out of it, and never stopped till she had finished it.
The young fellows saw all this going on, but did not hear the two of
them say anything to each other. They were astonished though at how
greedily the Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and
were no longer surprised that she took so little when she sat at table
with the King. As soon as she had finished it the Giant disappeared
with the trough by the same way as he had come, and the Queen returned
to her human shape.

Now we must go back to the King's son after he had been put in charge
of the nurse. One evening, after she had lit a candle and was holding
the child, several planks sprang up in the floor of the room, and out
at the opening came a beautiful woman dressed in white, with an iron
belt round her waist, to which was fastened an iron chain that went
down into the ground. The woman came up to the nurse, took the child
from her, and pressed it to her breast; then she gave it back to the
nurse and returned by the same way as she had come, and the floor
closed over her again. Although the woman had not spoken a single word
to her, the nurse was very much frightened, but told no one about it.

[Illustration: Sigurd Hews the Chain Asunder.]

Next evening the same thing happened again, just as before, but as the
woman was going away she said in a sad tone, 'Two are gone, and one
only is left,' and then disappeared as before. The nurse was still
more frightened when she heard the woman say this, and thought that
perhaps some danger was hanging over the child, though she had no
ill-opinion of the unknown woman, who, indeed, had behaved towards the
child as if it were her own. The most mysterious thing was the woman
saying 'and only one is left;' but the nurse guessed that this must
mean that only one day was left, since she had come for two days
already.

At last the nurse made up her mind to go to the King, and told him the
whole story, and asked him to be present in person next day about the
time when the woman usually came. The King promised to do so, and came
to the nurse's room a little before the time, and sat down on a chair
with his drawn sword in his hand. Soon after the planks in the floor
sprang up as before, and the woman came up, dressed in white, with the
iron belt and chain. The King saw at once that it was his own Queen,
and immediately hewed asunder the iron chain that was fastened to the
belt. This was followed by such noises a