had hope, for her task was almost finished and her
brothers were come.

Then the archbishop arrived, to be with her during her last hours as he
had promised the king. She shook her head and begged him, by looks and
gestures, not to stay; for in this night she knew she must finish her
task, otherwise all her pain and tears and sleepless nights would have
been suffered in vain. The archbishop withdrew, uttering bitter words
against her, but she knew that she was innocent and diligently continued
her work.

Little mice ran about the floor, dragging the nettles to her feet, to
help as much as they could; and a thrush, sitting outside the grating of
the window, sang to her the whole night long as sweetly as possible, to
keep up her spirits.

It was still twilight, and at least an hour before sunrise, when the
eleven brothers stood at the castle gate and demanded to be brought
before the king. They were told it could not be; it was yet night; the
king slept and could not be disturbed. They threatened, they entreated,
until the guard appeared, and even the king himself, inquiring what all
the noise meant. At this moment the sun rose, and the eleven brothers
were seen no more, but eleven wild swans flew away over the castle.

Now all the people came streaming forth from the gates of the city to
see the witch burned. An old horse drew the cart on which she sat. They
had dressed her in a garment of coarse sackcloth. Her lovely hair hung
loose on her shoulders, her cheeks were deadly pale, her lips moved
silently while her fingers still worked at the green flax. Even on the
way to death she would not give up her task. The ten finished coats lay
at her feet; she was working hard at the eleventh, while the mob jeered
her and said: "See the witch; how she mutters! She has no hymn book in
her hand; she sits there with her ugly sorcery. Let us tear it into a
thousand pieces."

They pressed toward her, and doubtless would have destroyed the coats
had not, at that moment, eleven wild swans flown over her and alighted
on the cart. They flapped their large wings, and the crowd drew back in
alarm.

"It is a sign from Heaven that she is innocent," whispered many of them;
but they did not venture to say it aloud.

As the executioner seized her by the hand to lift her out of the cart,
she hastily threw the eleven coats over the eleven swans, and they
immediately became eleven handsome princes; but the youngest had a
swan's wing instea