remove the spell, and he cried: "Show me the way to the
castle, for I will take this adventure upon me."

[Illustration]

But the old man shook his head. "I have not yet told you all, my Prince.
Many are the young men who have tried to force their way through the
thick wood that guards the enchanted castle. Each of them thought that
he, and he alone, was destined to awaken the Sleeping Beauty, and each
of them set out with high hopes; but none of them all came back, and
their bones, whitened by the wind and rain, lie among the thorns of the
thick hedge, a fearful warning to the venturesome. I pray you,
therefore, my Prince, do nothing rash, but think well before you take
upon yourself this perilous quest."

[Illustration]

"What," cried the Prince with flashing eyes, "shall I hold back when
others have dared? This very hour I will attempt to enter the castle,
and if I do not return, carry home the news of how I have died."

Then without paying any heed to the words of those who would prevent him
from rushing into such danger, the eager young man set out, his heart on
fire with thoughts of love and glory. Nobody showed him the way, but he
could see the towers of the castle rising above the distant wood, and
when he entered the wood itself, and the towers were hidden, each path
he took led him nearer to the place where he would be.

At last he came to an open glade, and there before him was a tangled
hedge of thorn, stretching in either direction as far as the eye could
see.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER X

AND now, as the Prince drew nearer, he could see that the story he had
heard about that terrible place was true, for held in the tangle of
briar were the bones of many unhappy young men who had tried to force
their way through to the castle. Rags and tatters of their finery hung
upon the great thorns that pointed menacingly like sharp claws. Here and
there upon the ground beneath lay pieces of rusty armour, a helmet
surrounded by a coronet of gold that once had belonged to a King's son,
a shield with a Prince's device, a sword with jewel-encrusted hilt worth
a King's ransom. There they lay, all disregarded among the blanched
bones upon the grass, and the ground-ivy spread out its leaves to cover
them.

Not a sound broke the deep and awful silence. No bird sang, no insect
droned; there was no scurry of woodland creatures among the leaves, no
sigh of wind in the trees. In all that