Chapter 67 66. The Enchanted Palace

In ancient times, a king had a son who was fond of reading, named Ferordinando. He always locked himself in his room and read and read. When he was tired, he looked out the window in the garden for a while, and then continued to read. and ponder.He never leaves his room except for three meals a day.Rarely can he be seen walking in the garden. One day, the king's hunter, a very clever young man who had grown up with the prince, said to the king: "Your Majesty, I ask your permission to go and see Ferdinando, whom I have not seen for a long time. .” The King said, "Go! Your visit will at least put my hard-working son at ease."

So the huntsman came to Ferdinando's room, and Ferordinando asked him: "What do you do in the palace? Why are you wearing such shoes?" "I am the King's Hunter," answered the youth, and then he described all kinds of beasts, and the cunning of birds and hares, and the sights of different parts of the wood. Ferordinando's imagination was suddenly excited, "Listen," he said to the young man, "I want to go hunting too, don't you tell my father about it, lest he see that you are instigating it. I did. I will go myself and ask his permission to go hunting with you."

"At your command!" said the young man. At breakfast the next day, Ferordinando said to the king: "I read a book about hunting yesterday. I liked it very much. Now I can't wait to try it for myself. Will you promise me?" "To a novice," replied the king, "hunting is a dangerous pastime. But I don't want you to give up what you love, so I will send you my hunter, and there is none better than him." If you know more about hunting, you should follow him every step of the way." When the sun came out, Ferordinando and the huntsman mounted their horses with their weapons on their backs and set off for the woods.The hunters killed every bird or hare they saw with a single shot; Ferordinando tried everything he could to imitate the hunters and shoot a wild beast or two, but he couldn't hit anything.At the end of the day, the hunter's prey had filled a sack, which was too much to carry, but Ferordinando didn't even get a single feather.When it was getting dark, Ferordinando suddenly saw a little hare in the dark grass. He wanted to shoot it, but it was so small and frightened that he felt like using his hands. Just grab it.So he walked into the grass.But at this moment, the little hare "Zhi Liu" ran away at once, and Ferordinando followed closely behind it.Every time when he was about to grab it, it always ran away for a long time, then stopped and waited for him, and then ran away again.By this time Ferordinando was so far away from the hunter that he could not find his way back, so he began to cry out, one after another, but no one answered him.It was completely dark, and the little hare was gone.

Ferordinando got out of his saddle, half dead from exhaustion, and was sitting under a great tree in great remorse, when he suddenly felt that in the darkness, among the trees, he saw a ray of light.He pulled the rein of the horse and walked deep into the woods.In the middle of the forest, there is a large grassland, and at the end of the grassland is a very luxurious palace. The gates of the palace are open."Hi, is anyone home?" asked Ferordinando. No one answered him, not even an echo.He went in.In the hall, a fire was blazing in the fireplace, along with wine and glasses.Ferdinando sat down to rest for a while to warm up and drank some wine.Then he got up and went into another room, where there was a table for two peoples, with plates, knives and forks, and wine glasses all made of gold or silver.Curtains, tablecloths and napkins are all silk studded with pearls or diamonds.Chandeliers the size of bamboo baskets made of pure gold hung from the roof.Seeing that there was no one in the room and feeling very hungry, Ferordinand sat down at the table.

As soon as he put the first spoonful of rice into his mouth, he heard a rustle of clothes coming from the stairs.He turned and saw a queen enter, followed by twelve maids-in-waiting.The young queen was very beautiful, but her face was covered by a veil. She didn't say a word, and even the twelve maids behind her were dumb.The Queen just sat silently opposite Ferdinando, and the maids began to serve her dinner and pour her wine, but they remained silent.The entire dinner was spent in this silence, and the queen also wore the thick veil when eating, and the food was sent from behind the veil to her mouth.After eating, she stood up and went upstairs accompanied by the maids.Ferordinando also got up and wanted to walk around the palace.

There was a bedroom in the palace, the bed was made, and Ferordinando undressed and got under the covers.Behind the curtains of the bed, a small secret door was opened, and in came the veiled, silent queen and the twelve maids.Ferdinando raised himself on one arm and looked at them with his mouth open.The maids helped the queen to undress, leaving only the veil on her face, lay her down beside Ferdinando, and went out.Then Ferordinando expected that she would say something, or reveal some secret, but she fell asleep as soon as she lay down, and Ferordinando looked for a while at the smile on her face that followed her breath. The veil fell, and after thinking about it, he also fell asleep.

In the morning, the maids came in, helped the queen dress, and took her away. Ferordinando also got up, ate a hearty breakfast, and went to the stable in. His horse was grazing there, and Ferdinando mounted and galloped off towards the woods.All day he found no way home, or any trace left by his fellow hunters.He was always lost, and when it was dark, the lawn and the palace appeared before him again. He went in, and the same thing happened the night before, but the next day, when he was circling in the woods again, he met the hunter who had been looking for him for three days, and the two went home together. .Under the hunter's repeated questioning, Ferordinando made up a series of unexpected experiences, but did not say a word about his adventure.

When he got home, Ferordinando looked very different.His eyes could no longer stay on the pages of the book, but always turned to the depths of the woods outside the window.Seeing that he was gloomy and preoccupied all day, his mother kept asking him what happened to him. Under his mother's repeated questioning, Ferdinando finally told what happened in the woods from beginning to end. , and told his mother that he had fallen in love with the beautiful queen, but did not know how to get her to be his wife, for she never spoke a word, and did not even show her face. His mother said: "Now I will tell you what to do. You go to have dinner with her again. At the table, you try to make her drop the cutlery on the floor. When she bends down to pick it up, you put her The veil is lifted, and she will surely speak then."

No sooner had Ferdinando heard this advice than he mounted his horse and galloped to the palace in the woods.Again like the previous two times, the same thing happened.At supper he knocked off one of the queen's forks with his arm, and as she stooped he lifted her veil.The Queen stood up at once, as beautiful as the moonlight, and as red as the flames of the sun with rage. "Irreverent youth!" she cried, "you have condemned me, and if I can sleep one more night by your side without saying a word and without your seeing my face, I will be cast out of the magic Save me, and you will be my husband. Now, I will go to Paris for eight days, and from there to Petersburg, where I will be given as a prize to the winner of a tournament, who Know whose hands I will fall into. Farewell! You should know that I am the Queen of Portugal!"

At this time, she disappeared together with the palace.Ferordinando was left alone in a thick undergrowth.It was with great difficulty that he found his way home.When he got home, he didn't stop for a moment, filled his pockets with money, took his faithful hunter with him, mounted his horse and set off for Paris.They ran and ran all the way, and were so exhausted that they did not stop their horses until they came to an inn in Paris. But he couldn't take a break, because he wanted to know if the Queen of Portugal was really in Paris, so he asked the shopkeeper, "Is there any news here recently?"

The shopkeeper replied: "No, but what news do you want to know?" "There are many kinds of news: wars, festivals, famous people from the past and so on," Ferordinando said. "Ah!" cried the innkeeper, "there is a message that the Queen of Portugal has been here for five days, and in three days she will go to Petersburg. She is a very beautiful and well-bred woman, and she likes to visit For those rare treasures, she and twelve maids would pass not far from the door every afternoon." "Can people see her?" Ferordinando asked. The shopkeeper said: "Why not, when she is walking on the road, everyone passing by can see her." "Very well, very well," said Ferordinando, "please prepare us a lunch and a bottle of black wine." Now one thing you need to know is that the store has a daughter who once turned down all the marriage proposals because she didn't like any of them.But as soon as she saw Ferordinando dismount from his horse, she said to herself, either marry this man or never marry again.She immediately went to her father and told him that she had fallen in love with the outsider and asked him to find a way to let the outsider marry her.So the innkeeper said to Ferordinando: "I hope you will live comfortably in Paris and find a beautiful lady here." Ferordinando said: "My wife is the most beautiful queen in the world and I am following her all over the world." The shopkeeper's daughter who was hiding behind the door couldn't help being furious when she heard these words.When her father sent her to fetch wine from the cellar, she put a handful of sleeping pills in the bottle.When Ferordinando and the hunter went out to wait for the Queen of Portugal to pass by, they both felt so sleepy that they fell asleep like stones on the grass.After a while the Queen passed by, recognized Ferdinando, stooped to call him, fondled him, shook him, turned him over and over, but could not wake him up, so she pulled him from her hand. Take a diamond ring and place it on Ferdinando's forehead. You must know that there lived a hermit in a cave not far away. He hid behind a tree and observed the whole process.No sooner had the Queen left than he came softly out, took the diamond from Ferordinando's brow, and went home. It was already dark when Ferordinando woke up, and it took him a long time to remember where he was.He shook the hunter vigorously to wake him up, and both of them blamed the black wine for being too strong, and both regretted that they could not see the queen. The next day he said to the shopkeeper: "Give us a bottle of white wine, be careful not to be too strong." But the daughter also put medicine in the white wine, so the two of them fell asleep again on the grass. Unable to wake Ferordinando, the desperate Queen of Portugal put a lock of her hair on his forehead and walked away.The hermit came out of the wood again and took the lock of hair.It was late at night when Ferdinando and the hunter woke up, and they had no idea what had happened. Ferdinando began to have doubts about this afternoon sleepiness.It was the last day, and he would stop at nothing to see the queen before she left for Petersburg.So he told the shopkeeper not to serve wine, but the daughter put medicine in the soup.When they reached the grass, Ferordinando was already feeling a little dizzy.So he drew two pistols from his pockets and showed the hunter. "You've been true to me, I know that," he said, "but I promise you, if you don't keep your wits about you this time, and keep me sober, then those two guns are for you, and I want Smack them into your head and you'll be fine." After saying this, he lay straight on the grass and started snoring.In order to wake him up, the hunter began to wring him hard, but every time he wrung him, he closed his eyes, and the more he wrung, the smaller the strength, and the longer the time between wringing, he finally fell asleep on the ground. The queen came, and she tried everything, shouting, hugging, slapping, kissing and shaking Ferordinando could not wake him.Seeing that there was nothing she could do, she burst into tears.She cried so sadly that two drops of blood flowed from her eyes in the end.She wiped the blood off her face with a handkerchief and put it on Ferordinando's face.Then she got into the carriage and ran to Petersburg.At this moment the hermit came out of the cave, took the handkerchief, and waited there for what was to happen. During the night, Ferordinando woke up.The anger caused by the loss of the last chance is indescribable. He took out his pistol and was about to fulfill his promise to shoot the bullet into the head of the sleeping hunter when suddenly the hermit grabbed his wrist. The hermit said : "That unfortunate man is not at fault, it is all the fault of the shopkeeper's daughter, who put sleeping pills in the black wine, white wine and soup." "Why?" said Ferordinando. "How do you know?" "She did it because she fell in love with you. I know all this because I saw everything that happened from the tree. For three days in a row the Queen of Portugal passed by and wanted to wake you up. A diamond, a lock of hair and a bloody handkerchief were left on his forehead." "Where are these things?" The hermit said: "I put them away, because there are many thieves around here, and they will steal them all without you knowing, here they are, as long as you know how to use them, they will give you money." You bring good luck." "So, what should I do?" "The Queen of Portugal has gone to Petersburg," said the hermit, "where there will be a tournament. Now, among the knights participating in the contest, whoever has this ring, this tuft of hair, and this handkerchief on his lance will be invincible, to marry the Queen." Ferordinando didn't make him say it a second time.He ran non-stop from Paris to Petersburg, and finally caught up with the registration time, and he signed up for the tournament under a false name.In Petersburg, famous warriors from all over the world have gathered to participate in the competition. They all sat in large chariots, with entourage and shining weapons.In the center of the city, railings have been erected and rings have been erected, where the warriors will compete for the Queen of Portugal in jousting. Ferordinando, in his visor, won on the first day by the diamond on his spear, on the second by the lock of hair, and on the third by the handkerchief.The other horses and riders fell like bats until none of them could stand.He took off his helmet when he was declared the victor and husband of the queen.The queen recognized him, and passed out on the sofa with joy. They had a great wedding, and Ferdinando sent for his parents.They all thought he was dead and were weeping for it.He introduced his bride to his parents: "This is the rabbit I was following, and this is the veiled woman, and this is the Queen of Portugal whom I rescued from a terrible magic." (Montale Pistoia area)