""Has some new misfortune threatened you?" she asked.
""No," replied the Prince, "but I have to-day scarcely been able to endure my anxiety to learn your decision. Never in all these terrible years has my suffering been greater, never have I so loathed the hideous disguise in which I am compelled to live."
"Tears filled the Princess"s eyes. Had anything been wanting to decide her, the deep pity which she now felt for the unfortunate Prince would have done so.
""I _have_ decided!" she exclaimed. "Three years will soon pa.s.s, and I shall be well able to amuse myself with all the charming things with which I am surrounded. Besides, I shall see you every day, and the looking forward to that will help to cheer me."
"It would be impossible to tell the Prince"s delight. He became at once as gay and lively as the day before. The Princess and he had supper together, and amused themselves afterwards with the enchanted b.a.l.l.s, and the evening pa.s.sed so quickly that the princess could hardly believe more than one hour instead of three had gone, when he started up, saying his time was over. It was sad to see him go, forced, through no fault of his own, to return to his hated disguise; but still it was with a lightened heart that the poor brown bull went tramping about during the next one-and-twenty hours.
"And on her side the Princess"s lonely hours were cheered by the thought that she was to be the means of freeing him from the power of the terrible spell, for all that she saw of him only served to increase her sympathy and respect.
"So time went on. The Princess got more and more accustomed to her strange life, and every day more attached to the Prince, who on his side could not do enough to prove to her his grat.i.tude. For many weeks he never failed to enter her presence the instant the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the three hours they spent together made amends to both for the loneliness of the rest of the day. And whenever the Princess felt inclined to murmur, she renewed her patience and courage by the thought of how much harder to bear was the Prince"s share of the trial.
She was allowed to remain in peaceful security, and to employ her time in pleasant and interesting ways; while he was forced to rove the world as a hateful monster, shunned by any of the human race whom he happened to meet, constantly exposed to fatigue and privation.
"Sometimes they spent a part of the evening in the beautiful gardens surrounding the palace. There, one day, as sunset was approaching, the Princess had betaken herself to wait the Prince"s arrival, when a sad shock met her. It was past the usual hour of his coming. Several times she had wandered up and down the path by which he generally approached the castle, tossing her b.a.l.l.s as she went, for more than once he had seen their glitter from a distance, and known by it that she was waiting. But this evening she waited and watched in vain, and at last, a strange anxiety seizing her, she turned towards the castle to see if possibly he had entered from the other side, and was hurrying back when a low moan reached her ears, causing her heart for an instant almost to leave off beating with terror.
CHAPTER X.
THE END OF THE BROWN BULL.
""And happy they ever lived after"-- Yes, that was the end of the tale."
"The Princess collected her courage, and turned in the direction of the sound. It seemed to come from a little thicket of close-growing bushes near which she had been pa.s.sing. For a minute or two she could distinguish nothing, but another moan guided her in the right direction, and there, to her horror and distress, she saw the poor Prince lying on the ground, pale and death-like. At first she thought he was without consciousness, but when she hastened up to him with a cry, he opened his eyes.
""Ah!" he said, faintly; "I never thought I should have escaped alive.
How good of you to have come to seek for me, Princess; otherwise I might have died here without seeing you again."
""But you must not die," said the Princess, weeping; "can nothing be done for you?"
"He tried to sit up, and when the Princess had fetched him some water from one of the numerous springs in the garden, he seemed better. But his right arm was badly injured.
""How did it happen?" asked the Princess. "I thought no mortal weapon had power to hurt you. That has been my only consolation through these lonely days of waiting."
""You are right," replied the Prince; "as a bull nothing can injure me, but in my own form I am in no way magically preserved. All day long I have been chased by hunters, who saw in me, I suppose, a valuable prize.
I was terrified of the hour of sunset arriving and finding me far from home. I used my utmost endeavour to reach this in time, but, alas! I was overcome with fatigue, from which no spell protects me. At the entrance to these gardens I saw the sun disappear, and I fell exhausted, just as an arrow struck my right arm at the moment of my transformation. All I could do was to crawl in among these bushes, and here I have lain, thankful to escape from my persecutors, and most thankful to the happy thought, Princess, which brought you this way."
"The Princess, her eyes still full of tears, helped him to the palace, where she bound up his arm and tended him carefully, for, young as she was, she had learnt many useful acts of this kind in her father"s castle. The wound was not a very serious one; the Prince was suffering more from exhaustion and fatigue.
""If I could spend a day or two here in peace," he said sadly, "I should quickly recover. But, alas! that is impossible. I must submit to my cruel fate. But this night I must confine my wanderings to the forests in this neighbourhood, where, perhaps, I may be able to hide from the huntsmen, who, no doubt, will be watching for me."
"He sighed heavily, and the Princess"s heart grew very sad.
""I have little more than an hour left," he said.
""Yes," said the Princess, "sleep if you can; I will not disturb you."
"And when she saw that he had fallen asleep she went into the other room, where in a corner lay the bull"s skin, which the Prince had dragged behind him from the spot where it had fallen off as the sun sank.
"The Princess looked at it with a fierce expression, very different to the usual gentle look in her pretty eyes.
""Hateful thing!" she said, giving it a kick with her little foot; "I wonder how I could get rid of you. Even if the Prince did risk never seeing me again, I am not sure but that it would be better for him than to lead this dreadful life."
"And as her fancy pictured her poor Prince forced in this monstrous disguise to wander about all night tired and shelterless, her indignation rose beyond her control. She forgot where she was, she forgot the magic power that surrounded her, she forgot everything except her distress and anxiety.
""Hateful thing!" she repeated, giving the skin another kick; "I wish you were burnt to cinders."
"Hardly had she said the words when a sudden noise like a clap of thunder shook the air; a flash of lightning seemed to glance past her and alight on the skin, which in an instant shrivelled up to a cinder like a burnt glove. Too startled at first to know whether she should rejoice or not, the Princess gazed at her work in bewilderment, when a voice of anguish, but, alas! a well-known voice, made her turn round. It was the Prince, hastening from the palace with an expression half of anger half of sorrowful reproach on his face.
""O Princess, Princess," he cried, "what have you done? But a little more patience and all might have been well. And now I know not if I shall ever see you again."
""O Prince, forgive me, I did not mean it," sobbed the poor Princess. "I _will_ see you again, and all shall yet be well."
""Seek for me across the hill of ice and the sea of gla.s.s," said the Prince; but almost before the words had pa.s.sed his lips a second thunderclap, louder and more terrific than the first, was heard. The Princess sank half fainting on the ground. When she again opened her eyes, Prince, palace, everything had disappeared. She was alone, quite alone, on a barren moorland, night coming on, and a cold cutting wind freezing the blood in her veins. And she was clothed in the plain black dress with which she had made her strange journey riding on the brown bull.
"It must be a dream, she thought, a terrible dream, and she shut her eyes again. But no, it was no dream, and soon her courage revived, and she began to ask herself what she should do.
""Seek me beyond the hill of ice and the sea of gla.s.s," the Prince had said; and she rose up to begin her weary journey. As she rose her hand came in contact with something hard in the folds of her dress; it was her golden b.a.l.l.s. With the greatest delight she took them out of her pocket and looked at them. They were as bright and beautiful as ever, and the fairy"s prophecy returned to the Princess"s mind.
""With my b.a.l.l.s and my ready wit I shall yet conquer the evil powers that are against my poor Prince," she said to herself cheerfully.
"Courage! all will be well."
"But there were sore trials to go through in the first place. The Princess set off on her journey. She had to walk many weary miles across the moor, the cold wind blowing in her face, the rough ground p.r.i.c.king her tender feet. But she walked on and on till at last the morning broke and she saw a road before her, bordered on one side by a forest of trees, for she had reached the extreme edge of the moor. She had gone but a little way when she came to a small and miserable hovel, from which issued feeble sounds of distress. The Princess went up to the door and looked in--a very old woman sat huddled up in a corner weeping and lamenting herself.
""What is the matter, my friend?" asked the Princess.
""Matter enough," replied the old woman. "I cannot light my fire, and I am bitterly cold. Either the sticks are wet, or the strength has gone out of my poor old arms."
""Let me help you," said the Princess. "My arms are strong enough."
"She took the sticks and arranged them cleverly in the fireplace, and just as she was choosing two of the driest to rub together to get a light, one of her b.a.l.l.s dropped out of her pocket. It fell on to the piled-up wood, and immediately a bright flame danced up the chimney. The Princess picked up her ball and put it back in her pocket, cheered and encouraged by this proof of their magic power. The old woman came near to the fire, and stretched out her withered hands to the blaze.
""What can I do for you, my pretty lady," she said, "in return for your good nature?"
""Give me a cup of milk to refresh me for my journey," said the Princess. "And perhaps, too, you can tell me something about my journey.
Are the hill of ice and the sea of gla.s.s anywhere in this neighbourhood?"
"The old woman smiled and nodded her head two or three times.
""Seven days must you travel," she said, "before you see them. At the foot of the hill of ice lies the sea of gla.s.s. No mortal foot unaided has ever crossed the one or ascended the other. Here, take these shoes--with them you can safely walk over the sea of gla.s.s, and with this staff you can mount the hill of ice," and as she spoke she handed to the Princess a pair of curiously carved wooden shoes and a short sharp-pointed stick. The Princess took them gratefully, and would have thanked the old woman, whom she now knew to be a fairy, but she stopped her. ""Think not," she said, "that your difficulties will be over when you have reached the summit of the hill of ice. But all I can do for you more is to give you this nut, which you must open in your moment of sorest perplexity."
"And as the Princess held out her hand for the nut the old woman had disappeared.
"But refreshed and encouraged the Princess left the cottage, carrying with her her three gifts, and prepared to face all the perils of her journey with an undaunted heart.