The Palace of the Doomed Queen

In bygone days there lived an old widow who earned her bread by spinning. She had three daughters who also were spinners. Although they toiled day and night at their spinning wheels, the three spinners could never lay up a cent, as they earned barely enough for their daily needs. One day the old woman got sick and ran a high fever, and three days later she was near death. Calling her tearful daughters around her, she said, "Don't weep. Nobody lives forever. I've lived a long life, and now it's my turn to die. What really breaks my heart is to leave you so poor. But since you know how to earn your living, you will manage somehow, and I'll beg heaven to help you. All I have to leave you as a dowry are the three balls of spun hemp there in the cabinet." After those words, she drew her last breath and died.

A few days later the sisters got to talking. "This Sunday," they said, will be Easter Sunday, and here we are with nothing for a decent Easter-dinner."

Mary, the oldest sister, suggested: "I'll sell my ball of thread and we'll buy the dinner." So, on Easter morning, she took her thread to market. It was excellent thread and brought a goodly sum, with which Mary bought bread, a leg of lamb, and a bottle of wine. She was on her way home with them when a dog rushed up behind her, seized the leg of lamb and the bread, broke the bottle, and fled, nearly scaring the poor girl to death. When she got home, she told her sisters what had happened, and that day they had to be content with a few crusts of brown bread.

"I will go to market tomorrow," announced Rose, the middle girl, "and we'll just see if the dog dares to give me any trouble."

She went, sold her ball of thread, bought giblets, bread, and wine, then headed for home by a different road. Lo and behold, the dog ran after her too, grabbed the giblets and bread, broke the bottle, and fled. Rose, bolder than Mary by far, ran after him, but he was too fast for her and she went home all out of breath and told her sisters what had happened. So, for the second day in a row, they feasted on brown bread.

"Tomorrow it's my turn to go to market," announced Nina, the youngest, "'and we'll just see if the dog pulls the same thing on me."

Next morning she left the house much earlier than her sisters had on the preceding days, took her ball of thread to market, sold it, and bought provisions aplenty. As she walked home by another road, up rushed the dog, broke the bottle, and made off with everything else. Nina struck out after him and chased him all the way to a palace, into which he disappeared. She said to herself, "If I meet anyone inside, I'll tell them about the dog running away with our dinner for the last three days, and I'll make them pay me for all the food we've lost." Then she entered the palace.

She came to a fine kitchen with the fire burning brightly and things cooking over it in pots and pans; roasting on a spit was a leg of lamb. Lifting the lid of a pot, Nina saw meat stewing which she'd bought only a little while ago, and there in another pan were the giblets! She opened a cupboard and beheld there three loaves of bread. She moved on through the house without meeting a living soul, but the table in the dining room was set for three persons. They seem to have cooked dinner just for us, thought Nina, and with our own food! If my sisters were here, I'd sit down to the table right away!

At that moment she heard a cart going down the street. Looking out the window, she recognized its driver and asked him to tell her sisters she was waiting for them there, where a fine dinner was all ready to be served.

When the sisters arrived, Nina told them what had happened and said, "Let's sit down to the table. If the occupants of the house come in, we'll simply say we're only eating our own food."

The sisters were not so bold, but being quite hungry by this time, they finally took their places at the table. It had grown dark, and the three girls suddenly saw the windows close and the lamps light up. They were still marveling over it, when in came dinner and arranged itself before them. "We thank whoever's serving us and sparing us the trouble of getting dinner ourselves," said Nina. "And now, sisters, let's begin," she urged, and bit into the lamb.

Paralyzed with fear, the sisters could scarcely eat and spent the whole time glancing about them, expecting any minute to see some monster rush in. But Nina said, "If they didn't want us here for dinner, they shouldn't have cooked for us, lit the lamps, and served us at the table."

After dinner they were soon sleepy, so Nina led them through the house until they came to a bedchamber with three nice beds all turned down. "Let's go to bed now," she proposed.

"No," said the sisters, "let's go home. It's so frightening here."

"You ninnies!" snapped Nina. "We're comfortable here, and you want to leave! I'm going to bed, come what may!"

She'd no sooner persuaded them to remain there than a voice was heard at the bottom of the stairwell:

"Nina, come light my way."

The sisters were terrified. "Merciful heavens! Who can it be? Don't go, Nina!"

"I will go," said Nina, who picked up the lamp and went down the steps. She found herself in a room where a queen was chained and darting flames from her mouth, ears, and nose.

"Listen, Nina," said the queen, speaking amid the flames, "would you like a fortune?"

"Yes."

"You'll need the help of your sisters as well."

"I'll tell them."

"There'll be awful things to do, mind you, and if you get scared, you'll die."

"I'll persuade them to do what must be done."

"Very well. Open those three chests there. They're full of queens' robes, gilded and bejeweled. I was the queen of Spain, mind you. I fell in love with a young man of this town and because of him I am in Hell today. Now after all the wrong he's done me, he intends to marry another woman, but I want to see him suffer in Hell with me, which is only fair. Tomorrow, put on my robe, arrange your hair exactly like mine, and lean on the balustrade with a book in your hand. At a certain time the young man will come by and say, "Madam, may I call on you?" Say yes, invite him in to coffee, and give him this poisoned cup. When he drops dead, bring him down here, open this chest, throw him in, and light four candles around him. I was very rich. Here is a list of my assets which you can reclaim from my stewards, who're stealing everything I own."

Nina went back upstairs and related everything to her sisters. "Swear you'll help me, or heaven help you!" The next morning she dressed up to look exactly like the dead queen and went to the balustrade with a book. Hoofbeats were soon heard, and a young man rode up and stopped to look at her. Nina nodded in greeting.

"May I call on you, madam?"

"Please do."

The young man dismounted and climbed the steps to the palace.

"Let us have a cup of coffee together."

"With pleasure." He drank from the poisoned cup and dropped dead.

Nina called her sisters to help carry the body downstairs, but they refused and she said, "If you don't help me I'll kill you also!" She grabbed him by the head while the sisters caught hold of his feet, and they went downstairs to the closed chest surrounded by four candles. The sisters shuddered and wanted to drop the body and flee. "You just try to get away," said Nina, "and I'll show you a thing or two!" The sisters knew better than to defy her and remained right there.

Nina opened the chest: in it sat the queen on a throne of flames. They put in her beloved beside her, and she took him by the hand and said, "Come with me to Hell, you wicked soul. That way you won't leave me again."

With a great din the trunk slammed and sank out of sight.

Nina revived her sisters, who had fainted, and led them back upstairs to recover from the shock. Then they retrieved all the wealth in the hands of the stewards and became the richest girls in the world. A few years later the sisters got married, and Nina gave them each a dowry fit for a princess. Finally she, too, got married and ever after lived like a queen.