seeing his wife again.

'Perhaps she may have come to her senses by to-morrow,' said he to
himself; 'and, anyhow, if I am going to send her back to her father,
it might be better if we did not meet in the meantime! Then he put the
matter from his mind, and kept his thoughts on the duty that lay before
him.

It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instead
of entering, he went down to the shore and hid behind a rock. He had
scarcely done so when the girl came out of the sea, and stretched out
her arms towards his window. In an instant the prince had seized her
hand, and though she made a frightened struggle to reach the water--for
she in her turn had had a spell laid upon her--he held her fast.

'You are my own wife, and I shall never let you go,' he said. But the
words were hardly out of his mouth when he found that it was a hare that
he was holding by the paw. Then the hare changed into a fish, and the
fish into a bird, and the bird into a slimy wriggling snake. This time
the prince's hand nearly opened of itself, but with a strong effort he
kept his fingers shut, and drawing his sword cut off its head, when
the spell was broken, and the girl stood before him as he had seen her
first, the wreath upon her head and the birds singing for joy.

The very next morning the stepmother arrived at the palace with an
ointment that the old witch had given her to place upon her daughter's
tongue, which would break the dove's spell, if the rightful bride had
really been drowned in the sea; if not, then it would be useless. The
mother assured her that she had seen her stepdaughter sink, and that
there was no fear that she would ever come up again; but, to make all
quite safe, the old woman might bewitch the girl; and so she did. After
that the wicked stepmother travelled all through the night to get to
the palace as soon as possible, and made her way straight into her
daughter's room.

'I have got it! I have got it!' she cried triumphantly, and laid the
ointment on her daughter's tongue.

'Now what do you say?' she asked proudly.

'Dirty creatures! dirty creatures!' answered the daughter; and the
mother wrung her hands and wept, as she knew that all her plans had
failed.

At this moment the prince entered with his real wife. 'You both deserved
death,' he said, 'and if it were left to me, you should have it. But the
princess has begged me to spare your lives, so you will be put into a
ship and carried of