d to pull down the church, and thus to destroy
her two victims for ever. She stamped three times on the ground, and the
earth trembled, and both the church and the monk began to shake. As soon
as the Fairy saw this she retreated to some distance from the building,
so as not to be hurt herself by its fall. But once more her scheme was
doomed to failure, for hardly had she gone a yard from the church than
both it and the monk disappeared, and she found herself in a wood black
as night, and full of wolves and bears and wild animals of all sorts and
descriptions.

Then her wrath gave place to terror, for she feared every moment to be
torn in pieces by the beasts who one and all seemed to defy her power.
She thought it wisest to make her way as best she could out of the
forest, and then to pursue the fugitives once more and accomplish their
destruction either by force or cunning.

In the meantime the Prince and the black girl had again assumed their
natural forms, and were hurrying on as fast as they could to reach the
river. But when they got there they found that there was no way in which
they could cross it, and the girl's magic art seemed no longer to
have any power. Then turning to the Prince she said, 'The hour for my
deliverance has not yet come, but as you promised to do all you could to
free me, you must do exactly as I bid you now. Take this bow and arrow
and kill every beast you see with them, and be sure you spare no living
creature.'

With these words she disappeared, and hardly had she done so than a
huge wild boar started out of the thicket near and made straight for the
Prince. But the youth did not lose his presence of mind, and drawing
his bow he pierced the beast with his arrow right through the skull. The
creature fell heavily on the ground, and out of its side sprang a little
hare, which ran like the wind along the river bank. The Prince drew his
bow once more, and the hare lay dead at his feet; but at the same moment
a dove rose up in the air, and circled round the Prince's head in the
most confiding manner. But mindful of the black girl's commands, he
dared not spare the little creature's life, and taking another arrow
from his quiver he laid it as dead as the boar and the hare. But when
he went to look at the body of the bird he found instead of the dove a
round white egg lying on the ground.

While he was gazing on it and wondering what it could mean, he heard the
sweeping of wings above him, and