t
how was he to do that, when nobody in the palace had been able to do
so! Slowly he walked to the stable, and laying his head on his horse's
shoulder, he said: 'The king has ordered me to bring his wife home
again, and how can I do that when she disappeared so long ago, and no
one can tell me anything about her?'

'Cheer up!' answered the horse, 'we will manage to find her. You have
only got to ride me back to the same river that we went to yesterday,
and I will plunge into it and take my proper shape again. For I am the
king's wife, who was turned into a horse by the magician from whom you
saved me.'

Joyfully the young man sprang into the saddle and rode away to the banks
of the river. Then he threw himself off, and waited while the horse
plunged in. The moment it dipped its head into the water its black skin
vanished, and the most beautiful woman in the world was floating on the
water. She came smiling towards the youth, and held out her hand, and
he took it and led her back to the palace. Great was the king's surprise
and happiness when he beheld his lost wife stand before him, and in
gratitude to her rescuer he loaded him with gifts.

You would have thought that after this the poor youth would have been
left in peace; but no, his enemy the stableman hated him as much as
ever, and laid a new plot for his undoing. This time he presented
himself before the king and told him that the youth was so puffed up
with what he had done that he had declared he would seize the king's
throne for himself.

At this news the king waxed so furious that he ordered a gallows to be
erected at once, and the young man to be hanged without a trial. He was
not even allowed to speak in his own defence, but on the very steps of
the gallows he sent a message to the king and begged, as a last favour,
that he might play a tune on his zither. Leave was given him, and taking
the instrument from under his cloak he touched the strings. Scarcely had
the first notes sounded than the hangman and his helper began to dance,
and the louder grew the music the higher they capered, till at last they
cried for mercy. But the youth paid no heed, and the tunes rang out more
merrily than before, and by the time the sun set they both sank on the
ground exhausted, and declared that the hanging must be put off till
to-morrow.

The story of the zither soon spread through the town, and on the
following morning the king and his whole court and a large crowd of