e, too, was in an unhappy way; for his
legs were now cold and black, his horns were black also, though his body,
especially near the heart, glowed still like red-hot iron.

"Go it, Remora!" cried the prince: "his legs are giving way; he's groggy
on his pins! One more effort, and he won't be able to move!"

Encouraged by this advice, the white, slippery Remora streamed out of his
cavern again, more and more of him uncoiling, as if the mountain were
quite full of him. He had lost strength, no doubt: for the steam and
mist went up from him in clouds, and the hissing of his angry voice grew
fainter; but so did the roars of the Firedrake. Presently they sounded
more like groans; and at last the Remora slipped up his legs above the
knees, and fastened on his very heart of fire. Then the Firedrake stood
groaning like a black bull, knee-deep in snow; and still the Remora
climbed and climbed.

"Go it now, Firedrake!" shouted the prince; for he knew that if the
Remora won, it would be too cold for him to draw near the place, and cut
off the Firedrake's head and tail.

"Go it, Drake! he's slackening!" cried the prince again; and the brave
Firedrake made one last furious effort, and rising on his wings, dropped
just on the spine of his enemy.

The wounded Remora curled back his head again on himself, and again
crawled, steaming terribly, towards his enemy. But the struggle was too
much for the gallant Remora. The flat, cruel head moved slower; the
steam from his thousand wounds grew fiercer; and he gently breathed his
last just as the Firedrake, too, fell over and lay exhausted. With one
final roar, like the breath of a thousand furnaces, the Firedrake
expired.

The prince, watching from the hill-top, could scarcely believe that these
two _awful scourges of Nature_, which had so long devastated his country,
were actually dead. But when he had looked on for half-an-hour, and only
a river ran where the Remora had been, while the body of the Firedrake
lay stark and cold, he hurried to the spot.

Drawing the sword of sharpness, he hacked off, at two blows, the iron
head and the tail of the Firedrake. They were a weary weight to carry;
but in a few strides of the shoes of swiftness he was at his castle,
where he threw down his burden, and nearly fainted with excitement and
fatigue.

{The Prince in front of the Firedrake: p78.jpg}

But the castle clock struck half-past seven; dinner was at eight, and the
poor prince c