'Well, I dare say a little sleep will do you good, if you can manage to get it, and that you will wake up better to-morrow.'
Now, that night happened to be very hot and airless, and the prince, after vainly trying to rest, at length got up and went to the window.
Suddenly he beheld in the moonlight a form with a wreath of roses on her head rise out of the sea below him and step on to the sands, holding out her arms as she did so towards the palace.
'That maiden is strangely like my wife,' thought he; 'I must see her closer!And he hastened down to the water.But when he got there, the princess, for she indeed it was, had disappeared completely, and he began to wonder if his eyes had deceived him.
The next morning he went to the false bride's room, but her ladies told him she would neither speak nor get up, though she ate everything they set before her.The prince was sorely perplexed as to what could be the matter with her, for naturally he could not guess that she was expecting her mother to return every moment, and to remove the spell the doves had laid upon her, and meanwhile was afraid to speak lest she should betray herself.At length he made up his mind to summon all the court physicians; he did not tell her what he was going to do, lest it should make her worse, but he went himself and begged the four learned leeches attached to the king's person to follow him to the princess's apartments.Unfortunately, as they entered, the princess was so enraged at the sight of them that she forgot all about the doves, and shrieked out: 'Dirty creatures! dirty creatures!' which so offended the physicians that they left the room at once, and nothing that the prince could say would prevail on them to remain.He then tried to persuade his wife to send them a message that she was sorry for her rudeness, but not a word would she say.
Late that evening, when he had performed all the tiresome duties which fall to the lot of every prince, the young man was leaning out of his window, refreshing himself with the cool breezes that blew off the sea.
His thoughts went back to the scene of the morning, and he wondered if, after all, he had not made a great mistake in marrying a low-born wife, however beautiful she might be.How could he have imagined that the quiet, gentle girl who had been so charming a companion to him during the first days of their marriage, could have become in a day the rude, sulky woman, who could not control her temper even to benefit herself.One thing was clear, if she did not change her conduct very shortly he would have to send her away from court.
He was thinking these thoughts, when his eyes fell on the sea beneath him, and there, as before, was the figure that so closely resembled his wife, standing with her feet in the water, holding out her arms to him.
'Wait for me! Wait for me! Wait for me!' he cried; not even knowing he was speaking.But when he reached the shore there was nothing to be seen but the shadows cast by the moonlight.
A state ceremonial in a city some distance off caused the prince to ride away at daybreak, and he left without 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 off to a desert island, where you will stay till you die.'
Then the ship was made ready and the wicked woman and her daughter were placed in it, and it sailed away, and no more was heard of them.But the prince and his wife lived together long and happily, and ruled their people well.
[Adapted from Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories.]
