med, "You have accomplished a
great wonder, but I cannot let you off so easily. To-morrow I will
place my thirty daughters in a row, and if you cannot tell me which
one is the youngest, you will lose your head."

The Prince, however, was not cast down at this, for he thought he
would have no trouble in recognizing Hyacinthia. That evening the
little bee entered the room and told him that this task was quite as
difficult as the first, because the sisters were all exactly alike.
"But you will know me," said she, "by a little fly which you will
discover on my cheek."

The next day the magician summoned him to his presence, and showed him
the thirty daughters standing in a row. The Prince passed before them
twice, without daring to choose; but he saw the little fly on the pink
cheek of one of the maidens.

"This is Hyacinthia!" exclaimed he. The magician was greatly
astonished; but not yet satisfied, he required of the Prince still
another task.

"If, before this candle burns to the bottom," said he, "you make me
a pair of boots reaching to my knees, I will let you go; but if you
fail, you will lose your head."

"Then we must fly, for I love you dearly," said Hyacinthia, when the
Prince had told her of this new task. She breathed on the window-pane,
and straightway it was covered with frost; then, leading Prince Milan
from the chamber, she locked the door, and they fled through the
passage by which they had entered the Underworld. Beside the smooth
lake his horse was still grazing, and mounting it, they were borne
swiftly away.

When the magician sent for the Prince to come to him, the frozen
breath replied to the messengers, and so delayed the discovery of his
escape. At last the magician lost patience and ordered the door burst
open. The frozen breath mocked at him, and he hastened in pursuit of
the fugitives.

"I hear the sound of horses' feet behind us," said Hyacinthia. The
Prince dismounted, and putting his ear to the ground, answered, "Yes,
they are near." Hyacinthia thereupon changed herself into a river, and
the Prince became a bridge, and his horse a blackbird. Their pursuers,
no longer finding their footprints, were obliged to return to the
magician, who cursed them, and again sent them forth.

"I hear the sound of horses' feet behind us," again said Hyacinthia.
The Prince put his ear to the earth and said, "Yes, they are nearly
upon us." Thereupon Hyacinthia changed herself, the Prince and the
horse,