ent to the room to see if
he was still alive, and taking the bottle put it to his nostrils, which
soon brought him to himself. The first thing he said then was that he
was a fool to go on getting himself killed for anyone he ever saw, and
was determined to be off and stay there no longer, When the Princess
learned his intention she entreated him to stay, reminding him that
another night would free her from the spell. 'Besides,' she said, 'if
there is a single spark of life in you when the day comes, the stuff
that is in this bottle will make you as sound as ever you were.'

With all this the Irishman decided to stay; but that night there were
three at him for every one that was there the two nights before, and
it looked very unlikely that he would be alive in the morning after all
that he got. When morning dawned, and the Princess came to see if he was
still alive, she found him lying on the floor as if dead. She tried to
see if there was breath in him, but could not quite make it out.
Then she put her hand on his pulse, and found a faint movement in it.
Accordingly she poured what was in the bottle on him, and before long
he rose up on his feet, and was as well as ever he was. So that business
was finished, and the Princess was freed from the spell.

The Princess then told the Irishman that she must go away for the
present, but would return for him in a few days in a carriage drawn by
four grey horses. He told her to 'be aisy,' and not speak like that to
him. 'I have paid dear for you for the last three nights,' he said, 'if
I have to part with you now;' but in the twinkling of an eye she had
disappeared. He did not know what to do with himself when he saw that
she was gone, but before she went she had given him a little rod, with
which he could, when he pleased, waken the men who had been sleeping
there, some of them for sixteen years.

After being thus left alone, he went in and stretched himself on three
chairs that were in the room, when what does he see coming in at the
door but a little fair-haired lad.

'Where did you come from, my lad?' said the Irishman.

'I came to make ready your food for you,' said he.

'Who told you to do that?' said the Irishman.

'My mistress,' answered the lad--'the Princess that was under the spell
and is now free.'

By this the Irishman knew that she had sent the lad to wait on him. The
lad also told him that his mistress wished him to be ready next morning
at nine o'clock, w