The room was quiet and
still. A bitter breeze blew the pages of the
old book.
"Hello, my children,"
called a soothing voice from the old book. James
dropped the book and both children leaped back in fear.
"Wh... who are you?"
said James, his voice shaking.
"I am Marie-Catherine
Bourbon, the Queen of France. And who might you
be?" said the voice.
"I'm Catherine and this
is James," said Catherine as she peered into
the book. But she did not see a face, only pages filled with stories
from the past.
"How can you be a queen
inside of a book?" asked James as he looked
over his sister's shoulder.
"There are so many
questions to be answered. Take a look through my
pages and maybe you will find the answers you are looking for," said
the voice of Queen Marie-Catherine.
At that moment
Catherine and James were no longer in a cold, dark
tower. They were surrounded by a green pasture and a tranquil stream
flowed beside them.
"Where are we?" asked
James, obviously surprised at their new
surroundings.
"You are in France, of
course," said the voice of Queen Marie-Catherine.
"This can't be
possible. Your majesty, are we inside your book?"
Catherine asked. None of this made any sense to the children. But both
agreed, wherever they were, it was much better than the castle.
The voice did not
answer Catherine's question but instead said, "Now
children, listen to my tale so you may learn the truth."
And at that, the
children watched the events unfold before their eyes.
There once
was
a king and queen who had two sons and a daughter whom they named
Rosette.
She was the most beautiful girl in all of France. The queen, as she did
for all of her children, called upon the fairies to predict her
daughter's future. But to the queen's dismay, the fairies told her that
Rosette might bring great misfortune to her brothers and be the
cause for their death.
When the king received word of
this
tragic prediction, he ordered that Princess Rosette be locked in the
tallest tower where she could cause no harm. So day after day, Rosette
sat in the castle. Her brothers begged their parents to release her,
because they were not worried about this so-called prediction. For ten
years the princess was locked away, until the king and queen became ill
and died. That day, the princes rushed to the tower to free their
sister from captivity.
As soon as she stepped out of the tower, Princess Rosette looked around
at her beautiful surroundings. It had been so long since she had been
able
to smell the sweet scent of the tulips. Suddenly, Rosette spotted the
most extravagant peacock and was hypnotized by its beauty.
Now Princess Rosette was ready to be wed and her brothers knew it was
their duty to find her a suitor. The princes asked their
sister who she would like to marry. Princess Rosette immediately said
she wanted to marry the King of the Peacocks. Rosette's brothers looked
confused, but because they loved their sister deeply, they assured her
they would find the King of Peacocks and the two would one day wed.
So the brothers set off to find the King of Peacocks. After
months of
searching, the brothers came to a town full of people dressed in
peacock feathers and a king's elaborate coach being pulled by
twelve
peacocks. Finally, they had found the King of Peacocks. The brothers
approached the king with a portrait of their sister in hand, proposing
her hand in marriage. The King of Peacocks did not like outsiders but
said if the princess was indeed as beautiful as this portrait, he would
not kill them. Immediately, word was sent for Rosette.
The next day, the princess and her servants set sail for the land of
the
Peacocks. But one servant was quite jealous of the princess. She wanted
her daughter to marry the King of Peacocks. So, that night, while the
princess was asleep, the servant threw her bed overboard, careful as to
not wake her. Finally, when the ship arrived, the servant dressed her
daughter in Rosette's clothes and took her to meet the King of
Peacocks. Now, unlike Rosette, the servant's daughter was very plump
and extremely ugly. When the servant's daughter met the King of
Peacocks, he was furious that the brothers had lied about their
sister's beauty and immediately sent word for their execution.
Meanwhile, Princess Rosette awoke to find her bed floating on the
water, and no sign of the ship.
Devastated, she thought the King of Peacocks must have not liked her
and sent her away. So, there she floated along on her mattress until
she reached the shore of an unknown land. Suddenly, she spotted an
elaborate creature. As it approached, she realized it was a man dressed
in peacock feathers. He immediately took her captive and brought her to
the king.
The King of Peacocks immediately noticed something familiar about
Rosette— and just as the brothers were about to executed, the king
called for them and asked if the woman prisoner was their sister from
the portrait.
The brothers both nodded, extremely confused because they did not know
of the previous impostor. Then the servant and her daughter were called
before the King of Peacocks and he had them put to death for their
trick.
Princess Rosette and the King
of Peacocks were married and they lived
happily ever after.
"You see, my children,
we do not always have to live the life we
believe is destined before us. For in the end the truth will come out,"
said the voice of Queen Bourbon.
Suddenly James and
Catherine were once again in the dark, lonely castle
looking down at an old book.
"What did she mean by,
'The truth will come out in the end?'" asked
Catherine.
"Someone is coming,"
said James as he quickly put the book back in its
hiding place. "We'll be back tomorrow, your majesty."
Author's Note: This story is extremely long in its entirety. Because of
this, I left out a large chuck of the story, but I was still able to
keep the integrity of the story as a whole. For instance, the brothers'
journey is much longer and they encounter many more characters. I also
took out Rosette's little one-eared dog. I really wanted to keep him in
but there was just no room. The dog is an essential character in Madame
d'Aulnoy's story. Rosette chases after the dog and that is how she sees
the peacock for the first time. Also after Rosette's floating mattress
hits land, the little dog steals food from the King of Peacocks'
kitchen for Rosette and the man who found her. He is the reason Rosette
is finally found by the king. Because the dog is not in this story, the
ending is changed so that a man from the peacock town finds her when
she arrives on shore and then immediately brings her to the king. The
king also did not kill the servant (who is a nurse in the original
story) and her daughter. Rosette asks for their pardon and the king
grants it. Also the man who found Rosette on the shore in the original
story is given a huge reward for taking care of her, but I left that
man out in my retelling.
Bibliographic Information:
"Princess
Rosette" in The Fairy Tales of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy by
Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy 1892
Image information:
Princess in Tower. Websource: anacronysm
Disney Princes by Lord Alphie. Websource: deviantart
Peacock. Websource: The
Oregonian
