ngdom hers alone.'

Then he ordered twelve coffins to be made, and filled them with
shavings, and placed a little pillow in each. These he put away in an
empty room, and, giving the key to his wife, he bade her tell no one of
it.

The Queen grieved over the sad fate of her sons and refused to be
comforted, so much so that the youngest boy, who was always with her,
and whom she had christened Benjamin, said to her one day:

'Dear mother, why are you so sad?'

'My child,' she answered, 'I may not tell you the reason.'

But he left her no peace, till she went and unlocked the room and showed
him the twelve coffins filled with shavings, and with the little pillow
laid in each.

Then she said: 'My dearest Benjamin, your father has had these coffins
made for you and your eleven brothers, because if I bring a girl into
the world you are all to be killed and buried in them.'

She wept bitterly as she spoke, but her son comforted her and said:

'Don't cry, dear mother; we'll manage to escape somehow, and will fly
for our lives.'

'Yes,' replied his mother, 'that is what you must do--go with your
eleven brothers out into the wood, and let one of you always sit on the
highest tree you can find, keeping watch on the tower of the castle. If
I give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then you may
safely return; but if I give birth to a little daughter I will wave a
red flag, which will warn you to fly away as quickly as you can, and may
the kind Heaven have pity on you. Every night I will get up and pray for
you, in winter that you may always have a fire to warm yourselves by,
and in summer that you may not languish in the heat.'

Then she blessed her sons and they set out into the wood. They found a
very high oak tree, and there they sat, turn about, keeping their eyes
always fixed on the castle tower. On the twelfth day, when the turn came
to Benjamin, he noticed a flag waving in the air, but alas! it was not
white, but blood red, the sign which told them they must all die. When
the brothers heard this they were very angry, and said:

'Shall we forsooth suffer death for the sake of a wretched girl? Let us
swear vengeance, and vow that wherever and whenever we shall meet one of
her sex, she shall die at our hands.'

Then they went their way deeper into the wood, and in the middle of it,
where it was thickest and darkest, they came upon a little enchanted
house which stood empty.

'Here,' they said, 'l