Now it happened that on the very day when the Princess had been asleep for a hundred years, there chanced to come to that country a Prince who was braver and handsomer than any of the Princes who had come before. He had never known what it meant to be beaten or to give in, and when he heard the story of the Princess Briar-Rose he made up his mind to find her.
But when he got to the great hedge, he found it covered with pale pink roses, and the branches parted in front of him to make a passage, and all the thorns looked the other way. On he walked through the cool, green path, while the roses nodded and smiled on him all the way. And when he came to the other side he saw a stately palace, just as the old people had described it. Not a sound broke the solemn stillness, not a leaf whispered in the breeze.
Then, when he entered the great hall, he saw the King and Queen fast asleep on their royal chairs, and everything and everybody were exactly the same as when they had fallen asleep a hundred years ago.
