"
Soussio employed persuasions, threats, promises, entreaties. Troutina
wept, groaned, shrieked, and then tried quiet sulkiness; but the king
uttered not a word. For twenty days and twenty nights he stood there,
without sleeping, or eating, or once sitting down--they talking all
the while.
At length, Soussio, quite worn out, said, "Choose seven years of
penitence and punishment, or marry my goddaughter."
"I choose," answered the king; "and I will not marry your
goddaughter."
"Then fly out of this window, in the shape of a Blue Bird."
Immediately the king's figure changed. His arms formed themselves into
wings; his legs and feet turned black and thin, and claws grew upon
them; his body wasted into the slender shape of a bird, and was
covered with bright blue feathers; his eyes became round and beady;
his nose an ivory beak; and his crown was a white plume on the top of
his head. He began to speak in a singing voice, and then uttering a
doleful cry, fled away as far as possible from the fatal palace of
Soussio.
But, though he looked only a blue bird, the king was his own natural
self still, and remembered all his misfortunes, and did not cease to
lament for his beautiful Florina. Flying from tree to tree, he sang
melancholy songs about her and himself, and wished he were dead many a
time.
The fairy Soussio sent back Troutina to her mother, who was furious.
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