sort of twinkling light
through the thick bushes, which seemed to lie in the way he was going,
and on he went, slowly enough, poor man! But still the light was before
him, till suddenly he came to a great rock, overgrown in many places
with briars and brambles. In the midst of it, however, was the mouth of
a large cave, with great masses of stone hanging over, as if ready to
fall on a traveller's head. It was a very stern and gloomy-looking place
indeed, with clefts and crevices and ragged crags all around. But a few
steps in the cave someone seemed to have built themselves a house; for
it was blocked up with large, unhewn boards of wood, and in this
partition there was a door and a window, through which came the light he
had seen. The Prince dismounted from his horse, and though he did not
know who might be within, he thought it best to knock at the door, and
ask for food and shelter.

The moment he knocked a loud, hoarse voice cried:

'Come in!' and tying his horse to a tree, he opened the door.

Chapter III

Now, whatever the poor Prince had expected to find, he was certainly
disappointed; for that thicket of Adversity is full of disappointments,
as everyone knows who has travelled through it. He had thought he should
see some poor woodman or honest peasant, who would welcome him to his
homely hut in the rock with kindness and benevolence; but instead of
that he beheld, seated at the table, carving away at a piece of stick by
the light of a very small twinkling candle, one of the most tremendous
monsters ever man's eyes lighted upon. In shape he was like a man, but
he was a great deal stronger than any man. His face looked as if it were
cast in iron, so hard and rigid were all the features; and there was an
everlasting frown planted on his brow. His hands were long and sinewy,
with terrible sharp claws upon them; and his feet were so large and
heavy that they seemed as if they would crush anything they would set
upon to pieces.

The poor Prince, though he was a very brave young man, stopped and
hesitated at the sight of this giant; but the monster, without ever
turning his head, cried out again: 'Come in! Why do you pause? All men
must obey me, and I am the only one that all men do obey.'

'You must be a mighty monarch, then,' said the young Prince, taking
courage. 'Pray, what is your name?'

'My name is Necessity,' answered the other in his thundering voice; 'and
some people give me bad names, and call me