she wouldn't have him.
But next morning the Princess had disappeared. The _Lindworm_ lay
sleeping all alone: and it was quite plain that he had eaten her.

A little while after, the Prince decided that he might now go
journeying again in search of a _Princess_. And off he drove in the
Royal chariot with the six white horses. But at the first cross-ways,
there lay the _Lindworm_, crying with his great wide open mouth, "A
bride for me before a bride for you!" So the carriage tried another
road, and the same thing happened, and they had to turn back again
this time, just as formerly. And the King wrote to several foreign
countries, to know if anyone would marry his son. At last another
_Princess_ arrived, this time from a very far distant land. And, of
course, she was not allowed to see her future husband before the
wedding took place,--and then, lo and behold! it was the _Lindworm_
who stood at her side. And next morning the Princess had disappeared:
and the _Lindworm_ lay sleeping all alone; and it was quite clear that
he had eaten her.

By and by the _Prince_ started on his quest for the third time: and at
the first cross-roads there lay the _Lindworm_ with his great wide
open mouth, demanding a bride as before. And the _Prince_ went
straight back to the castle, and told the _King_: "You must find
another bride for my elder brother."

"I don't know where I am to find her," said the _King_, "I have
already made enemies of two great Kings who sent their daughters here
as brides: and I have no notion how I can obtain a third lady. People
are beginning to say strange things, and I am sure no _Princess_ will
dare to come."

Now, down in a little cottage near a wood, there lived the _King's_
shepherd, an old man with his only daughter. And the _King_ came one
day and said to him, "Will you give me your daughter to marry my son
the _Lindworm_? And I will make you rich for the rest of your
life."--"No, sire," said the shepherd, "that I cannot do. She is my
only child, and I want her to take care of me when I am old. Besides,
if the _Lindworm_ would not spare two beautiful Princesses, he won't
spare her either. He will just gobble her up: and she is much too good
for such a fate."

But the _King_ wouldn't take "No" for an answer: and at last the old
man had to give in.

Well, when the old shepherd told his daughter that she was to be
_Prince Lindworm's_ bride, she was utterly in despair. She went out
into the woods, cr