Chapter 37 36. Prince of Denmark

Once upon a time, a king and queen never had children.They kept praying, and finally, finally, there was a girl.The king wanted to know the fate of his daughter, so he invited twelve astrologers.He gave each of eleven of them a gold telescope, and the twelfth, the oldest, a silver telescope.The astrologers looked around the girl, and some said that she must be a beautiful woman when she grows up; some said that she would become a talented woman when she grew up;Anyway, it's just plain flattery.Only the old gentleman said nothing.The king asked: "You can also talk about your high opinion." The astrologer felt very uncomfortable because of the silver telescope, and replied that what the others said just now was correct, but there was one more thing: this girl will fall in love with you in the future. The man whose name she had heard first.

"Then how can we avoid this?" asked the king. The astrologer said: "It is necessary to build another palace next to this palace. Everything in the palace must be arranged according to the royal family's standard, and the nanny and servants will accompany the princess to live in it. Also, a window on this palace must be No, just open a small window on the top of a tall building." The king did as the old gentleman wished.He came to visit his daughter every month and watched her grow up and become more beautiful, just as the astrologers predicted.However, the older the girl was, the more she felt that she should not be locked in the palace all the time, and that there must be another world outside, completely different from the place she was staying in.

One day, all the maids went to the garden, and the girl came to the window on the top floor, stacked the dining table, tea table, and chairs one by one to form a tower, and climbed up to the small window sill.Looking out of the window, you can only see the sky, white clouds and the sun, but you can't see the ground, but you can hear the voices and words from the ground. At this time, two young men passed by the road below, and only one of them said: "What is this palace next to the royal palace?" "Don't you know? It's the princess that lives in it, and the king locked her up here when it was prophesied that she would fall in love with the first man whose name she heard."

"Is she pretty?" "I heard it's beautiful, but no one has seen it." "Maybe she is really beautiful, but she can't be more beautiful than the son of the king of Denmark. You know? The prince of Denmark is so handsome that he has to cover himself with seven layers of veil. And he said he couldn't find anyone with a face to match him." woman, he will not marry." When the princess heard this, she was flustered and fell to the ground.Two maids ran over to see the sound, and she cried and yelled, "I want to go out, I want to get out of here!"

"Don't worry," said the maid, "tell your father when he comes." At the end of the month, the king came to visit his daughter as usual, and the girl cried and complained that she was being held here for no reason, and that she wanted to go out.The king had no choice but to let her live in his palace, and ordered everyone not to mention any man's name from now on.But at this time, the princess has long been thinking about the Danish prince, and she always seems to be preoccupied.The king asked her again and again what was wrong, and she always said: "Nothing, nothing!" Finally one day, she mustered up the courage to break into her father's study, knelt down on the ground, and told him about her love for the Danish prince. infatuation.She said, "Father, I beg you, send someone and ask him if he will marry me."

The king said to her: "Get up, don't get excited, I will send an envoy to Denmark immediately, my power is stronger than that of the king of Denmark, he dare not refuse me." When the envoys arrived at the Danish palace, the Danish king immediately sent someone to invite the prince.The prince came covered with seven veils.The king told him that someone had come to propose marriage to him. So the prince raised the first veil and asked the envoy, "Is your princess as beautiful as me?" The envoys replied: "Yes, Your Highness." He lifted the second veil. "As beautiful as me?"

"Yes, Your Highness." In this way, he lifted the veil layer by layer, and after removing the last layer of veil, the prince asked: "Is it still as beautiful as me?" The envoys all lowered their heads and said, "No, Your Highness." "Then tell her I don't want to." "But the princess said," continued the envoys, "if you don't want to marry her, she will hang herself." The Danish prince immediately brought a rope, threw it to the envoy, and said, "Take this rope and go back and let her hang herself." The envoy came back with the rope, and the king was furious when he learned what had happened.But the girl was crying, sighing, and pleading.As a result, the king had to send another envoy to visit the Danish king.

This time, the Danish prince lifted the veil layer by layer, and when he unveiled the last layer, he asked again: "As beautiful as me?" "No, Your Highness." "Then tell her I don't want to." "But the princess said that if she was rejected, she would kill herself with a knife." "Then you take this knife back and let her commit suicide." The envoys returned with their knives.The king wanted to declare war on Denmark, but his daughter's repeated pleas and persuasion calmed him down.A few months later, at the daughter's entreaties, the king sent envoys again.

The Prince of Denmark asked the same question. When he lifted the last veil, the envoys replied: "No, Your Highness. But if it is refused again, the princess will shoot herself." "Then you guys take this gun and let her kill herself." The envoys are back with guns.The king was furious, but the princess cried and said, "Father, I beg you, make me an iron bucket, put me in it, and let me drift freely on the sea." The king was most reluctant to hear such a request, but he couldn't resist his daughter's pleading, so he agreed and put her in a bucket.She was dressed as a princess and had a crown on her head, and she carried a rope, a knife and a pistol, and some food from the road that went into the bucket.Then, the barrel went into the sea.

The iron barrel floated on the sea day after day, and finally, the sea washed it to an island, where there was a queen's palace.In the morning, the ladies of the court opened the door of the terrace and found the iron bucket on the shore, and shouted: "Your Majesty! You see someone threw a beautiful iron bucket on the shore!" The queen ordered the bucket to be brought up.After pulling it to the front and opening the cover, the beautiful girl came out from inside. "Why are you drifting on the sea like this?" the queen asked her, and the girl told the queen what had happened.

"Nothing, nothing, you don't have to worry about it!" said the Queen to her. "The Prince of Denmark is my brother. He comes here once a month to see me and have a glass of sea water. He will come in a few days." The Prince of Denmark really came.His sister, the Queen, did not ask the former lady-in-waiting to bring him a cup, but the girl.The prince fell in love with her as soon as he saw her.He asked his sister, "Who is this beautiful lady?" "A friend of mine." "Sister, do you know what I'm going to say to you? From now on, I will only come here once a month, every fifteen days." Fifteen days later, the prince came, and the girl came in again and brought him a glass of sea water. "Sister, do you know what I want to tell you?" He said, "I will come here every 15 days or every 8 days." Eight days later, the prince came again, but this time it was the former court lady who brought him water.The prince couldn't drink any more and asked, "Is that beautiful girl not here?" "She's not feeling well." "I want to go and see her in her room." The girl was sitting on the bed, and on the sheets lay the rope, the knife, and the pistol.But the prince just stared at her and didn't look at anything.At this time, the girl asked him: "Then you see, which of these three things should I choose?" The prince didn't understand, so the girl explained her identity and the fact that her father sent an envoy to propose marriage to him. The prince cried out, "How stupid I am! If I knew you are so beautiful, I would have said yes right away!" At this time, the girl got up and wrote a letter to her father: I live in the palace of a queen, and the prince of Denmark is also here, and he proposed to me. The king happily came to fetch his daughter, and they went together to the Kingdom of Denmark, where the wedding was held. (Venice area)