



Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the
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THE NECKLACE OF PRINCESS FIORIMONDE

AND OTHER STORIES

[Illustration: "She was in the garden, lying on the marble edge of a
fountain, feeding the gold fish who swam in the water."--FRONTISPIECE.]




THE NECKLACE OF PRINCESS FIORIMONDE;

AND OTHER STORIES

BY

MARY DE MORGAN

[_Author of "On a Pincushion"_]

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

WALTER CRANE

LONDON:
MACMILLAN & CO:
1886


TO

MY SIX LITTLE NEPHEWS AND NIECES

THESE STORIES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

BY

THEIR LOVING AUNT

MARY DE MORGAN




CONTENTS.


                                      PAGE

THE NECKLACE OF PRINCESS FIORIMONDE      1

THE WANDERINGS OF ARASMON               43

THE HEART OF PRINCESS JOAN              79

THE PEDLAR'S PACK                      131

THE BREAD OF DISCONTENT                140

THE THREE CLEVER KINGS                 157

THE WISE PRINCESS                      175




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


1. _Frontispiece._
                                                              PAGE

2. HEADING AND INITIAL LETTER, "PRINCESS FIORIMONDE"             1

3. THE PRINCESS AND HER LOOKING-GLASS               _To face_   29

4. GERVAISE WITH THE NECKLACE                            "      39

5. TAILPIECE                                                    42

6. HEADING AND INITIAL LETTER, "THE WANDERINGS OF ARASMON"      43

7. ARASMON AND CHRYSEA PLAYING TO THE VILLAGERS     _To face_   44

8. ARASMON PLAYING BEFORE THE KING                       "      66

9. TAILPIECE                                                    78

10. HEADING AND INITIAL, "THE HEART OF PRINCESS JOAN"           79

11. THE PRINCE AND THE WIZARD                       _To face_   87

12. THE PRISON WINDOW                                    "     128

13. TAILPIECE                                                  130

14. HEADING AND INITIAL LETTER, "THE PEDLAR'S PACK"            131

15. THE PEDLAR AND THE DONKEY                       _To face_  131

16. TAILPIECE                                                  139

17. HEADING AND INITIAL, "THE BREAD OF DISCONTENT"             140

18. THE IMP AND THE BAKER                           _To face_  141

19. TAILPIECE                                                  156

20. HEADING AND INITIAL, "THE THREE CLEVER KINGS"              157

21. THE THREE CLEVER KINGS                          _To face_  170

22. TAILPIECE                                                  174

23. HEADING AND INITIAL, "THE WISE PRINCESS"                   175

24. THE WISE PRINCESS ON THE SEA-SHORE              _To face_  178

25. TAILPIECE                                                  184

[Illustration]




THE NECKLACE OF PRINCESS FIORIMONDE

[Illustration]


Once there lived a King, whose wife was dead, but who had a most beautiful
daughter--so beautiful that every one thought she must be good as well,
instead of which the Princess was really very wicked, and practised
witchcraft and black magic, which she had learned from an old witch who
lived in a hut on the side of a lonely mountain. This old witch was wicked
and hideous, and no one but the King's daughter knew that she lived there;
but at night, when every one else was asleep, the Princess, whose name was
Fiorimonde, used to visit her by stealth to learn sorcery. It was only the
witch's arts which had made Fiorimonde so beautiful that there was no one
like her in the world, and in return the Princess helped her with all her
tricks, and never told any one she was there.

The time came when the King began to think he should like his daughter to
marry, so he summoned his council and said, "We have no son to reign after
our death, so we had best seek for a suitable prince to marry to our royal
daughter, and then, when we are too old, he shall be king in our stead."
And all the council said he was very wise, and it would be well for the
Princess to marry. So heralds were sent to all the neighbouring kings and
princes to say that the King would choose a husband for the Princess, who
should be king after him. But when Fiorimonde heard this she wept with
rage, for she knew quite well that if she had a husband he would find out
how she went to visit the old witch, and would stop her practising magic,
and then she would lose her beauty.

When night came, and every one in the palace was fast asleep, the Princess
went to her bedroom window and softly opened it. Then she took from her
pocket a handful of peas and held them out of the window and chirruped low,
and there flew down from the roof a small brown bird and sat upon her wrist
and began to eat the peas. No sooner had it swallowed them than it began to
grow and grow and grow till it was so big that the Princess could not hold
it, but let it stand on the window-sill, and still it grew and grew and
grew till it was as large as an ostrich. Then the Princess climbed out of
the window and seated herself on the bird's back, and at once it flew
straight away over the tops of the trees till it came to the mountain where
the old witch dwelt, and stopped in