Princess Bluegreen of the Seven Cities
The Story of the Origin of the Azores
Once upon a time in the lost kingdom of Atlantis there
ruled a king whose name was Graywhite. He had married the beautiful
Queen Rosewhite. They lived in a magnificent palace, but it was a sad
place because there were no little children in it.
"There are plenty of babies in the homes of the poor
peasants who can scarcely find food for them," mourned King Graywhite.
"Why is it that I, the ruler of this vast rich kingdom, can have no
child to inherit my wealth and my domains?"
"Women in tiny hovels have their arms full of rosy dimpled
darlings," sighed Queen Rosewhite. "Why is it that I, the queen of
this magnificent palace, can have no baby of my own?"
Queen Rosewhite passed her days and nights in weeping,
while King Graywhite grew ugly and cruel to his subjects. Once he had
been the kindest ruler in the world.
Things went on like this for several years. Queen
Rosewhite's lovely face grew pale and wan, and her beautiful eyes
became so sad that it hurt the hearts of her faithful subjects. The
king's face lost its expression of jolly kindness and became sour and
cruel. They offered prayers and solemn vows before all the holy
shrines in the whole kingdom of Atlantis, but no child was born into
the royal palace. King Graywhite grew so harsh and ugly to his
subjects that the entire kingdom offered prayers and vows, too. As
things were, life was not worth living in the kingdom of Atlantis.
In front of the royal palace there was a beautiful terrace
where King Graywhite and Queen Rosewhite had loved to walk in the days
before they had grown cross and sad. One night when they were sitting
upon the terrace enjoying the fresh soft evening air and the bright
starlight there suddenly appeared a dazzling light which almost blinded
them. Queen Rosewhite covered her face with her hands and the king
bowed his proud head upon his breast.
"Do not fear to look at me," said a gentle voice.
King Graywhite and Queen Rosewhite glanced up. They saw a
tiny fairy standing before them with a circle of bright light dancing
about her.
"King and Queen of Atlantis," said the gentle voice. "You
shall have a child, a little daughter, prettier than the sunlight. I
have heard your prayers and vows, but I have also heard the prayers and
vows of your poor subjects, too."
The glad news had brought a happy light into Queen
Rosewhite's beautiful eyes, but now it faded out and a look of fear
crept in. It had hurt the queen's loving heart to have her husband so
cruel to his subjects. She often had told him that punishment would
surely come upon him because of his harsh deeds.
"When the little princess is born," went on the fairy's
voice, "I shall take her away from you for twenty years. No harm will
come to her. I shall hide her away from you and all the world within
seven beautiful cities which I shall construct in the loveliest part of
your whole kingdom. Around these seven cities I shall place strong
walls. At the end of twenty years, if your heart, King Graywhite, is
free from sin and you have made proper restitution for all your
wrongdoing, you shall receive the princess into your arms."
"Twenty years is a long time," said King Graywhite sadly.
Tears were running down Queen Rosewhite's cheeks and she could not
speak.
"You must wait until the twenty years are over," continued
the fairy. "If you attempt to enter the strong walls before that time
you shall fall dead and your kingdom shall be consumed by fire. Swear
to me now in the presence of your faithful queen that you will not try
to enter these strong walls which I shall construct about the seven
cities."
"I swear it," said the king in a voice which trembled as he solemnly lifted his right hand.
The vision disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and
King Graywhite and Queen Rosewhite sat alone in the bright starlight on
the terrace before the royal palace.
"Have I been dreaming?" asked the king.
"It was not a dream," replied the queen.
Time passed and a beautiful baby daughter was born to the
king and queen of Atlantis. They gave her the name of Princess
Bluegreen. There was great rejoicing throughout the entire kingdom.
Her birth was celebrated by lavish feasts and gay songs and dances.
When the little Princess Bluegreen was only three days old
she disappeared from the royal palace. She had been carried away by
the fairy to the seven cities which had been constructed to receive
her.
Years passed. Every day the king and queen received
reports from the fairy. They heard that the little Princess Bluegreen
was well, and that each hour she grew lovelier. Sometimes there was
almost joy in the palace when King Graywhite chuckled over the quaint
sayings of the little princess which were repeated to him, and the
queen heard with a tender smile of the tiny blue slippers and the green
parasol which the fairy had given her. That day Queen Rosewhite
bought new slippers for many little maids in the city.
As time went on, however, the royal palace of Atlantis
grew almost as sad as it had been before the Princess Bluegreen had
been born. Only to receive reports of their daughter was not enough to
make the king and queen happy. They longed to see her with their own
eyes and to clasp her in their arms.
As the weeks and months and years rolled by without seeing
the little princess, King Graywhite resumed his cruel treatment of his
subjects. He was growing old and his nature grew sour with the years.
Queen Rosewhite tried to reason with him.
"We must bear this thing with patience," she told him. "We brought it upon ourselves."
The king kept raging against the fairy and did not notice
Queen Rosewhite's politeness in saying "we" instead of "you." It was
the king who was responsible for all the cruelty. Good Queen Rosewhite
had never had a cruel thought in her whole blameless life.
At last the day of the eighteenth birthday of the Princess Bluegreen grew near.
"Are you sure that it is not eighteen years which the fairy said, instead of twenty years?" asked King Graywhite querulously.
Queen Rosewhite assured him that it was twenty years as he well knew. The king's anger broke out fiercely.
"I will no longer be kept from my daughter!" he cried.
"Would you break the vow which you solemnly made to the
fairy in my presence?" asked Queen Rosewhite trembling. She had never
dreamed that he would dare to break it. Now, however, she was
thoroughly frightened at the thought which came to her.
"I'll break that foolish vow!" shouted the king savagely.
Tears rolled down the cheeks of good Queen Rosewhite.
"No good will come of this," she mourned. "Be prudent, dear king. It is only two years more which we have to wait."
"The last two years will be the hardest ones of all!" raged King Graywhite. "I cannot endure it!"
That very day he started to prepare the army for the
expedition to the Seven Cities, amid the queen's lamentations and in
spite of her fears and warnings.
"Be wise and patient, dear king. Give up this wild
expedition," were her last words to him; when, at length, all the
preparations completed, he set out with his great army upon the
dangerous quest of the seven cities surrounded by their strong walls in
the loveliest part of the whole kingdom of Atlantis.
King Graywhite marched on and on. It was a long and
perilous journey and the army suffered many hardships on the way. It
seemed as if they would never arrive, but at last they drew near to
what everybody knew to be the most beautiful part of the whole kingdom,
where the fairy had taken the Princess Bluegreen to conceal her.
Storms raged; lightning flashed; ominous roarings and rumblings sounded from the depths of the earth.
"Let us hasten back to the royal palace before it is too late," besought the generals of King Graywhite's army.
"On! On!" cried the king. "Do you think I would abandon this expedition now?"
The words were hardly out of his mouth when a huge rock
fell from its place near where he stood and rushed away down the
mountainside. The earth trembled violently beneath their feet.
Fearful rumblings and roarings sounded all about them.
"On! ON!" shouted the maddened king.
Before them rose the great walls which the fairy had built
around the seven cities. Within these walls was the Princess
Bluegreen radiant with the beauty of her eighteen winters and summers
passed in peace and happiness under the watchful care of the kind
fairy. The thought of her thrilled the heart of King Graywhite.
"On! On!" he shouted to the generals about him.
"On! On!" they, in turn, passed the word along to the trembling soldiers which composed the royal army.
With the fearful sounds and shakings about them, the poor
men heartily wished they were safe at home. They rallied, however, for
a final charge and swept up to the walls which surrounded the seven
cities.
King Graywhite struck his royal sword against the great
wall. At that moment the walls fell. The earth beneath their feet
rose. Great flames swept up towards the sky and rushed over the land,
sweeping everything before them. Then the sea raged over the earth in
violence until it had covered the whole kingdom of Atlantis.
The fairy's curse had been fulfilled. The king was dead. His kingdom was consumed by fire.
When at last the waters grew calm again all that remained
of the great rich kingdom of Atlantis was the group of nine rocky
islands which to-day is called the Azores. In the largest of these
islands, St. Michael, there is still an enchanted spot called Seven
Cities. Great wall-like mountains tower toward the sky. In the crater
valley amid the wall-like mountains there is a lake of green and one
of blue. The blue lake is where the beautiful Princess Bluegreen left
her little blue slippers, they say, and the green lake is where she
left her lovely green parasol.
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