eir shelter she broke off a little bit of the rock, spoke some magic
words over it, and threw it in the direction her mother was coming from.
In a moment a glittering palace arose before the eyes of the Fairy which
blinded her with its dazzling splendour, and with its many doors and
passages prevented her for some time from finding her way out of it.

In the meantime the black girl hurried on with the Prince, hastening to
reach the river, where once on the other side they would for ever be out
of the wicked Fairy's power. But before they had accomplished half the
way they heard again the rustle of her garments and her muttered curses
pursuing them closely.

The Prince was terrified; he dared not look back, and he felt his
strength giving way. But before he had time to despair the girl uttered
some more magic words, and immediately she herself was changed into a
pond, and the Prince into a duck swimming on its surface.

When the Fairy saw this her rage knew no bounds, and she used all her
magic wits to make the pond disappear; she caused a hill of sand to
arise at her feet, meaning it to dry up the water at once. But the sand
hill only drove the pond a little farther away, and its waters seemed to
increase instead of diminishing. When the old woman saw that the powers
of her magic were of so little avail, she had recourse to cunning. She
threw a lot of gold nuts into the pond, hoping in this way to catch
the duck, but all her efforts were fruitless, for the little creature
refused to let itself be caught.

Then a new idea struck the wicked old woman, and hiding herself behind
the rock which had sheltered the fugitives, she waited behind it,
watching carefully for the moment when the Prince and her daughter
should resume their natural forms and continue their journey.

She had not to wait long, for as soon as the girl thought her mother was
safely out of the way, she changed herself and the Prince once more into
their human shape, and set out cheerfully for the river.

But they had not gone many steps when the wicked Fairy hurried after
them, a drawn dagger in her hand, and was close upon them, when
suddenly, instead of the Prince and her daughter, she found herself in
front of a great stone church, whose entrance was carefully guarded by a
huge monk.

Breathless with rage and passion, she tried to plunge her dagger into
the monk's heart, but it fell shattered in pieces at her feet. In her
desperation she determine