Crimson Fairy Book

Chapter 18 The Strong Prince

There once was a king who was so fond of wine that he could not sleep unless he knew that there was a great bottle of wine tied to the bedpost.He drank all day long, and in the end he was too confused to manage the government and ruined the whole country.One day, by accident, a branch fell on his head, and he fell from his horse and fell dead.

His wife and son mourn him deeply, for he has been kind to them in spite of his faults.

So they abandoned the throne and the country, not knowing or caring where they were going.

Finally, they came to a forest aimlessly.Weary from walking, they sat down under a tree and ate the bread they had brought with them.Then the Queen said, "My son, I am very thirsty; fetch me some water."

Immediately the prince got up and went to a babbling brook nearby.He bent down and filled a hat full of water and brought it to his mother.Then turn and follow the stream up to its source under a rock, from where the water gurgles, clear, pure, and cool.He knelt down to drink from the deep pool below the rock.Just then he saw the reflection in the water of a sword hanging from a branch above his head.

The young man took a few steps back in shock.After a while he climbed up the tree, cut the rope that held the sword, and returned to his mother with the weapon.

The queen was amazed to see such a wonderful thing in such a deserted place.She held it in her hand and looked at it carefully.It was of strange workmanship, and was made of gold, and on the hilt it was written: "He who wears this sword shall be the strongest man." The Queen was so full of joy when she read this, that she bade her son verify it at once Is it true.So he tied the sword around his waist, and a force immediately poured into his veins.He seized a thick oak and uprooted it as easily as a blade of grass.

This discovery gave new life to the queen and her son, and they continued their journey through the forest.The night is coming, and the night is so thick that it can be cut with a knife.They didn't want to sleep in the forest, they were afraid of wolves and other wild animals, so they groped along hand in hand.Then the prince tripped over something lying across the road.He couldn't see what it was, and bent down to pick it up.It was so heavy that he felt like his back was going to snap.With one last blow he moved it away from the road.As it fell he recognized a large rock.Behind the stone was a cave, evidently the lair of a band of thieves, but none of the thieves were inside.

The prince hastily put out the fire that was burning in the cave, and told his mother to go in without making any noise.He walked up and down the interior by himself, listening carefully for the sounds the thieves might make as they returned.He was very sleepy though, and though he tried to keep himself awake, he fell asleep.Then he heard the voices of the thieves returning.They yelled and sang as they walked.Soon the singing stopped.He pricked up his ears to hear them discussing uneasily what was wrong with their cave and why they couldn't see the fire as usual. "It must be this place," said a voice, and the Prince thought it must be their leader. "Yes, I've touched the ditch in front of the cave. Someone must have forgotten to add wood to the fire when we left, and it ran out of wood in the fire! It's all right. Everyone jumps over the ditch, jumping Shouting: 'Jump! I'm here.' I'm the last to jump. Now."

The man who stood nearest the ditch jumped across, but he had not time to cry out at the command of the chief, for the prince rolled his head into a corner with a quick and quiet blow of his sword.Then the young man called out for him: "Jump! I'm jumping."

At this signal, a second man also quietly jumped over the ditch, and met the same fate.In a few minutes, eleven thieves lay dead on the ground, leaving only the leader alone.

Around the chief's neck is his dead wife's scarf.The prince struck with his sword and did not hurt him.But he was very cunning, and instead of resisting, he rolled on the ground, as if killed like the others.But the prince was not stupid. He also doubted whether he really killed the leader, but the leader was lying on the ground straight, and the prince finally believed that he was dead.

Next, the prince dragged the headless corpses into a room in the cave, locked the door, and then rummaged through the cave with his mother to find food.After eating, they lay down and slept peacefully.

At dawn, they all woke up, and found that they were no longer in the cave they walked into the night before, but a luxurious castle full of beautiful rooms.

The prince went about all the rooms, and locked them carefully, and bade his mother keep the keys while he went hunting.

Unfortunately, like everyone, the queen could not bear the thought of something she did not know.So as soon as her son left, she opened the doors of all the rooms and peeped in. At last she came to the room where the robber's corpse was piled up.If the sight of the blood on the ground almost made her faint, the sight of the bandit leader walking up and down inside was even more frightening.She quickly twisted the key in the lock to lock the door, and ran back to the room where she slept.

Soon, the son came back with a big bear that had called for dinner.As there was enough food to last them for many days, the prince did not go hunting next morning, but inspected the castle carefully.He found a secret passage leading from the castle to the forest, and he followed it, until he came to a castle much larger and more splendid than the robbers'.He knocked on the door with his fist and said he wanted to go in.But the master of the castle, a giant, only answered:
"I know who you are. I never associate with robbers."

"I am not a robber," answered the prince, "I am a prince, and I have killed the gang. If you do not open the door for me at once, I will break in, and your head will be lost with theirs." Together."

He waited a moment, but the door remained closed.So he pushed with his shoulder, and the wood on the door began to crack.When the giant saw that it was no use keeping the door shut, he said, "You are a brave fellow, I see. Let us make peace."

The Prince was very willing to make peace, for he had a glimpse of the Giant's beautiful daughter, and from that day he was a frequent visitor to the Giant's house.

The queen lived a dreary life alone in the castle, and for amusement she went to gossip with the bandit leader.The leader courted her in every possible way, and finally she agreed to marry him.But she was very afraid of her son, and told the robber that the next time the prince went to bathe in the river, he would have to steal the sword from where it lay above the bed, without which the young man would be powerless to punish insolence. the leader.

The bandit chief thought it was a good suggestion.The next morning, while the young man was taking a bath, he took the sword from the nail on which it hung and fastened it around his waist.The prince returned to the castle to find the robber waiting for him, standing on the steps brandishing the sword.The prince, realizing that some terrible fate awaited him, knelt down and begged the robber to forgive him.But in my heart I wish I could squeeze the stone out of the water.The robber spared his life, but put out both his eyes.The robber stuffed the two eyeballs into the prince's hand, and said cruelly:

"Here you are, you'd better keep them! You'll find them useful!"

The blind prince, weeping and groping his way to the giant's house, told him all about it.

The Giant felt very sorry for the poor young man, and asked him anxiously what had become of his eyes.The prince took two eyeballs from his pocket, and silently handed them to the giant.The giant washed them and put them back in the prince's eye sockets.The prince lay three days in the dark, and then he saw some light, and soon he could see as before.

Instead of rejoicing at the recovery of his eyes, however, he lamented the loss of the sword, lamenting that it had fallen into the hands of sworn enemies.

"Don't worry, my friend," said the Giant, "I will get it back for you." He sent for the Monkey, who was the chief of his servants.

"Tell the Fox and the Squirrel to go with you and fetch back the Prince's sword," he ordered.

The three servants rode one on the other's back and set off at once.Monkeys hate walking and usually ride on top.They went straight to the window of the room where the chief robber lived, and the monkey jumped off the fox and the squirrel and climbed in.The room was empty, and the sword hung from a nail.He took off his sword, and fastened it to his waist, as he had seen the Prince do, and swung down from the window again, and hastened back to his master astride his companions.The giant told him to give back the sword to the prince.The prince fastened his sword to his waist, and ran back to the castle as fast as he could.

"Come out, you scoundrel! Come out, you scoundrel!" he cried. "Come out and take responsibility for what you've done. I'll show you who owns the house!"

Hearing his noise, the robber hurried into his room.He glanced at the place where the sword usually hung, and found that the sword was gone. He instinctively looked at the prince's hand, and found that the sword was shining in his hand.Now it was his turn to get on his knees and ask for forgiveness, but it was too late.He hurt the prince, so the prince retaliated with an eye.He gouged out the robber's eyes, and thrust the enemy forward with a sharp thrust.The robber fell into a deep hole, and he is still there to this day.The prince sent his mother back to his grandfather, never wanting to see her again.Then he returned to the Giant and said to him:
"Friend, you have been very kind to me, please do me a favor and marry your daughter to me."

So they were married, and the wedding feast was so grand that there is no country in the world that has not heard of it.The prince never went back to inherit his father's throne, and he and his wife lived peacefully in that forest, and are still there if they hadn't died.

(End of this chapter)