The Queen in her Coach

Painting eight out of fourteen in The Trial of Queen Vergeblich, The Stepmother of Snow White series.

The Queen liked to be driven out into her domain so she could find out what was happening. She preferred to wear disguises so no one would recognize her. More than anything, she liked to hear what people thought about her and how she looked and dressed.

One day she called me in to ask me to take her to the seven dwarfs’ house. I told her that that would be impossible as the road was in such bad repair. Instead of considering what roads most needed to be repaired, she set about to get the mountain road to the house of the seven dwarfs repaired. It took two years to complete this task.

Finally, she called me in to make the trip to the seven dwarfs. She was dressed as an old hag when she got into the carriage. She also had a basket of apples with her. I thought she wanted to take a gift to that house. Everyone knew Snow White was there, and I hoped this was a conciliatory move. I stopped the carriage in the forest and watched while the Queen took the apples to the house of the seven dwarfs. She came back in a hurry and told me to return to the castle as fast as possible. I knew something terrible had happened.