Give me the eyes of
your seven Queens, and then perhaps I may believe you mean what you
say."

The King was so carried away by the glamor of the white hind's magical
beauty that he went home at once, had the eyes of his seven Queens
taken out, and, after throwing the poor blind creatures into a noisome
dungeon whence they could not escape, set off once more for the hovel
in the ravine, bearing with him his horrible offering. But the
white hind only laughed cruelly when she saw the fourteen eyes,
and threading them as a necklace, flung it round her mother's neck,
saying, "Wear that, little mother, as a keepsake, while I am away in
the King's palace."

Then she went back with the bewitched Monarch, as his bride, and he
gave her the seven Queens' rich clothes and jewels to wear, the seven
Queens' palace to live in, and the seven Queens' slaves to wait upon
her; so that she really had everything even a witch could desire.

Now, very soon after the seven wretched hapless Queens had their eyes
torn out, and were cast into prison, a baby was born to the youngest
of the Queens. It was a handsome boy, but the other Queens were very
jealous that the youngest among them should be so fortunate. But
though at first they disliked the handsome little boy, he soon proved
so useful to them, that ere long they all looked on him as their son.
Almost as soon as he could walk about he began scraping at the mud
wall of their dungeon, and in an incredibly short space of time had
made a hole big enough for him to crawl through. Through this he
disappeared, returning in an hour or so laden with sweetmeats, which
he divided equally among the seven blind Queens.

As he grew older he enlarged the hole, and slipped out two or three
times every day to play with the little nobles in the town. No one
knew who the tiny boy was, but everybody liked him, and he was so full
of funny tricks and antics, so merry and bright, that he was sure to
be rewarded by some girdle-cakes, a handful of parched grain, or some
sweetmeats. All these, things he brought home to his seven mothers, as
he loved to call the seven blind Queens, who by his help lived on in
their dungeon when all the world thought they had starved to death
ages before.

At last, when he was quite a big lad, he one day took his bow and
arrow, and went out to seek for game. Coming by chance past the palace
where the white hind lived in wicked splendor and magnificence, he saw
some pigeons flut