the giant; 'the rampart is quite wide on the
top, and covered with long grass, so that you will come down as softly
as though you fell on a feather-bed.'

Niels had to believe him, and allowed the giant to throw him up. He came
down on his feet quite unhurt, but the little black dog heard the dump,
and rushed out of its kennel at once. It was just opening its mouth to
bark, when Niels fired, and it fell dead on the spot.

'Go down on the inside now,' said the giant, 'and see if you can open
the gate to us.'

Niels made his way down into the courtyard, but on his way to the outer
gate he found himself at the entrance to the large hall of the castle.
The door was open, and the hall was brilliantly lighted, though there
was no one to be seen. Niels went in here and looked round him: on the
wall there hung a huge sword without a sheath, and beneath it was a
large drinking-horn, mounted with silver. Niels went closer to look at
these, and saw that the horn had letters engraved on the silver rim:
when he took it down and turned it round, he found that the inscription
was:--

Whoever drinks the wine I hold
Can wield the sword that hangs above;
Then let him use it for the right,
And win a royal maiden's love.

Niels took out the silver stopper of the horn, and drank some of the
wine, but when he tried to take down the sword he found himself unable
to move it. So he hung up the horn again, and went further in to the
castle. 'The giants can wait a little,' he said.

Before long he came to an apartment in which a beautiful princess lay
asleep in a bed, and on a table by her side there lay a gold-hemmed
handkerchief. Niels tore this in two, and put one half in his pocket,
leaving the other half on the table. On the floor he saw a pair of
gold-embroidered slippers, and one of these he also put in his pocket.
After that he went back to the hall, and took down the horn again.
'Perhaps I have to drink all that is in it before I can move the sword,'
he thought; so he put it to his lips again and drank till it was quite
empty. When he had done this, he could wield the sword with the greatest
of ease, and felt himself strong enough to do anything, even to fight
the giants he had left outside, who were no doubt wondering why he had
not opened the gate to them before this time. To kill the giants, he
thought, would be using the sword for the right; but as to winning
the love of the princess, that was a thing whic