incess, who was broad awake, began to
scream loudly. 'A man! a man!' cried she; but when the guards rushed in
there was only a bumble-bee buzzing about the room. They looked under
the bed, and behind the curtains, and into the cupboards, then came
to the conclusion that the princess had had a bad dream, and bowed
themselves out. The door had scarcely closed on them than the bee
disappeared, and a handsome youth stood in his place.

'I knew a man was hidden somewhere,' cried the princess, and screamed
more loudly than before. Her shrieks brought back the guards, but though
they looked in all kinds of impossible places no man was to be seen, and
so they told the princess.

'He was here a moment ago--I saw him with my own eyes,' and the guards
dared not contradict her, though they shook their heads and whispered to
each other that the princess had gone mad on this subject, and saw a
man in every table and chair. And they made up their minds that--let her
scream as loudly as she might--they would take no notice.

Now the princess saw clearly what they were thinking, and that in future
her guards would give her no help, and would perhaps, besides, tell some
stories about her to the king, who would shut her up in a lonely tower
and prevent her walking in the gardens among her birds and flowers. So
when, for the third time, she beheld the prince standing before her, she
did not scream but sat up in bed gazing at him in silent terror.

'Do not be afraid,' he said, 'I shall not hurt you'; and he began to
praise her gardens, of which he had heard the servants speak, and the
birds and flowers which she loved, till the princess's anger softened,
and she answered him with gentle words. Indeed, they soon became so
friendly that she vowed she would marry no one else, and confided to
him that in three days her father would be off to the wars, leaving his
sword in her room. If any man could find it and bring it to him he would
receive her hand as a reward. At this point a cock crew, and the youth
jumped up hastily saying: 'Of course I shall ride with the king to
the war, and if I do not return, take your violin every evening to the
seashore and play on it, so that the very sea-kobolds who live at the
bottom of the ocean may hear it and come to you.'

Just as the princess had foretold, in three days the king set out for
the war with a large following, and among them was the young prince, who
had presented himself at court as a young