He was saved from resorting to this extreme measure when, two days later, they brought him the much desired robe. The blue heavens, patterned with gold-tinted clouds, are not more beautiful than this lovely dress when it was unfolded. The princess was very sad because of this, and didn’t know what to do.

Once again she went to her fairy godmother, who was astonished that her plan had failed. She now told the princess to ask for a gown the colour of the moon.

Again, the king expressly commanded his most skilled workers to make a dress the colour of the moon, and woe betide them if they took more than 24 hours to produce it.

The princess, although she seemed pleased with the dress when it was delivered, became very distressed in private when she was with her women and her nurse. The Lilac Fairy, who knew everything, was quick to comfort her.

“If I am not greatly deceived,” she said, “it is certain that if you ask for a dress the colour of the sun, we shall at last baffle the king your father, because it would never be possible to make such a gown, and in any case we would gain some time.”

So the princess asked for yet another gown, as recommended by her godmother. The infatuated king could refuse his daughter nothing, and he gladly used all the diamonds and rubies in his crown to pay for this superb garment. Nothing would be spared in the making of a dress that was as beautiful as the sun. When the dress appeared, all those who were unfolding it were so dazzled that they had to close their eyes. And it is a fact that sunglasses date from that time.

What on earth could the princess do? Nobody had ever seen such a beautiful and artistic robe. She was dumbfounded and, pretending that the brilliance of the dress had hurt her eyes, she retired to her chamber, where she found the fairy waiting for her.

When she saw the dress that was like the sun, the Lilac Fairy grew crimson with rage.

“Oh!” she said, “This time, my child, we will set a terrible test for the king. Even though he is mad, I think he will be quite astonished by the request that I think you should make. It is that he should give you the skin of that donkey he loves so much, and which supplies him with all his wealth. Go, and tell him that you want this skin.”

The princess, overjoyed at finding yet another means of escape (for she believed that her father could never bring himself to sacrifice the donkey), went to find him, and told him her latest desire.

Although the king was astonished, he did not hesitate. The poor donkey was killed and the skin was brought ceremoniously to the princess, who became desperate when she realised there was no way of avoiding her fate.

At that moment her godmother arrived.

“What are you doing, child?” she asked, finding the princess tearing out her hair, her beautiful face stained with tears. “This is the happiest moment of your life. Wrap yourself in this skin, leave the palace and go as far away as possible. When you sacrifice everything to virtue, the gods know how to reward you. Go, and I will make sure that your possessions follow you. Wherever you go, the chest containing your clothes and jewels will follow you, and here is my wand, which I will give you. Tap the ground with it when you need the chest, and it will appear before your eyes. But hurry, do not delay.”

The princess embraced her godmother many times and begged her not to abandon her. Then, after she had smeared herself with soot from the chimney, she wrapped herself up in the donkey skin and left the magnificent palace without being recognised by a single person.

There was a great commotion when it was realised that the princess was missing. The king, who had had a great banquet prepared, was inconsolable. He sent out more than a hundred guards, and more than a thousand musketeers to find her, but the Lilac Fairy made her invisible to all of them, so that no one could find her.

Meanwhile, the princess had walked far, far away, as far away as she possibly could. After a while she looked for a place to stay, but although people gave her food out of charity, she was so dishevelled and dirty that no one wanted to give her a place to stay. After a while she came to a beautiful town, at the gate of which there was a small farm. The farmer’s wife needed a girl to wash the dishes and look after the geese and the pigs, and seeing how dirty the princess was she offered to take her on. By now the princess was very tired, and she accepted this offer joyfully. She was put into a corner of the kitchen where, for a few days, because the donkey skin made her look so dirty and unpleasant, she was subjected to the coarse jokes of the menservants. After a while they got tired of their joking, and, in any case, she did her work so well that the farmer’s wife took her under her protection. She looked after the sheep, penning them up when necessary, and she showed such intelligence when she took the geese out to find food that it seemed as if she had never done anything else.