's back, so that he
fell down dead. This done, Jack cut off the giant's head, and sent
it, with his brother's also, to King Arthur, by a wagoner he hired for
that purpose.

Jack now resolved to enter the giant's cave in search of his treasure,
and, passing along through a great many windings and turnings, he came
at length to a large room paved with freestone, at the upper end of
which was a boiling caldron, and on the right hand a large table, at
which the giant used to dine. Then he came to a window, barred with
iron, through which he looked and beheld a vast number of miserable
captives, who, seeing him, cried out: "Alas! young man, art thou come
to be one amongst us in this miserable den?"

"Ay," quoth Jack, "but pray tell me what is the meaning of your
captivity?"

"We are kept here," said one, "till such time as the giants have a
wish to feast, and then the fattest among us is slaughtered! And many
are the times they have dined upon murdered men!"

"Say you so," quoth Jack, and straightway unlocked the gate and let
them free, who all rejoiced like condemned men at sight of a pardon.
Then searching the giant's coffers, he shared the gold and silver
equally amongst them and took them to a neighboring castle, where they
all feasted and made merry over their deliverance.

But in the midst of all this mirth a messenger brought news that
Thunderdell, a giant with two heads, having heard of the death of his
kinsman, had come from the northern dales to be revenged on Jack, and
was within a mile of the castle, the country people flying before him
like chaff. But Jack was not a bit daunted, and said, "Let him come! I
have a tool to quiet him; and you, ladies and gentlemen, walk out into
the garden, and you shall witness this giant Thunderdell's death and
destruction."

The castle was situated in the midst of a small island surrounded by
a moat thirty feet deep and twenty feet wide, over which lay a
drawbridge. So Jack employed men to cut through this bridge on
both sides, nearly to the middle; and then, dressing himself in
his invisible coat, he marched against the giant with his sword
of sharpness. Although the giant could not see Jack, he smelt his
approach, and cried out in these words:

"Fee, fi, fo, fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman!
Be he alive or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make me bread!"

"Say'st thou so," said Jack; "then thou art a monstrous miller
indeed."

The giant cried ou