er until the day
for the celebration. The room to which he was conducted was comfortable,
and he soon had a plenteous supper laid out before him, of which he
partook with great avidity. Having finished his meal, he sat down to
reflect upon his condition, but feeling very sleepy, and remembering
that he would have a whole day of leisure, to-morrow, for such
reflections, he concluded to go to bed. Before doing so, however, he
wished to make all secure for the night. Examining the door, he found
there was no lock to it; and being unwilling to remain all night liable
to intrusion, he pondered the matter for some minutes, and then took up
a wide and very heavy stool, and, having partially opened the door, he
put the stool up over it, resting it partly on the door and partly on
the surrounding woodwork, so that if any one tried to come in, and
pushed the door open, the stool would fall down and knock the intruder's
head off. Having arranged this to his satisfaction, the Prince went to
bed.

That evening the Princess Aufalia was in great grief, for she had heard
of the sentence pronounced upon the Prince, and felt herself the cause
of it. What other reason she had to grieve over the Prince's death, need
not be told. Her handmaidens fully sympathized with her; and one of
them, Nerralina, the handsomest and most energetic of them all, soon
found, by proper inquiry, that the Prince was confined in the fourth
story of the "Tower of Tears." So they devised a scheme for his rescue.
Each one of the young ladies contributed her scarf; and when they were
all tied together, the conclave decided that they made a rope plenty
long enough to reach from the Prince's window to the ground.

Thus much settled, it only remained to get this means of escape to the
prisoner. This the lady Nerralina volunteered to do. Waiting until the
dead of night, she took off her slippers, and with the scarf-rope rolled
up into a ball under her arm, she silently stepped past the drowsy
sentinels, and, reaching the Prince's room, pushed open the door, and
the stool fell down and knocked her head off. Her body lay in the
doorway, but her head rolled into the middle of the room.

Notwithstanding the noise occasioned by this accident, the Prince did
not awake; but in the morning, when he was up and nearly dressed, he was
astonished at seeing a lady's head in the middle of the room.

[Illustration]

"Hallo!" said he. "Here's somebody's head."

Picking it up, h