k hedge. But no one succeeded. The sharp thorns gripped
the unhappy young men like clutching hands, and held them fast, so that
they could neither go forward nor back, and they perished miserably.
Their bones, whitened by the sun and wind, remained there as a warning
for all to see, and the creeping plants grew over them.

CHAPTER IX

A HUNDRED years passed away. At the end of that time it happened one day
that a young Prince who was hunting in the neighbourhood caught sight of
the towers of the enchanted castle rising above the dense forest. He had
never been in that part of the country before, and had heard nothing of
the story of the Sleeping Princess, so he asked the first people he met
what those towers were, and to whom the castle belonged.

Everybody told him a different tale. One said that it was an old castle
haunted by spirits; another, that it was a meeting-place for all the
witches and sorcerers in the land, who gathered there to practise their
secret rites.

"No, no," said a third. "That castle is the home of a giant, and all the
people in these parts are very much afraid of him, so I have been told,
because he steals their cattle and their crops, and even carries off
their children to be his servants. And they cannot go to the rescue of
those he has imprisoned in this way, because of the forest all round the
castle, which is so dense that nobody can force his way through."

And so they went on, one saying one thing, and one another, for each
repeated what he had heard. At last an old peasant stepped forward.

"Fifty years ago, my Prince," said he, "my father told me the story of
that castle, and since he was born in these parts, I think it was the
true story, and I will tell it you if you would like to hear it."

The Prince nodded eagerly, and the old man went on:

"My father said that years before he himself was born a King and Queen
lived in the castle with their daughter, the most beautiful Princess
that ever was seen. In some way or other they angered the fairies, who
put a spell upon the place and upon every one within it, so that they
fell into a deep sleep. My father said that this sleep would last a
hundred years, but at the end of that time a King's son should come and
waken the beautiful Princess and make her his bride."

When the young Prince heard these words he felt his heart beat quickly.
Something seemed to tell him that he and no other was the King's son who
was destined to