d
shrieking 'Sentry, where are you? Sentry, where are you?' She went
towards the altar, and right up to it, but there was no one there; then
she screamed again,

My father has set no sentry in,
War and Pest will now begin.

Then she went round the whole church, both up and down, sighing and
weeping,

My father has set no sentry in,
War and Pest will now begin.

Then she went away again, and at the same moment the clock in the tower
struck one.

Then the smith heard in the church a soft music, which grew louder and
louder, and soon filled the whole building. He heard also a multitude of
footsteps, as if the church was being filled with people. He heard
the priest go through the service in front of the altar, and there was
singing more beautiful than he had ever heard before. Then he also heard
the priest offer up a prayer of thanksgiving because the land had been
freed from war and pestilence, and from all misfortune, and the king's
daughter delivered from the evil one. Many voices joined in, and a hymn
of praise was sung; then he heard the priest again, and heard his own
name and that of the princess, and thought that he was being wedded to
her. The church was packed full, but he could see nothing. Then he heard
again the many footsteps as ol' folk leaving the church, while the music
sounded fainter and fainter, until it altogether died away. When it was
silent, the light of day began to break in through the windows.

The smith sprang up out of the chest and fell on his knees and thanked
God. The church was empty, but up in front of the altar lay the
princess, white and red, like a human being, but sobbing and crying, and
shaking with cold in her white shroud. The smith took his sentry coat
and wrapped it round her; then she dried her tears, and took his hand
and thanked him, and said that he had now freed her from all the sorcery
that had been in her from her birth, and which had come over her again
when her father broke the command against seeing her until she had
completed her fourteenth year.

She said further, that if he who had delivered her would take her in
marriage, she would be his. If not, she would go into a nunnery, and he
could marry no other as long as she lived, for he was wedded to her with
the service of the dead, which he had heard.

She was now the most beautiful young princess that anyone could wish to
see, and he was now lord of half the kingdom, which had been promis