could, and found the princess bathed in tears, and
trembling from head to foot.

She turned as she heard the sound of his sword, and removed her
handkerchief from his eyes.

'Fly,' she cried; 'fly while you have yet time, before that monster sees
you.'

She said it, and she mean it; yet, when he had turned his back, she felt
more forsaken than before. But in reality it was not more than a few
minutes before he came back, galloping furiously on a horse he had
borrowed, and carrying a huge mirror across its neck.

'I am in time, then,' he cried, dismounting very carefully, and placing
the mirror against the trunk of a tree.

'Give me your veil,' he said hastily to the princess. And when she had
unwound it from her head he covered the mirror with it.

'The moment the dragon comes near you, you must tear off the veil,'
cried he; 'and be sure you hide behind the mirror. Have no fear; I shall
be at hand.'

He and his horse had scarcely found shelter amongst some rocks, when the
flap of the dragon's wings could be plainly heard. He tossed his head
with delight at the sight of her, and approached slowly to the place
where she stood, a little in front of the mirror. Then, still looking
the monster steadily in the face, she passed one hand behind her back
and snatched off the veil, stepping swiftly behind the tree as she did
so.

The princess had not known, when she obeyed the orders of the Knight of
the Fish, what she expected to happen. Would the dragon with snaky locks
be turned to stone, she wondered, like the dragon in an old story her
nurse had told her; or would some fiery spark dart from the heart of
the mirror, and strike him dead? Neither of these things occurred, but,
instead, the dragon stopped short with surprise and rage when he saw a
monster before him as big and strong as himself. He shook his mane with
rage and fury; the enemy in front did exactly the same. He lashed his
tail, and rolled his red eyes, and the dragon opposite was no whit
behind him. Opening his mouth to its very widest, he gave an awful
roar; but the other dragon only roared back. This was too much, and
with another roar which made the princess shake in her shoes, he flung
himself upon his foe. In an instant the mirror lay at his feet broken
into a thousand pieces, but as every piece reflected part of himself,
the dragon thought that he too had been smashed into atoms.

It was the moment for which the Knight of the Fish had watched and