den canister he
was much frightened. He took the messenger into his own room, treated
him to a splendid meal, and rewarded him generously.

On the following day he sent the messenger back again, and gave him
thirty thousand bales of silk and a team of four horses along as a
present for his master. He also wrote a letter to the Count of
Ludschou:

"My life was in your hand. I thank you for having spared me, regret my
evil intentions and will improve. From this time forward peace and
friendship shall ever unite us, and I will let no thought to the
contrary enter my mind. The citizen soldiery I have gathered I will
use only as a protection against robbers. I have already disarmed the
men and sent them back to their work in the fields."

And thenceforward the heartiest friendship existed between the two
relatives North and South of the Yellow River.

One day the slave-girl came and wished to take leave of her master.

"In my former existence," said the slave-girl, "I was a man. I was a
physician and helped the sick. Once upon a time I gave a little child
a poison to drink by mistake instead of a healing draught, and the
child died. This led the Lord of Death to punish me, and I came to
earth again in the shape of a slave-girl. Yet I remembered my former
life, tried to do well in my new surroundings, and even found a rare
teacher who taught me the swordsman's art. Already I have served you
for nineteen years. I went to Webo for you in order to repay your
kindness. And I have succeeded in shaping matters so that you are
living at peace with your relatives again, and thus have saved the
lives of thousands of people. For a weak woman this is a real service,
sufficient to absolve me of my original fault. Now I shall retire from
the world and dwell among the silent hills, in order to labor for
sanctity with a clean heart. Perhaps I may thus succeed in returning
to my former condition of life. So I beg of you to let me depart!"

The count saw that it would not be right to detain her any longer. So
he prepared a great banquet, invited a number of guests to the
farewell meal, and many a famous knight sat down to the board. And all
honored her with toasts and poems.

The count could no longer hide his emotion, and the slave-girl also
bowed before him and wept. Then she secretly left the banquet-hall,
and no human being ever discovered whither she had gone.

Note: This motive of the intelligent slave-girl also
occurs