s long as you live," replied the king, "and I
will never ask you to forsake him."

While they were talking, the fawn came bounding in, looking quite well
and happy. Then his sister fastened the string of rushes to his collar,
took it in her hand, and led him away from the cottage in the wood to
where the king's beautiful horse waited for him.

The king placed the maiden before him on his horse and rode away to his
castle, the fawn following by their side. Soon after, their marriage was
celebrated with great splendour, and the fawn was taken the greatest
care of, and played where he pleased, or roamed about the castle grounds
in happiness and safety.

In the meantime the wicked stepmother, who had caused these two young
people such misery, supposed that the sister had been devoured by wild
beasts, and that the fawn had been hunted to death. Therefore when she
heard of their happiness, such envy and malice arose in her heart that
she could find no rest till she had tried to destroy it.

She and her ugly daughter came to the castle when the queen had a little
baby, and one of them pretended to be a nurse, and at last got the
mother and child into their power.

They shut the queen up in the bath, and tried to suffocate her, and the
old woman put her own ugly daughter in the queen's bed that the king
might not know she was away.

She would not, however, let him speak to her, but pretended that she
must be kept quite quiet.

The queen escaped from the bath-room, where the wicked old woman had
locked her up, but she did not go far, as she wanted to watch over her
child and the little fawn.

For two nights the baby's nurse saw a figure of the queen come into the
room and take up her baby and nurse it. Then she told the king, and he
determined to watch himself. The old stepmother, who acted as nurse to
her ugly daughter, whom she tried to make the king believe was his wife,
had said that the queen was too weak to see him, and never left her
room. "There cannot be two queens," said the king to himself, "so
to-night I will watch in the nursery." As soon as the figure came in and
took up her baby, he saw it was his real wife, and caught her in his
arms, saying, "You are my own beloved wife, as beautiful as ever."

The wicked witch had thrown her into a trance, hoping she would die, and
that the king would then marry her daughter; but on the king speaking to
her, the spell was broken. The queen told the king how cruelly sh