f delight in his liberty overcame him, he snatched
his cap from his head and, waving it aloft, tore down the mountain, as if
he were running for a wager. That night he found hospitable housing in
the cell of a hermit.

After this he derived much pleasure from his wanderings. He was a child
born to bad luck--no denial could change that--nevertheless a child
destined to good fortune could hardly have been more contented than he.
On the thirtieth day of his journeying he met with a travelling companion
in the lower countries, which he had reached some time before. This was a
stone-mason's son, who was much older than George, but who accepted the
gay young vagabond as his comrade. The youth was returning home after his
wanderings as a journeyman and, as he soon discovered that George was a
clever, trustworthy boy with all his wits about him, he persuaded him to
offer himself as apprentice to the stone-mason, who was an excellent
master in his business. His name was Kraft, and he gladly received his
son's companion as apprentice, George having spent his last groschen that
very day, and thus the little prince was turned into a stone-mason's
apprentice.

In the castle of the Greylocks, meanwhile, there was sorrow and
lamentation. The boy who had ventured onto the lake with George, managed
to save his life and returned home the following morning, and to repeated
questionings he had only the one answer to make--that he had seen the
prince drown before his very eyes. With this information the Court had to
content itself; but not the duchess, for a king will give up his throne
sooner than a mother the hope of seeing her child again. She possessed
indeed one means by which she could know beyond doubt whether her darling
were alive or dead, namely the magic mirror which the fairy had given to
the first Wendelin, and in which, ever since, the Greylocks had been able
to see what they held most dear. In this glass she had seen her husband
fall from his horse and die. Once again she took it out of the ivory
casket in which it was kept; but so long as George sat imprisoned in the
cave of the evil spirit, nothing was to be seen on its smooth surface.
That was ominous, yet she ceased not to hope, and thought: "If he were
dead, I should see his corpse." She sat the whole night staring in the
mirror. In the morning a messenger from the army of the Greylocks
arrived, bringing word that the enemy was pressing upon them and that a
battle would