“Now,” said the soldier, “take this nosebag and beat it hard after the ancient manner of smiths.”
So the smiths took the nosebag, and they began to whisper to each other: “How fearfully heavy it is! The devil must be in it.”
The devils shrieked in answer: “Yes, we are there, father—yes, we are there! Kinsmen, help us!”
So the smiths instantly laid the nosebag on the iron anvil, and they began to knock it about with their hammers as though they were hammering iron.
Very soon the devils saw that they could not possibly stand such treatment, and they began to shriek: “Mercy on us!—mercy on us! Let us out, discharged soldier, into the free world. Unto all eternity we will not forget you, and into this palace never a devil shall enter again. We will forbid everybody—all of them—and drive them all a hundred versts away.”
So the soldier bade the smiths stop, and as soon as he unbuckled the nosebag the devils rushed out, and flew off, without looking, into the depths of hell—into the abysses of hell. But the soldier was no fool; and as they were flying out he laid hold of one old devil—laid hold of him tight by his paw. “Come along,” he said; “give me some written undertaking that you will always serve me faithfully.”
The unholy spirit wrote him out this undertaking in his own blood, gave it him, and took to his heels.
All the devils ran away into the burning pitch, and got away as fast as they could with all their infernal strength, both the old ones and the young ones; and henceforth they established guards all round the burning pit and issued stern ordinances that the gates be constantly guarded, in order that the soldier and the nosebag might never draw near.
The soldier came to the Tsar, and he told him some kind of tale how he had delivered the palace from the infernal visitation.
“Thank you,” the Tsar answered. “Stay here and live with me. I will treat you as if you were my brother.”