mother also departed from this world.

Now it happened that an enemy declared war against the young king; and,
as he foresaw that it would be three years at the least before he could
return to his country and his queen, he ordered all his servants who
remained at home to guard her most carefully. That they might be able to
write to each other in confidence, he had two seal rings made, one for
himself and one for his young queen, and issued an order that no one,
under pain of death, was to open any letter that was sealed with one of
these. Then he took farewell of his queen, and marched out to war.

The queen's wicked stepmother had heard with great grief that her
beautiful stepdaughter had prospered so well that she had not only
preserved her life, but had even become queen of the country. She now
plotted continually how she might destroy her good fortune. While King
Lindorm was away at the war the wicked woman came to the queen,
and spoke fair to her, saying that she had always foreseen that her
stepdaughter was destined to be something great in the world, and
that she had on this account secured that she should be the enchanted
prince's bride. The queen, who did not imagine that any person could be
so deceitful, bade her stepmother welcome, and kept her beside her.

Soon after this the queen had two children, the prettiest boys that
anyone could see. When she had written a letter to the king to tell him
of this her stepmother asked leave to comb her hair for her, as her own
mother used to do. The queen gave her permission, and the stepmother
combed her hair until she fell asleep. Then she took the seal ring off
her neck, and exchanged the letter for another, in which she had written
that the queen had given birth to two whelps.

When the king received. this letter he was greatly distressed, but he
remembered how he himself had lived for twenty years as a lindorm, and
had been freed from the spell by his young queen. He therefore wrote
back to his most trusted retainer that the queen and her two whelps
should be taken care of while he was away.

The stepmother, however, took this letter as well, and wrote a new one,
in which the king ordered that the queen and the two little princes
should be burnt at the stake. This she also sealed with the queen's
seal, which was in all respects like the king's.

The retainer was greatly shocked and grieved at the king's orders,
for which he could discover no reason; but, as he