person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said
was very true; for a few days after the King's son caused it to be proclaimed,
by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot the slipper would
just fit. They whom he employed began to try it upon the princesses, then
the duchesses and all the Court, but in vain; it was brought to the two
sisters, who did all they possibly could to thrust their foot into the
slipper, but they could not effect it. Cinderella, who
saw all this, and knew her slipper, said to them, laughing:
"Let me see if
it will not fit me."
Her sisters burst
out a-laughing, and began to banter her. The gentleman who was sent to
try the slipper looked earnestly at Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome,
said:
It was but just
that she should try, and that he had orders to let everyone make trial.
He obliged Cinderella
to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her foot, he found it went on
very easily, and fitted her as if it had been made of wax. The astonishment
her two sisters were in was excessively great, but still abundantly greater
when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it
on her foot. Thereupon, in came her godmother, who, having touched with
her
wand Cinderella's clothes, made them richer and more
magnificent than any of those she had before.
And now her two
sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom they had seen at
the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all the ill-
treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella took them up, and, as she
embraced them, cried:
That she forgave
them with all her heart, and desired them always to love her.
She was conducted
to the young prince, dressed as she was; he thought her more charming than
ever, and, a few days after, married her. Cinderella, who was no less good
than beautiful, gave her two sisters lodgings in the palace, and that very
same day matched them with two great lords of the Court.
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