s to go back, and
they rode on as fast as the horse would go.

In the night the king sent for his youngest daughter, and as she did
not come he sent again; but she did not come any the more for that. The
queen, who was a witch, discovered that her daughter had gone off with
the prince, and told her husband he must leave his bed and go after
them. The king got slowly up, groaning with pain, and dragged himself to
the stables, where he saw the lean horse still in his stall.

Leaping on his back he shook the reins, and his daughter, who knew what
to expect and had her eyes open, saw the horse start forward, and in the
twinkling of an eye changed her own steed into a cell, the prince into a
hermit, and herself into a nun.

When the king reached the chapel, he pulled up his horse and asked if
a girl and a young man had passed that way. The hermit raised his eyes,
which were bent on the ground, and said that he had not seen a living
creature. The king, much disgusted at this news, and not knowing what
to do, returned home and told his wife that, though he had ridden for
miles, he had come across nothing but a hermit and a nun in a cell.

'Why those were the runaways, of course,' she cried, flying into a
passion, 'and if you had only brought a scrap of the nun's dress, or a
bit of stone from the wall, I should have had them in my power.'

At these words the king hastened back to the stable, and brought out the
lean horse who travelled quicker than thought. But his daughter saw
him coming, and changed her horse into a plot of ground, herself into
a rose-tree covered with roses, and the prince into a gardener. As the
king rode up, the gardener looked up from the tree which he was trimming
and asked if anything was the matter. 'Have you seen a young man and a
girl go by?' said the king, and the gardener shook his head and replied
that no one had passed that way since he had been working there. So the
king turned his steps homewards and told his wife.

'Idiot!' cried she, 'if you had only brought me one of the roses, or a
handful of earth, I should have had them in my power. But there is no
time to waste. I shall have to go with you myself.'

The girl saw them from afar, and a great fear fell on her, for she knew
her mother's skill in magic of all kinds. However, she determined to
fight to the end, and changed the horse into a deep pool, herself into
an eel, and the prince into a turtle. But it was no use. Her mother
recogn