So the guslyár stayed with the King three days, and was going to say farewell.
“What reward can I offer you for your labour?” asked the King.
“Oh, your Majesty, give me one prisoner who has sat long in the prison; I must have a companion on the road! I wish to go to foreign kingdoms, and I have no one with whom I can exchange a word.”
“Certainly! Select whom you will,” said the King, and he led the guslyár into the prison.
The guslyár looked at the prisoners, selected the Tsar, and they went out to roam together.
As they were journeying on to their own kingdom the Tsar said, “Let me go, good man, for I am no simple prisoner, I am the Tsar himself. I will pay you ransom for as much as you will; I will grudge you neither money nor service.”
“Go with God,” said the guslyár: “I do not need you at all.”
“Well, come to me as my guest.”
“When the time shall come, I will be there.”
So they parted, and each set out on his own way. The Tsarítsa went by a circuitous route, reached home before her husband, took off her guslyár’s dress and arrayed herself like an empress.