The Rope and The Ladder

    Once Upon A Time there was a fair maiden who lived locked away at the top a very tall tower. She was in love with a handsome Prince, as most women locked atop tall towers are, and every day the Prince would ride to her window and call up to her,

    “O Fairest Maiden, come to your window! It is I, your Prince, bearing gifts for you!”.  At the sound of his call the fair maiden would rush to her window and look down upon his handsome face,

    “O my Prince, how long the hours seem between our visits!” she would call back. They spent every afternoon conversing about their plans to escape and at the end of every visit the Prince would hold up a long strand of twine and a great black raven would fly from the forest and snatch the string from his hand, then fly it up to the fair maiden at the top of her tower. With each length of twine the handsome Prince brought her, the fair maiden would weave another loop of rope, which, when it was long enough, she could climb down.

 

    On the afternoon of the ropes completion the Prince arrived at dusk at the base of the tower.

    “O Fairest Maiden, come to your window! It is I, your Prince, finally come to take you away!” cried the Prince, his heart bursting with joy at the very thought. The fair maiden rushed to her window and stared down at her Prince.

    “I am going to lower the rope now and climb down to you, my love!” she sighed. Then the maiden tied one end of the rope to her bedpost and dropped the heavy coils out the window. As she gazed toward the ground she suddenly became very uneasy,

    “My Prince!” she called, “It is a very long way down! What if I slip and fall?” she asked.

    “I will catch you!” he sang back to her. Still, the fair maiden was becoming increasingly unsure of her plans. She sat on the window ledge and let her feet hang in the air.

    “Where will we go?” she asked nervously.

    “What?” asked the Prince, growing more puzzled by her hesitance.

    “Where will we go?! Where will we live!?” she cried, the panic rising in her voice.       

    “We will go anywhere!” said the Prince, “We will live anywhere! We will be together and all will be right in the world!”

    “But what if that is not enough!?” shrieked the maiden, who suddenly lost her balance and tumbled off her perch. As she fell she grabbed frantically at the rope, her palms slippery with sweat, and cried out,

    “I’ll never make it! I cannot do this! What am I to do now?!”.The maiden was certain that all hope was lost.

    The Prince stood, horrified, at the base of the tower starring up at his love who now dangled perilously between the window and the ground,

    “My love-” he sighed with tears in his eyes, “it seems you only have two choices now. You can hang yourself with that rope, or use it as a ladder. Please climb down to me. Have faith that I will catch you if you fall.”. His words floated up to the ear of the frightened maiden and calmed her heart instantly. She took a deep breath and lowered herself  into the arms of her waiting Prince. When she was safe again she said,

    “I had never planned to fall..” and the handsome Prince replied,

    “i had always planned to catch you.”, and then he kissed her sweetly, placed her on his mighty steed, and they rode off into the unknown horizon, together.