so that
neither guns nor sabres shall do you harm. May He take you under His
protection, so that you may return safe and sound to be a comfort to
me; and at the end of my days may I rejoice in your happiness, and
live near you as long as God in His wisdom shall allow."

Then she gave him her blessing and kissed him tenderly, making the
sign of the cross in the direction he was about to take.

So he departed, and after a few days' march reached the capital,
thinking within himself how he might help the king most effectually.

The town was surrounded by a countless host who threatened to utterly
destroy it unless the king would agree to pay a very large ransom.

The people crowded into the square, and stood before the palace gates
listening to the herald's proclamation.

"Hear the king's will," said the herald; "listen, all ye faithful
subjects, to the words he speaks to you by my mouth. Here are our
deadly enemies, who have scattered our troops, and have come to
besiege the capital of our kingdom. If we do not send them, by
daybreak to-morrow, twenty-four waggons, each drawn by six horses and
loaded with gold, they threaten to take the town and destroy it by
fire and sword, and to deliver our land to the soldiers. It is certain
that we cannot hold out any longer, and our royal treasure-house does
not contain one-half the amount demanded. Therefore, through me our
sovereign announces, that whosoever among you shall succeed, either in
defeating our foes, or in providing the money needed for the ransom,
him will he appoint his heir to the crown, and to him will he give his
only daughter in marriage, a princess of marvellous beauty. Further,
he shall receive half the kingdom in his own right."

When the fisherman heard these words he went to the king and said, "My
sovereign and father, command that twenty-four waggons, each harnessed
with twenty-four horses and provided with leathern bags, be brought
into the courtyard; I will engage to fill them with gold, and that at
once, before your eyes."

Then he left the palace, and standing in the middle of the large
square, recited the words the fish had taught him.

These were followed by rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightning,
and then by a perfect hurricane which sent down masses and showers of
gold. In a few minutes the square was covered with a layer of gold so
thick that, after loading the twenty-four waggons and filling a large
half of the royal treasure-house