It happened that on her fifteenth birthday the King and Queen went out together, and the Princess was left all alone in the palace and began to feel very dull, so she thought she would go through all the rooms in the palace and look for adventures.
After a while she came to a little turret-stair which she never remembered having seen before, and when she climbed to the top she came to a curious little door. The Princess knocked and an old cracked voice cried out ‘Come in.’
And when Briar-Rose opened the door she saw a little old woman sitting there with a spinning-wheel.
‘Oh, what a funny thing that is!’ said Briar-Rose, looking at the spinning-wheel, for she had never seen such a thing before. ‘How I should love to make it go whirling round and round!’
And she put out her hand to touch it, but the spindle pricked her finger and a tiny drop of blood sprang out. Before she had even time to cry out, part of the fairy’s evil prophecy came true, for she sank down on the stone bench and fell fast asleep.
