he spot where the castle was to stand,
for spades, hammers, axes, and every other building implement lay
scattered on the ground ready for the workman's hand, but of gold,
silver, and precious stones there was not a sign. But before the
Prince had time to feel despondent the black girl beckoned to him in
the distance from behind a rock, where she had hidden herself for fear
her mother should catch sight of her. Full of joy the youth hurried
towards her, and begged her aid and counsel in the new piece of work
he had been given to do.

[Illustration: The Black Girl Stops the Witch with a Bit of the Rock]

But this time the Fairy had watched the Prince's movements from her
window, and she saw him hiding himself behind the rock with her
daughter. She uttered a piercing shriek so that the mountains
re-echoed with the sound of it, and the terrified pair had hardly
dared to look out from their hiding-place when the enraged woman, with
her dress and hair flying in the wind, hurried over the bridge of
clouds. The Prince at once gave himself up for lost, but the girl told
him to be of good courage and to follow her as quickly as he could.
But before they left their shelter she broke off a little bit of the
rock, spoke some magic words over it, and threw it in the direction
her mother was coming from. In a moment a glittering palace arose
before the eyes of the Fairy which blinded her with its dazzling
splendour, and with its many doors and passages prevented her for some
time from finding her way out of it.

In the meantime the black girl hurried on with the Prince, hastening
to reach the river, where once on the other side they would for ever
be out of the wicked Fairy's power. But before they had accomplished
half the way they heard again the rustle of her garments and her
muttered curses pursuing them closely.

The Prince was terrified; he dared not look back, and he felt his
strength giving way. But before he had time to despair the girl
uttered some more magic words, and immediately she herself was changed
into a pond, and the Prince into a duck swimming on its surface.

When the Fairy saw this her rage knew no bounds, and she used all her
magic wits to make the pond disappear; she caused a hill of sand to
arise at her feet, meaning it to dry up the water at once. But the
sand hill only drove the pond a little farther away, and its waters
seemed to increase instead of diminishing. When the old woman saw that
the powers