ONCE there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of her own humor, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world.
No sooner were the ceremonies of the
wedding over but the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors.
She could not bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because
they made her own daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the
meanest work of the house: she scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and scrubbed
madam’s chamber, and those of misses, her daughters; she lay up in a sorry
garret, upon a wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms, with
floors all inlaid, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had
looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves at their full length
from head to foot.
The poor girl bore all patiently,
and dared not tell her father, who would have rattled her off; for his wife
governed him entirely. When she had done her work, she used to go into the
chimney-corner, and sit down among cinders and ashes, which made her commonly
be called Cinderwench; but the youngest, who was not so rude and uncivil as the
eldest, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her mean
apparel, was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they were
always dressed very richly.
It happened that the King’s son gave
a ball, and invited all persons of fashion to it. Our young misses were also
invited, for they cut a very grand figure among the quality. They were mightily
delighted at this invitation, and wonderfully busy in choosing out such gowns,
petticoats, and head-clothes as might become them. This was a new trouble to
Cinderella; for it was she who ironed her sisters’ linen, and plaited their ruffles;
they talked all day long of nothing but how they should be dressed.
“For my part,” said the eldest, “I
will wear my red velvet suit with French trimming.”
“And I,” said the youngest, “shall
have my usual petticoat; but then, to make amends for that, I will put on my
gold-flowered manteau, and my diamond stomacher, which is far from being the
most ordinary one in the world.”
They sent for the best tire-woman they could get to make up their head-dresses
and adjust their double pinners, and they had their red brushes and patches
from Mademoiselle de la Poche.
Cinderella was likewise called up to
them to be consulted in all these matters, for she had excellent notions, and
advised them always for the best, nay, and offered her services to dress their
heads, which they were very willing she should do. As she was doing this, they
said to her:
“Cinderella, would you not be glad
to go to the ball?”
“Alas!” said she, “you only jeer me;
it is not for such as I am to go thither.”
“Thou art in the right of it,” replied they; “it would make the people laugh to
see a Cinderwench at a ball.”
Anyone but Cinderella would have
dressed their heads awry, but she was very good, and dressed them perfectly
well They were almost two days without eating, so much were they transported
with joy. They broke above a dozen laces in trying to be laced up close, that
they might have a fine slender shape, and they were continually at their
looking-glass. At last the happy day came; they went to Court, and Cinderella
followed them with her eyes as long as she could, and when she had lost sight
of them, she fell a-crying.
Her godmother, who saw her all in
tears, asked her what was the matter.
“I wish I could–I wish I could–”; she was not able to speak the rest, being
interrupted by her tears and sobbing.
This godmother of hers, who was a
fairy, said to her, “Thou wishest thou couldst go to the ball; is it not so?”
“Y–es,” cried Cinderella, with a
great sigh.
“Well,” said her godmother, “be but
a good girl, and I will contrive that thou shalt go.” Then she took her into
her chamber, and said to her, “Run into the garden, and bring me a pumpkin.”
Cinderella went immediately to
gather the finest she could get, and brought it to her godmother, not being
able to imagine how this pumpkin could make her go to the ball. Her godmother
scooped out all the inside of it, having left nothing but the rind; which done,
she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into a fine
coach, gilded all over with gold.
She then went to look into her
mouse-trap, where she found six mice, all alive, and ordered Cinderella to lift
up a little the trapdoor, when, giving each mouse, as it went out, a little tap
with her wand, the mouse was that moment turned into a fine horse, which
altogether made a very fine set of six horses of a beautiful mouse-colored
dapple-gray. Being at a loss for a coachman,
“I will go and see,” says
Cinderella, “if there is never a rat in the rat-trap–we may make a coachman of
him.”
“Thou art in the right,” replied her
godmother; “go and look.”
Cinderella brought the trap to her,
and in it there were three huge rats. The fairy made choice of one of the three
which had the largest beard, and, having touched him with her wand, he was
turned into a fat, jolly coach- man, who had the smartest whiskers eyes ever
beheld. After that, she said to her:
“Go again into the garden, and you
will find six lizards behind the watering-pot, bring them to me.”
She had no sooner done so but her
godmother turned them into six footmen, who skipped up immediately behind the
coach, with their liveries all bedaubed with gold and silver, and clung as
close behind each other as if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The
Fairy then said to Cinderella: “Well, you see here an equipage fit to go to the
ball with; are you not pleased with it?”
“Oh! yes,” cried she; “but must I go
thither as I am, in these nasty rags?”
Her godmother only just touched her
with her wand, and, at the same instant, her clothes were turned into cloth of
gold and silver, all beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass
slippers, the prettiest in the whole world. Being thus decked out, she got up
into her coach; but her godmother, above all things, commanded her not to stay
till after midnight, telling her, at the same time, that if she stayed one
moment longer, the coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her
coachman a rat, her footmen lizards, and her clothes become just as they were
before.
She promised her godmother she would
not fail of leaving the ball before midnight; and then away she drives, scarce
able to contain herself for joy. The King’s son who was told that a great
princess, whom nobody knew, was come, ran out to receive her; he gave her his
hand as she alighted out of the coach, and led her into the ball, among all the
company. There was immediately a profound silence, they left off dancing, and
the violins ceased to play, so attentive was everyone to contemplate the
singular beauties of the unknown new-comer. Nothing was then heard but a
confused noise of:
“Ha! how handsome she is! Ha! how
handsome she is!”
The King himself, old as he was,
could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly that it was a long
time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies were busied in
considering her clothes and headdress, that they might have some made next day
after the same pattern, provided they could meet with such fine material and as
able hands to make them.
The King’s son conducted her to the
most honorable seat, and afterward took her out to dance with him; she danced
so very gracefully that they all more and more admired her. A fine collation
was served up, whereof the young prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he
busied in gazing on her.
She went and sat down by her
sisters, showing them a thousand civilities, giving them part of the oranges
and citrons which the Prince had presented her with, which very much surprised
them, for they did not know her. While Cinderella was thus amusing her sisters,
she heard the clock strike eleven and three-quarters, whereupon she immediately
made a courtesy to the company and hasted away as fast as she could.
When she got home she ran to seek
out her godmother, and, after having thanked her, she said she could not but
heartily wish she might go next day to the ball, because the King’s son had
desired her.
As she was eagerly telling her
godmother whatever had passed at the ball, her two sisters knocked at the door,
which Cinderella ran and opened.
“How long you have stayed!” cried
she, gaping, rubbing her eyes and stretching herself as if she had been just
waked out of her sleep; she had not, however, any manner of inclination to
sleep since they went from home.
“If thou hadst been at the ball,”
said one of her sisters, “thou wouldst not have been tired with it. There came
thither the finest princess, the most beautiful ever was seen with mortal eyes;
she showed us a thousand civilities, and gave us oranges and citrons.”
Cinderella seemed very indifferent
in the matter; indeed, she asked them the name of that princess; but they told
her they did not know it, and that the King’s son was very uneasy on her
account and would give all the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella,
smiling, replied:
“She must, then, be very beautiful
indeed; how happy you have been! Could not I see her? Ah! dear Miss Charlotte,
do lend me your yellow suit of clothes which you wear every day.”
“Ay, to be sure!” cried Miss
Charlotte; “lend my clothes to such a dirty Cinderwench as thou art! I should
be a fool.”
Cinderella, indeed, expected well
such answer, and was very glad of the refusal; for she would have been sadly
put to it if her sister had lent her what she asked for jestingly.
The next day the two sisters were at
the ball, and so was Cinderella, but dressed more magnificently than before.
The King’s son was always by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind
speeches to her; to whom all this was so far from being tiresome that she quite
forgot what her godmother had recommended to her; so that she, at last, counted
the clock striking twelve when she took it to be no more than eleven; she then
rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The Prince followed, but could not
overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the Prince took
up most carefully. She got home but quite out of breath, and in her nasty old
clothes, having nothing left her of all her finery but one of the little
slippers, fellow to that she dropped. The guards at the palace gate were asked:
If they had not seen a princess go
out.
Who said: They had seen nobody go
out but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and who had more the air of a poor
country wench than a gentlewoman.
When the two sisters returned from
the ball Cinderella asked them: If they had been well diverted, and if the fine
lady had been there.
They told her: Yes, but that she
hurried away immediately when it struck twelve, and with so much haste that she
dropped one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the
King’s son had taken up; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time
at the ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the
beautiful person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very true; for a
few days after the King’s son caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet,
that he would marry her whose foot the slipper would just fit. They whom he
employed began to try it upon the princesses, then the duchesses and all the
Court, but in vain; it was brought to the two sisters, who did all they
possibly could to thrust their foot into the slipper, but they could not effect
it. Cinderella, who saw all this, and knew her slipper, said to them, laughing:
“Let me see if it will not fit me.”
Her sisters burst out a-laughing,
and began to banter her. The gentleman who was sent to try the slipper looked
earnestly at Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome, said:
It was but just that she should try,
and that he had orders to let everyone make trial.
He obliged Cinderella to sit down,
and, putting the slipper to her foot, he found it went on very easily, and
fitted her as if it had been made of wax. The astonishment her two sisters were
in was excessively great, but still abundantly greater when Cinderella pulled
out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came
her godmother, who, having touched with her wand Cinderella’s clothes, made
them richer and more magnificent than any of those she had before.
And now her two sisters found her to
be that fine, beautiful lady whom they had seen at the ball. They threw
themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all the ill- treatment they had made
her undergo. Cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried:
That she forgave them with all her
heart, and desired them always to love her.
She was conducted to the young
prince, dressed as she was; he thought her more charming than ever, and, a few
days after, married her. Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave
her two sisters lodgings in the palace.
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