sed to give me his daughter Kandaula in
marriage; and I am resolved to carry her off by force, for I hear
there is no such beauty in the world. To-morrow I shall fight the last
battle with him, and thou shall be witness of my valour." The next
morning Prince Ivan rose early, saddled his steed, and rode to the
kingdom of Feodul, the Dragon Tsar; and Yaroslav went on foot, and
concealed himself under an oak tree to witness the fight. Then Prince
Ivan called upon the Tsar with a loud voice, and Feodul ordered the
trumpets to sound, and an army of a hundred thousand men to assemble.
The Tsar Feodul rode against Prince Ivan, and before and behind him
rode an innumerable host of squires and knights. Ivan grasped his
shield with one hand and his lance with the other. As the falcon
swoops upon the geese, swans, and ducks, even so did Prince Ivan fall
upon that terrible army; and his steed trod to the ground twice as
many as he himself slew. He destroyed the whole host, sparing only the
lives of the old men and boys, who could not resist; and he took the
Tsar Feodul prisoner, and put him to death. Then he hastened to his
kingdom and carried off the Princess Kandaula. He took her by her
white hands, kissed her on her soft lips, and led her into his tent.
Soon after Yaroslav Lasarevich also arrived, and they all fell to
feasting and making merry.

When Yaroslav went out of the tent Ivan said: "My beloved Princess,
tell me, is there in the world a fairer one than thou art, or a braver
knight than my brother Yaroslav Lasarevich? I have gone far and wide
and have not found thine equal." "Nay," replied the Princess, "there
are yet fairer than I am. In the open fields is a white tent, in which
dwell the daughters of the Tsar Bogrigor. The eldest is named Prodora,
the second Tivobriga, and the youngest Legia: they are ten times
fairer than I; compared to them I am as night to day. Whilst with my
parents I was still fair, but now I am wasted with sorrow. And on the
road to the kingdom of India there is a knight, in the dominions of
Tsar Dalmat, named Ivashka Whitemantle Saracen's-cap. I have heard
from my father that for three-and-thirty years he has guarded the
kingdom of India, and that no traveller or knight rides past, no
animal runs by, and no bird flies past; I know no one braver than he,
for I have never before heard of the valour of Yaroslav Lasarevich."

Now Yaroslav overheard these words, and his chivalrous heart could not
br