i84
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
before, having taken two rods with him. Nobody saw him, and he heard all that was said. The princess was to think of her glove, and this he repeated to Johannes, as if it had been a dream. So that he was able to guess correctly, which occasioned great joy amongst the inmates of the palace. The whole court cut capers as they had seen the king do the first time. But the princess lay on the sofa, and would not speak a word. All now depended on whether Johannes could guess right the third time. If he succeeded, he was to marry the beautiful princess, and reign over the land at the old king's death. But if he guessed wrong, he was to forfeit his life, and the magician would have his beautiful blue eyes.
On the preceding evening, Johannes went to bed early, said his prayers, and then fell into a quiet sleep. But his fellow-traveller tied his wings to his back, and put his sword at his side, and taking the three rods with him, flew towards the palace.
It was as dark as pitch, and there w«as such a storm that the tiles were flying off from the roofs of the houses, and the trees in the garden, where hung the skeletons, bent like so many reeds beneath the wind. It lightened every moment, and the thunder rolled along as though it was a
single clap that lasted through the whole night. The window now opened, and the princess flew out. She was as pale as death, but she laughed at the bad weather, and thought it was scarcely bad enough. And her white mantle fluttered in the wind like a large sail, while the fellow-traveller thrashed her with the three rods till her blood flowed, and she could scarcely fly any farther. She managed, however, to reach the mountain.
" This is a violent hail-storm," said
THE PRINCESS SHRIEKtU Al.OUI) WHEN HE DIPPED HER INTO THE WATER,
she ; " I was never out in such weather
before."
" There may be too much of a good thing," observed the magician. She now told him that Johannes had guessed aright the second time, and should he succeed again on the following morning, he would then have won, and she would never again be able to come to the moun- tain, or to practise magic arts as she had hitherto done ; there- fore was she quite out of spirits, will find out something that he But now let's be merry ! " And
wearing
1
" He shall not be able to guess it," said th^ magician, " for will never hit upon, unless he is a greater conjurer than myself
then he took both the princess's hands, and they danced about with all the little goblin will-o'-the-wisp lights, that were in the room. The red spiders jumped just as merrily up and down the walls ; it looked as if the fiery flowers were emitting sparks. The owl beat the drum, the crickets whistled, and the black grasshoppers played on the jew's-harp. It was a frolicsome ball.
When they had danced enough the princess was obliged to go home, for fear of being missed in the palace. The magician said he would accompany her, that they might be together a little longer.
They then flew away through the bad weather, while the fellow-traveller broke his three rods across their shoulders. The magician had never been out in such a hail-storm before. Just on reaching the palace, and on bidding the princess farewell, he whispered, " Think of my head." But the fellow-traveller heard him, and just as the princess slipped in at her bedroom window, and the magician was about to turn round, he seized him by the long black beard, and cut off his ugly head at a single stroke from his sword, so that the magician had not even time to see him. He then threw the body into the sea, to serve as food for the fishes ; but he merely dipped the head in the waters, and then tied it up in his silk handkerchief, and took it to the inn, and went to bed.
Next morning he gave the bundle to Johannes, bidding him not open it till the princess should ask him what she was thinking of
