ncess, "I will slay
thee on the spot if thou dost not swear to me twelve times that thou
wilt say I slew the Dragon, and wilt take me for thy husband!" Then
she swore to it twelve times, for else he would have slain her. So
they returned together to the town, and immediately all the black
cloth was taken off the houses and the bells fell a-ringing, and all
the people rejoiced because the coachman had killed the Dragon. "Let
them be married at once!" cried they.

[24] Hungarian soldier.

Meanwhile the King's son went on and on till he came to that town
where he had left his brother, and there he found that the Tsar and
the Tsaritsa had given his brother the whole tsardom and the Tsarivna
to wife as well, and there he tarried for a time; but toward the end
of a year and twelve weeks he went back to the other city where he had
left the Princess, and there he found them making ready for a grand
wedding. "What is the meaning of all this?" asked he. And they
answered, "The Tsar's coachman has slain the Dragon with six heads and
saved the Princess, and now he is to be married to her."--"Good Lord!"
cried he, "and I never saw this Dragon! What manner of beast was
it?"--Then they took him and showed him the heads of the Dragon, and
he cried, "Good Lord! every other beast hath a tongue, but this Dragon
hath none!" Then they told this to the coachman, who had been made a
Prince, and the coachman was very angry and said, "Whoever maintains
that a Dragon has tongues, him will I order to be tied to four wild
horses, and they shall tear him to pieces on the open steppe!" The
Princess, however, recognized the King's son, but she held her peace.
Then the King's son took out his handkerchief, unrolled it, showed
them the six tongues, and put each one into one of the six mouths of
the Dragon's six heads, and each of the tongues began to speak and bid
the Princess say how the matter went. Then the Princess told how she
had knelt down and prayed out of the prayer-book while the King's son
slew the Dragon, and how the wicked coachman had made her swear twelve
times to that which was false. When the Tsar heard this, he
immediately gave the Princess his daughter to the King's son, and they
asked him what death the wicked coachman should die. And he answered,
"Let him be tied to the tails of four wild horses, and drive them into
the endless steppe that they may tear him to pieces there, and the
ravens and crows may come and pick his bones."