aughter, he shut her
up in her own room, whence she never got leave to stir day or night.
All that she begged, and all that she prayed, for the lad and herself,
was no good. The _King_ was only more wroth than ever.

Some time after came a war and uproar in the land, and the _King_ had
to take up arms against another king who wished to take the kingdom
from him. So when the lad heard that, he begged the gaoler to go to
the _King_ and ask for a coat of mail and a sword, and for leave to go
to the war. All the rest laughed when the gaoler told his errand, and
begged the _King_ to let him have an old worn-out suit, that they
might have the fun of seeing such a wretch in battle. So he got that,
and an old broken-down hack besides, which went upon three legs, and
dragged the fourth after it.

[Illustration: The Lad in the Battle.]

Then they went out to meet the foe; but they hadn't got far from the
palace before the lad got stuck fast in a bog with his hack. There he
sat and dug his spurs in, and cried, "Gee up! gee up!" to his hack.
And all the rest had their fun out of this, and laughed, and made game
of the lad as they rode past him. But they were scarcely gone, before
he ran to the lime-tree, threw on his coat of mail, and shook the
bridle, and there came the _Horse_ in a trice, and said: "Do now your
best, and I'll do mine."

But when the lad came up the battle had begun, and the _King_ was in a
sad pinch; but no sooner had the lad rushed into the thick of it than
the foe was beaten back, and put to flight. The _King_ and his men
wondered and wondered who it could be who had come to help them, but
none of them got so near him as to be able to talk to him, and as soon
as the fight was over he was gone. When they went back, there sat the
lad still in the bog, and dug his spurs into his three-legged hack,
and they all laughed again.

"No! only just look," they said; "there the fool sits still."

The next day when they went out to battle, they saw the lad sitting
there still, so they laughed again, and made game of him; but as soon
as ever they had ridden by, the lad ran again to the lime-tree, and
all happened as on the first day. Every one wondered what strange
champion it could be that had helped them, but no one got so near him
as to say a word to him; and no one guessed it could be the lad;
that's easy to understand.

So when they went home at night, and saw the lad still sitting there
on his hack, they burst