e,
and soon to be married, but death will be your spouse. Look here, I have
a great kettle of water to set on, and when once they have you in their
power they will cut you in pieces without mercy, cook you, and eat you,
for they are cannibals. Unless I have pity on you, and save you, all is
over with you!"

Then the old woman hid her behind a great cask, where she could not be
seen.

"Be as still as a mouse," said she; "do not move or go away, or else you
are lost. At night, when the robbers are asleep, we will escape. I have
been waiting a long time for an opportunity."

No sooner was it settled than the wicked gang entered the house. They
brought another young woman with them, dragging her along, and they
were drunk, and would not listen to her cries and groans. They gave her
wine to drink, three glasses full, one of white wine, one of red, and
one of yellow, and then they cut her in pieces. The poor bride all the
while shaking and trembling when she saw what a fate the robbers had
intended for her. One of them noticed on the little finger of their
victim a golden ring, and as he could not draw it off easily, he took an
axe and chopped it off, but the finger jumped away, and fell behind the
cask on the bride's lap. The robber took up a light to look for it, but
he could not find it. Then said one of the others,

"Have you looked behind the great cask?"

But the old woman cried,

"Come to supper, and leave off looking till to-morrow; the finger cannot
run away."

Then the robbers said the old woman was right, and they left off
searching, and sat down to eat, and the old woman dropped some sleeping
stuff into their wine, so that before long they stretched themselves on
the cellar floor, sleeping and snoring. When the bride heard that, she
came from behind the cask, and had to make her way among the sleepers
lying all about on the ground, and she felt very much afraid lest she
might awaken any of them. But by good luck she passed through, and the
old woman with her, and they opened the door, and they made all haste to
leave that house of murderers. The wind had carried away the ashes from
the path, but the peas and lentils had budded and sprung up, and the
moonshine upon them showed the way. And they went on through the night,
till in the morning they reached the mill. Then the girl related to her
father all that had happened to her.

When the wedding-day came, the friends and neighbours assembled, the
miller