g with fright. 'Here? not dead! How
long have you been here?'

'Days, and days, and days,' said the king's son, sadly.

'Ah! if I had only known _that_!' cried the queen. '_Now_ I know what
a wicked woman I am!'

Just then, the trap-door in the roof of the dungeon opened, and a
voice called down, 'Tell us where is the king's son! If you do not
tell us, you shall stay here and starve.'

'The king's son is here!' cried the queen.

'A likely story!' answered the gaolers. 'Do you think we are going to
believe that?' And they shut-to the trap.

The queen's son cried, 'Dear brother, come and take back your crown,
it pricks so!' But the king's son only undid the queen's bonds and his
brother's. 'Now,' said he, 'you are free: you can kill me now.'

'Oh!' cried the queen, 'what a wicked woman I must be! Do you think I
could do it now?' Then she cried, 'O little son, bring your poor head
to me, and I will take off the crown!' and she took off the crown and
gave it back to the king's son. 'When I am dead,' she said, 'remember,
and be kind to him!'

The king's son put the crown upon his own head.

Suddenly, outside the palace, all the land broke into leaf; there was
a rushing sound in the river of fishes swimming up from the sea, and
all the air was loud and dark with flights of returning birds. Almost
at the same moment the foxes began to disappear and diminish, and
cease to be like locusts in the land.

People came running to open the door of the deepest and darkest
dungeon in the palace: 'For either,' they cried, 'the queen is dead,
or the king's son has been found!'

'Where is the king's son, then?' they called out, as they threw wide
the door. 'He is here!' cried the king; and out he came, to the
astonishment of all, wearing his crown, and leading his step-mother
and half-brother by the hand.

He looked at his step-mother, and she was quite white; as white as the
mouse that had jumped upon the king's bed at midnight bidding him fly
for his life. Not only her face, but her hair, her lips, and her very
eyes were white and colourless, for she had gone blind from gazing too
hard into her crystal ball, and hunting the king's son to death.

So she remained blind to the end of her days; but the king was more
good to her than gold, and as for his brother, never did half-brothers
love each other better than these. Therefore they all lived very
happily together, and after a long time, the queen learned to forget
what a