In the distant lands washed by the warm Mediterranean, the myrtle tree once flourished and was considered to be sacred to Venus, the goddess of love. It is written that an Italian prince so delighted in the myrtle tree with its polished leaves and piquant bouquet that he gave the royal decree that one be planted in a pot and placed on the balcony outside of his bedroom window. The very night the order was carried out...and for the following six nights, the prince heard the patter of feet upon the floor and felt the presence and soft caress of a unseen creature who showered him with tender affection.

The prince was determined to discover the identity of the one who came to him in the shadows of night but who was always disappeared before dawn crept across the horizon, so he devised a plan. The following morning, as he felt the presence begin to slip away and while the room was still blanketed in darkness, he reached out and twisted a lock of silky hair around his wrist. Hurriedly, the prince called out for his chamberlain to bring a light and, by the glow of the candle, the prince saw the slender myrtle fairy whom he had captured. She had golden hair and a delicate blush colored her soft cheek. The myrtle fairy had loved the prince from the moment she had seen him and the love she bore him had turned her leaves and boughs into flesh and blood.

The prince was utterly enchanted with the pretty creature and they spent many days alone, sequestered in his bedchamber. Day by day, the prince fell deeper and deeper in love with the myrtle fairy until, at last, he declared that he would not rest until he had made her his princess.

The duties of a royal personage, however, are many. It came to be that the prince had to leave his myrtle fairy for a while due to matters of state and he thought it best that he protect his beloved during his absence. Also living in the palace were a number of the prince's former sweethearts, for before he had met his myrtle fairy, he had led a somewhat carefree existence and had dallied with more than one fair maiden in his time. He was worried that these former loves might have become spiteful and malicious now that he no longer paid them a visit every now and again.

So, the prince asked the myrtle fairy to return to her tree and remain within it while he was gone. She agreed to this readily for she was, by nature, sweet and obedient, but she did ask that he tie a golden bell to one of her branches so that when he returned he would be able to release her. With just a slight pull on the silk ribbon that fastened the bell to the tree, the tinkling would summon her and she would soon be in his arms.

With a small sigh, the fairy slipped into her tree. One moment, she was there, standing before the prince...and the next, she was gone, leaving behind only a slight fluttering of the glossy leaves. He tied the golden bell to a branch and then left, giving his chamberlain strict instructions to attend to the tree until his return.

The days passed while the prince went about his royal duties and the bedchamber was silent and empty. A warm breeze rustled the leaves of the myrtle tree in the evening and the chamberlain watered it every afternoon, but otherwise, the fairy was left alone...until one morning when the door swung open and seven whispering women crept into the prince's room.

They were the prince's former sweethearts and had come in search of the one who had stolen their prince away from them. They ransacked the room, but could find nothing, and so, they gathered on the balcony to discuss the matter. As they talked, they idly stripped the leaves of the myrtle tree and, in so doing, one of them tugged the ribbon that rang the golden bell. There was a trembling in the branches and the myrtle fairy stepped down onto the balcony with an endearing and welcoming smile.

Like vipers, the women sprang upon her instantly. They stabbed at her with small pearl-handled daggers that they carried on sashes about their waists. The myrtle fairy fell to the marbled floor, her blood ebbing from her body, and before many moments had passed, there was nothing left but some slivers of bone, ripped green leaves, and shards of bark. Only the youngest of the seven women refrained from attacking the myrtle fairy and took but a fallen lock of the golden hair. Slipping quietly out of the chamber, the women each returned to her own room...confident that nobody in the palace had seen them either enter or leave.

That afternoon, when the chamberlain came to water the tree, he was horrified by the scene which assaulted his eyes. Trembling, he knelt down and gathered together the remnants of bone, leaves and bark and tucked them into the pot which still stood on the balcony. He then fled from the room and waited with much trepidation for the return of the prince, fearing that he would be held responsible for what had happened.

Two days later, the prince came home, eager to greet his beloved sweetheart. He rushed with all speed to his balcony and looked with great dismay and alarm at the myrtle tree's pot, which now contained nothing more than a few fragments of white bone, brown leaves and snapped twigs. He called to his fairy, but there was no answer. Heart- broken, the prince fell to knees and wept uncontrollably.

For many weeks, the prince would see no one and remained in his bedchamber...mourning for his lost love. But, as he grieved, a curious thing was happening outside. The torn scraps of leaves and bark were being washed by the soft rains and then warmed by the life-giving sun. Gradually, as the days past, the plant began to grow. First, only pale green shoots appeared...then fragile branches...then more sturdy boughs...until, one morning, the myrtle tree once again sprang into full-blown flower and from it stepped the prince's beloved fairy. When she told him what had happened, the prince decided that he would marry his dear one at once and then fell to wondering how to avenge the harm that had been done to her until he came up with a cunning plan.

The prince and his fairy were married in the palace and there was a grand celebration with a magnificent banquet, to which the entire court was invited. After the feasting was over and everyone had eaten their fill, the prince posed a question to the company. "What should the punishment be," he asked, "of the man or woman who would injure my princess?" One courtier suggested hanging on the gallows and another proposed being burned alive.

When it came to the turn of the prince's former loves to answer, they were of one mind. Such a person, they declared, should be thrown into a dungeon and left there to languish until death claimed them.

"Then it shall be as you have decreed," announced the prince, and he ordered that the women be imprisoned in the deepest and darkest dungeon to be found in the bowels of the palace. "Not all of them, dearest, I beseech you," whispered the myrtle fairy into his ear, indicating one of ladies, who was crying pitifully. "Only for your sake on this day, my beloved," said the prince with a small smile...and spared the youngest, who had taken no more than a small lock of the myrtle fairy's golden hair.