and put all the people to death. But I managed to escape, and hid myself here with my daughter.’
And the daughter listened, and said softly to her mother: ‘Are you speaking the truth now?’
‘Remember your promise,’ answered the mother angrily, giving her a pinch which was unseen by the minister.
‘What is your name, madam?’ asked he, much touched by this sad story.
‘Blauvor,’ she replied ‘and my daughter is called Laufer’; and then she inquired the name of the minister, and of the king his master. After this they talked of many things, and the lady showed herself learned in all that a woman should know, and even in much that men only were commonly taught. ‘What a wife she would make for the king,’ thought the minister to himself, and before long he had begged the honour of her hand for his master. She declared at first that she was too unworthy to accept the position offered her, and that the minister would soon repent his choice; but this only made him the more eager, and in the end he gained her consent, and prevailed on her to return with him at once to his own country.
The minister then conducted the mother and daughter back to the ship; the anchor was raised, the sails spread, and a fair wind was behind them.
Now that the fog had lifted they could see as they looked back that, except just along the shore, the island was bare and deserted and not fit for men to live in; but about that nobody cared. They had a quick voyage, and in six days they reached the land, and at once set out for the capital, a messenger being sent on first by the minister to inform the king of what had happened.
When his Majesty’s eyes fell on the two beautiful women, clad in dresses of gold and silver, he forgot his sorrows and ordered preparations for the wedding to be made without delay. In his joy he never remembered to
