which to hurl himself, but ere he could carry out his
purpose there appeared before him a dwarf, clad in yellow from top to
toe. With a leer and a laugh he looked up at the frantic knight,
and asked why the richest noble in the land should be seeking death.
Something in the dwarf's tone caused Ferdinand to listen and suddenly to
hope for he knew not what miracle. His eyes gleamed as the dwarf went on
to speak of sacks of gold, and when the little creature asked for but
a single hair in return he laughed aloud and offered him a hundred.
But the dwarf smiled and shook his head. The noble bowed with a polite
gesture, and as he bent his head the little man reached up and plucked
out but one hair, and, lo! a sack of gold straightway appeared. At this
Ferdinand thought that he must be dreaming, but the sack and gold pieces
were real enough to the touch, albeit the dwarf had vanished. Then, in
great haste, Ferdinand bought rich and costly clothing and armour, also
a snow-white steed caparisoned with steel and purple trappings, spending
on these more than twenty sacks of gold, for the dwarf returned to the
noble many times and on each occasion gave a sack of gold in exchange
for one hair. At last Ferdinand set out for the tournament, where,
besides carrying off the richest prizes and winning the heart of many
a fair lady, he attracted the notice of the Emperor, who invited him to
stay at his court.

And there the knight resumed his former passions and pleasures, living
the wildest of lives and thinking no price too high for careless
enjoyment. And each night, ere the hour of twelve finished striking, the
yellow dwarf appeared with a sack of gold, taking his usual payment of
only one hair. This wild life now began to tell upon Ferdinand. He fell
an easy prey to disease, which the doctors could not cure, and to the
pricks of a late-roused conscience, which no priests could soothe.
All his wasted past rose before him. Day and night his manifold sins
appeared before him like avenging furies, until at last, frenzied by
this double torture of mind and body, he called upon the Devil to aid
him in putting an end to his miserable existence, for so helpless was
he, he could neither reach nor use a weapon. Then at his side appeared
once more the dwarf, smiling and obliging as usual. He proffered, not a
sack of gold this time, but a rope of woven hair, the hair which he
had taken from Ferdinand in exchange for his gold. In the morning the