oke up his camp and returned to Anton. After his departure,
Simbalda assembled an army of fifteen thousand men, marched upon the
city of Anton, surrounded it on all sides, and demanded that Bova
should be given up to him. But Dadon collected an army twice as
strong as Simbalda's, and drove him back into the city of Sumin.

One day, as Queen Militrisa was walking in her garden, she by chance
passed the prison where Bova Korolevich was confined. Then he cried
aloud: "Alas! my gracious mother, fair Queen Militrisa, why are you so
enraged against me? Why have you put me in prison and given me no food
on purpose to let me die of hunger? Have I grieved you by any ill
conduct or cruel words, that you treat me in this way, or have wicked
people spoken evil of me to you?" Militrisa answered: "I know of
nothing wrong in you, and have only put you in prison on account of
your irreverence to Tsar Dadon, who defends our kingdom against our
enemies, while you are young; but I will soon set you at liberty, and
will send you now some sweetmeats and meat; you can eat as much as you
like."

[Illustration: "ALAS! MY GRACIOUS MOTHER, WHY HAVE YOU PUT ME IN
PRISON?"]

So saying, Queen Militrisa went into the palace and set to work to
make two cakes, of wheaten dough and serpent's fat, which she baked
and sent to Bova Korolevich by a servant maid named Chernavka. But
when the maid came to Bova she said: "Master, do not eat the cakes
which your mother has sent, but give them to the dogs, for they are
poisoned, here is a piece of my own bread." So Bova took the cakes
and threw them to the dogs, and as soon as they tasted them they died.
And when he saw Chernavka's kindness and fidelity, he took her black
bread and ate it, and begged her not to close the prison door: so she
left it open, and when she came again to Militrisa she told her she
had given the cakes to Bova.

As soon as the servant was gone, Bova escaped from his prison and went
to the harbour to forget his sorrow. There some drunken people seized
and carried him on board a ship, and the merchants on it asked him of
what condition he was. Bova Korolevich told them that he was of the
poor class, and that his mother got her living by washing linen for
strangers. When the sailors heard this they wondered that he should
look so handsome, and bethought them how they might keep him with
them. They began to wrangle as to who should be his master, but as
soon as Bova perceived