l at length they had to retire into the town,
and make ready for a siege. It lasted so long that food began to fail,
and even in the palace there was not enough to eat.

So one morning Dotterine, who had had neither supper nor breakfast,
and was feeling very hungry, let her wing fly away. She was so weak and
miserable, that directly her godmother appeared she burst into tears,
and could not speak for some time.

'Do not cry so, dear child,' said the godmother. 'I will carry you away
from all this, but the others I must leave to take their chance.' Then,
bidding Dotterine follow her, she passed through the gates of the town,
and through the army outside, and nobody stopped them, or seemed to see
them.

The next day the town surrendered, and the king and all his courtiers
were taken prisoners, but in the confusion his son managed to make his
escape. The queen had already met her death from a spear carelessly
thrown.

As soon as Dotterine and her godmother were clear of the enemy,
Dotterine took off her own clothes, and put on those of a peasant,
and in order to disguise her better her godmother changed her face
completely. 'When better times come,' her protectress said cheerfully,
'and you want to look like yourself again, you have only to whisper the
words I have taught you into the basket, and say you would like to have
your own face once more, and it will be all right in a moment. But you
will have to endure a little longer yet.' Then, warning her once more to
take care of the basket, the lady bade the girl farewell.

For many days Dotterine wandered from one place to another without
finding shelter, and though the food which she got from the basket
prevented her from starving, she was glad enough to take service in a
peasant's house till brighter days dawned. At first the work she had
to do seemed very difficult, but either she was wonderfully quick in
learning, or else the basket may have secretly helped her. Anyhow at the
end of three days she could do everything as well as if she had cleaned
pots and swept rooms all her life.

One morning Dotterine was busy scouring a wooden tub, when a noble lady
happened to pass through the village. The girl's bright face as she
stood in the front of the door with her tub attracted the lady, and she
stopped and called the girl to come and speak to her.

'Would you not like to come and enter my service?' she asked.

'Very much,' replied Dotterine, 'if my present mistress