The Snake Prince Episode 2
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🐍🏃 The Snake Prince Episode Two:
By this time the Queen had the Baby in her arms.
‘Oh, the blessed one!’ she cried, ‘fairer ornament for the bosom of a queen than any necklace that ever was wrought.
Write,’ she continued, ‘write to our neighbour and say that we cannot come to his feast, for we have a feast of our own, and a baby of our own! Oh, happy day!’
So the visit was given up; and, in honour of the new baby, the bells of the city, and its guns, and its trumpets,
and its people, small and great, had hardly any rest for a week.
There was such a ringing, and banging, and blaring, and such fireworks, and feasting, and rejoicing, and merry-making, as had never been seen before.
A few years went by; and, as the king’s boy baby and his neighbour’s girl baby grew and throve, the two kings arranged that as soon as they were old enough they should marry.
And so, with much signing of papers and agreements, and wagging of wise heads, and stroking of grey beards,
The compact was made, and signed, and sealed, and lay waiting for its fulfilment.
And this too came to pass; for, as soon as the prince and princess were eighteen years of age, the kings agreed that it was time for the wedding.
And the young prince journeyed away to the neighbouring kingdom for his bride, and was there married to her with great and renewed rejoicings.
Now, I must tell you that the old woman who had sold the king the necklace had been called in by him to be the nurse of the young prince.
And although she loved her charge dearly, and was a most faithful servant, she could not help talking just a little,
And so, by-and-by, it began to be rumoured that there was some magic about the young prince’s birth;
And the rumour of course had come in due time to the ears of the parents of the princess.
So now that she was going to be the wife of the prince, her mother (who was curious, as many other people are) said to her daughter on the eve of the ceremony:
Remember that the first thing you must do is to find out what this story is about the prince. And in order to do it,
You must not speak a word to him whatever he says until he asks you why you are silent;
Then you must ask him what the truth is about his magic birth; and until he tells you, you must not speak to him again.’
And the princess promised that she would follow her mother’s advice.
Therefore when they were married, and the prince spoke to his bride, she did not answer him.
He could not think what was the matter, but even about her old home she would not utter a word.
At last he asked why she would not speak; and then she said:
‘Tell me the secret of your birth.’
Then the prince was very sad and displeased, and although she pressed him sorely he would not tell her, but always reply:
‘If I tell you, you will repent that ever you asked me.’
For several months they lived together; and it was not such a happy time for either as it ought to have been,
For the secret was still a secret, and lay between them like a cloud between the sun and the earth, making what should be fair, dull and sad.
At length the prince could
bear it no longer; so he said to his wife one day:
‘At midnight I will tell you my secret if you still wish it; but you will repent it all your life.
However, the princess was overjoyed that she had succeeded, and paid no attention to his warnings.
That night the prince ordered horses to be ready for the princess and himself a little before midnight.
He placed her on one, and mounted the other himself,
And they rode together down to the river to the place where the old woman had first found the snake in her brass pot.
There the prince drew rein and said sadly: ‘Do you still insist that I should tell you my secret?’ And the princess answered ‘Yes.’ ‘If I do,’ answered the prince, ‘remember that you will regret it all your life.’ But the princess only replied ‘Tell me!’
‘Then,’ said the prince, ‘know that I am the son of the king of a far country, but by enchantment I was turned into a snake.’
The word ‘snake’ was hardly out of his lips when he disappeared,
and the princess heard a rustle and saw a ripple on the water; and in the faint moonlight she beheld a snake swimming into the river.
Soon it disappeared and she was left alone. In vain she waited with beating heart for something to happen, and for the prince to come back to her.
Nothing happened and no one came; only the wind mourned through the trees on the river bank, and the night birds cried,
And a jackal howled in the distance, and the river flowed black and silent beneath her.
In the morning they found her, weeping and dishevelled, on the river bank;
But no word could they learn from her or from anyone as to the fate of her husband.
At her wish they built on the river bank a little house of black stone;
And there she lived in mourning, with a few servants and guards to watch over her
TO Be Continued
