"Yes, yes, that's it," said the fairy.

"What's it?" asked the prince.

But he could get nothing more out of the fairy, and had to go
to bed unanswered, which was something of a trial.

Now wicked fairies will not be bound by the law which the good fairies
obey, and this always seems to give the bad the advantage over the good,
for they use means to gain their ends which the others will not.
But it is all of no consequence, for what they do never succeeds; nay,
in the end it brings about the very thing they are trying to prevent.
So you see that somehow, for all their cleverness, wicked fairies
are dreadfully stupid, for, although from the beginning of the world
they have really helped instead of thwarting the good fairies,
not one of them is a bit wiser for it. She will try the bad
thing just as they all did before her; and succeeds no better of course.

The prince had so far stolen a march upon the swamp-fairy that she
did not know he was in the neighbourhood until after he had seen
the princess those three times. When she knew it, she consoled
herself by thinking that the princess must be far too proud and too
modest for any young man to venture even to speak to her before he
had seen her six times at least. But there was even less danger
than the wicked fairy thought; for, however much the princess
might desire to be set free, she was dreadfully afraid of the
wrong prince. Now, however, the fairy was going to do all she could.

She so contrived it by her deceitful spells, that the next night
the prince could not by any endeavour find his way to the glade.