The Olive Fairy Book Part 31

'What do you want, little dog?' asked the prince, stooping down to pat his soft black head.

The dog ran to a hole that was in the hill and sat there looking out, as much as to say: 'Come along in with me.'

'I may as well go and see what is in there,' thought the prince, and he went over to the hill. But the hole was so small that he could not get through it, so he thrust his sword into it, and immediately it became larger.

'Ha, ha!' he chuckled; 'it's worth something to have a sword like that.' And he bent down and crept through the hole.

The first thing he beheld, when he entered a room at the very end of a dark pa.s.sage, was a beautiful princess, who was bound by an iron chain to an iron pillar.

'What evil fate brought you here?' he asked in surprise: and the lady answered:

'It isn't much use for me to tell you lest my lot becomes yours.'

'I am not afraid of that. Tell me who you are and what has brought you here,' begged the prince.

'My story is not long,' she said, smiling sadly. 'I am a princess from Arabia, and twelve robbers who dwell in this place are fighting among themselves as to which shall have me to wife.'

'Shall I save you?' asked the prince. And she answered:

'Yes; but you can't do it. To begin with, how could you break the chain I am bound with?'

'Oh, that's easy enough,' said he, taking out his sword; and directly it touched the chain the links fell apart and the princess was free.

'Come!' said the prince, taking her hand. But she drew back.

'No, I dare not!' she cried. 'If we should meet the robbers in the pa.s.sage they would kill us both.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PRINCESS OF ARABIA RELEASED FROM THE IRON PILLAR]

'Not they!' said the prince, brandis.h.i.+ng his sword. 'But how long have you been here?' he added quickly.

'About twenty years, I think,' said the princess, reckoning with her fingers.

'Twenty years!' exclaimed the prince. 'Then you had better shut your eyes, for when you have been sitting there so long it might hurt you to go too suddenly into the daylight. So you are the Princess of Arabia, whose beauty is famous throughout all the world! I, too, am a prince.'

'Will you not come back to Arabia and marry me, now you have saved my life?' asked the princess. 'Even if my father is living still, he must be old, and after his death you can be king.'

'No,' replied the prince, 'I cannot do that--I must live and die in my own country. But at the end of a year I will follow you and marry you.' And that was all he would say.

Then the princess took a heavy ring from her finger and put it on his.

Her father's and her mother's names were engraved in it, as well as her own, and she asked him to keep it as a reminder of his promise.

'I will die before I part from it,' said the prince. 'And if at the end of a year I am still living, I will come. I believe I have heard that at the other side of this forest there is a port from which s.h.i.+ps sail to Arabia. Let us hasten there at once.'

Hand in hand they set off through the forest, and when they came to the port they found a s.h.i.+p just ready to sail. The princess said good-bye to the prince, and went on board the vessel, and when she reached her own country there were great rejoicings, for her parents had never expected to see her again. She told them how a prince had saved her from the robbers, and was coming in a year's time to marry her, and they were greatly pleased.

'All the same,' said the king, 'I wish he were here now. A year is a long time.'

When the princess was no longer before his eyes, the prince recollected why he had entered the forest, and made all the haste he could back to the robbers' home.

The robber-chief could smell the apples from afar, for he had a nose like an ogre, and he said to the queen:

'That is a strange fellow! If he had gone into the forest the wild beasts must have eaten him unless he has a powerful charm to protect him. If that is so we must get it away from him.'

'No, he has nothing,' answered the queen, who was quite fascinated by the robber.

But the robber did not believe her.

'We must think of a way to get it,' he said. 'When he comes in say you are well again, and have some food ready for him. Then, whilst he is eating, tell him you dreamed that he was attacked by wild beasts, and ask him how he managed to escape from them. After he has told you I can easily find a way to take his charm from him.'

Shortly after the prince came in.

'How are you, mother!' he said gaily. 'Here are your apples. Now you will soon be well again, and ready to come away with me.'

'Oh, I am better already,' she said. 'And see, your dinner is all hot for you, eat it up, and then we will start.'

Whilst he was eating she said to him: 'I had a horrible dream while you were away. I saw you in a forest full of wild animals, and they were running round you and growling fiercely. How did you manage to escape from them?'

'Oh, it was only a dream!' laughed the prince.

'But _my_ dreams are always true,' said his mother. 'Tell me how it was.'

The prince wondered for some time whether he should tell her or not, but at last he decided to let her into the secret.

'One should tell one's mother everything,' he thought. And he told her.

'See, mother, here are a sword and a mail s.h.i.+rt which I found in the first house we entered in the forest, and as long as I carry them nothing can hurt me. That is what saved me from the wild beasts.'

'How can I be thankful enough!' exclaimed the queen. And directly the prince's back was turned, she hurried to tell the robber.

The robber, as soon as he heard the news, made a sleeping-draught, and bade the queen give it to her son before he went to bed that night.

Accordingly, as soon as the prince began to get sleepy, the queen handed him the cup containing the draught.

'Drink this, to please me,' she said. 'It will do you good after all you've gone through, and make you sleep well.'

'What an odd taste it has!' murmured the prince as he drank it.

Immediately he fell asleep; and the robber came in and took away his sword and s.h.i.+rt of mail.

'These things belong to my brother,' he said. After he had got them both in his hand the robber woke him.

'I am the master now,' said he. 'Choose one of two things--either you must die, or your eyes will be put out, and you will be sent back to the forest.'

The prince's blood grew cold at these words. Then a thought struck him, and he turned to his mother: 'Is this _your_ doing?' he asked sternly. And though she burst into tears and denied it, the prince knew she was not telling the truth.

'Well,' said he, '"whilst there is life there is hope." I will go back to the forest.'