sh; but, if my mistress frees you
from the power of the wicked Misdral, she must promise him in exchange
that another ill shall befall your house. Your army is in the field,
and if you return to your family, then will the giant help your enemies;
they will defeat you, will capture your capital, and possibly something
evil might befall your mother."

George sprang up and waved his hand in negation. Then his curly head
fell, and he said sadly, but decisively: "I will stay here and starve."

The fish in his delight slapped the water with his tail until it
splashed high, and continued, although his first speech had already made
him hoarse:

"No, no; it need not be so bad as that. If you are willing to go into
the world as a poor boy, and never to tell any one that you are a
prince, nor what your name is, nor whence you come, then no enemy will
be able to do your army or the lady duchess any harm."

"And shall I never see my mother and Wendelin again?" George asked,
and the tears poured down over his cheeks like the water over the
stalactites.

"Oh yes!" the fish replied, "if you are courageous, and do something
good and great, then you may return to your home."

"Something good and great," George repeated, "that will be very
difficult; and, if I should succeed in doing something that I thought
good and great, how could I know whether the fairy considered it so?"
"Whenever the grey lock grows on your head, you may declare yourself
to be the son of a duke and go home;" the fish whispered. "Follow me. I
will light the way for you. It is lucky that you have run about so much
and are so thin, otherwise you might stick fast on the way. Now
pay attention. This pool drains itself, through a passage under the
mountain, into the lake. I shall swim in front of you until we come
to the big basin into which the springs of these mountains empty their
waters. After that I must keep to the right, in order to get back into
the lake, but you must take the left passage, and let the current carry
you along for an hour, when it will join the head of the great Vitale
river, and flow out into the open air. Continue with the stream until it
turns towards the east, then you must climb over the mountains, and keep
ever northwards. Hold your hand under my mouth that I may give you money
for your journey."

George did as he was bid, and the fish poured forty shining groschen
into his hand. Each one of them would pay for a day's nourishment and