nd
carried them down into a black dungeon which swarmed with toads and
bats, and where they were up to their necks in water, nobody could have
been more surprised and dismayed than they were.

'This is a dismal kind of wedding,' they said; 'what can have happened
that we should be treated like this? They must mean to kill us.'

And this idea annoyed them very much. Three days passed before they
heard any news, and then the King of the Peacocks came and berated them
through a hole in the wall.

'You have called yourselves King and Prince,' he cried, 'to try and make
me marry your sister, but you are nothing but beggars, not worth the
water you drink. I mean to make short work with you, and the sword is
being sharpened that will cut off your heads!'

'King of the Peacocks,' answered the King angrily, 'you had better take
care what you are about. I am as good a King as yourself, and have a
splendid kingdom and robes and crowns, and plenty of good red gold to
do what I like with. You are pleased to jest about having our heads cut
off; perhaps you think we have stolen something from you?'

At first the King of the Peacocks was taken aback by this bold speech,
and had half a mind to send them all away together; but his Prime
Minister declared that it would never do to let such a trick as that
pass unpunished, everybody would laugh at him; so the accusation was
drawn up against them, that they were impostors, and that they had
promised the King a beautiful Princess in marriage who, when she
arrived, proved to be an ugly peasant girl.

This accusation was read to the prisoners, who cried out that they had
spoken the truth, that their sister was indeed a Princess more beautiful
than the day, and that there was some mystery about all this which they
could not fathom. Therefore they demanded seven days in which to prove
their innocence, The King of the Peacocks was so angry that he would
hardly even grant them this favour, but at last he was persuaded to do
so.

While all this was going on at court, let us see what had been happening
to the real Princess. When the day broke she and Frisk were equally
astonished at finding themselves alone upon the sea, with no boat and
no one to help them. The Princess cried and cried, until even the fishes
were sorry for her.

'Alas!' she said, 'the King of the Peacocks must have ordered me to be
thrown into the sea because he had changed his mind and did not want to
marry me. But how s