"Why, my prince!" she exclaimed, "I hear a very active chase!"
She at once changed the ponies into a dark and dreary forest, herself she changed into a well, and the prince into an old peasant. Hardly had she done this when up rode some hunters.
"Hey, old man!" they cried; "have you seen a handsome youth and a beautiful damsel ride this way?"
"I did, my good brothers!" answered the prince; "but that was an age ago. They rode past when I was quite a young fellow, and before this forest grew to be what it now is!"
When the hunters heard this, they thought it useless to go any farther, so they returned to the King of the Sea, saying,—
"We could not find the young people, Your Majesty. The only person we met was an old peasant standing beside a well, in a dark forest."
"Why did you not bring him with you?" cried the king. He had the hunters killed at once, and sent off others in search of the fugitives.
As soon as Melania the Clever heard the pursuit, she changed herself into an old church, and the prince into an old priest. The hunters came up.
"Hey, old father!" they cried; "have you seen a handsome youth come this way, with a beautiful maiden?"
"Yes, my brothers; but that was a long, long time ago, when I was a young man, and when I began building this church, which is now so old that it won't be able to stand much longer; it is all rotten and cracked."
