his health, the doctors ordered
him horse exercise, and he soon became a first-rate rider, and used to
go out for long excursions on horseback, accompanied always by his
father's stud-groom and a numerous retinue.

Every day he rode through the neighbouring fields and woods, and
always returned home in the evening safe and well. In this way many
years passed, and the Prince grew to manhood, and hardly anyone
remembered the Queen's warning, though precautions were still taken,
more from use and wont than for any other reason.

[Footnote 19: From the Hungarian. Kletke.]

One day the Prince and his suite went out for a ride in a wood where
his father sometimes held a hunt. Their way led through a stream whose
banks were overgrown with thick brushwood. Just as the horsemen were
about to ford the river, a hare, startled by the sound of the horses'
hoofs, started up from the grass and ran towards the thicket. The
young Prince pursued the little creature, and had almost overtaken it,
when the girth of his saddle suddenly broke in two and he fell heavily
to the ground. No sooner had his foot touched the earth than he
disappeared before the eyes of the horrified courtiers.

They sought for him far and near, but all in vain, and they were
forced to recognise the power of the evil Fairy, against which the
Queen had warned them on her death-bed. The old King was much grieved
when they brought him the news of his son's disappearance, but as he
could do nothing to free him from his fate, he gave himself up to an
old age of grief and loneliness, cherishing at the same time the hope
that some lucky chance might one day deliver the youth out of the
hands of his enemy.

Hardly had the Prince touched the ground than he felt himself
violently seized by an unseen power, and hurried away he knew not
whither. A whole new world stretched out before him, quite unlike the
one he had left. A splendid castle surrounded by a huge lake was the
abode of the Fairy, and the only approach to it was over a bridge of
clouds. On the other side of the lake high mountains rose up, and dark
woods stretched along the banks; over all hung a thick mist, and deep
silence reigned everywhere.

No sooner had the Fairy reached her own domain than she made herself
visible, and turning to the Prince she told him that unless he obeyed
all her commands down to the minutest detail he would be severely
punished. Then she gave him an axe made of glass, and bade him