The treasure consisted of whole tons of gold and silver, and a handsome young man sat beside them as if to guard them. He came to meet them and thanked them for setting him free. He was the son of a king, but had been transformed by a sorcerer into the three-headed little man and banished to that castle. By the loss of two of his heads the spell was taken off the two royal maidens, and when the blacksmith slew the terrible dog he himself was delivered from it. For that service the whole of the treasure should be theirs.
The treasure was then divided, and it was a long time before they could complete the distribution. The two princesses, however, out of gratitude to their deliverers, married the miner and the blacksmith, and the handsome prince married the nun; and so they passed the rest of their lives in peace and joy.
RED, WHITE, AND BLACK.
[Normandy.]
he eldest son of a mighty monarch was once walking alone in a field, which, as it was the depth of winter, happened to be covered with snow. He perceived a raven flying by, and shot him. The bird fell dead on the ground and the snow was sprinkled with his blood. The glossy black of his plumage, the dazzling white of the snow, and the red blood, formed a combination of colours which delighted the eyes of the prince. The impression did not pass away from his memory; the colours seemed perpetually to float before his eyes, and at length he conceived in his heart an intense desire to possess a wife who should be as rosy as that blood, as white as that snow, and have hair as black as the plumage of that raven.
One day as he sat profoundly musing on the object of his desires, a voice said to him:—"My prince, go travel into Marvel-land, and there in the centre of an immense forest you will find an apple-tree, bearing larger and fairer fruit than you have ever yet beheld; pluck three of the apples, but forbear to open them until you shall be again at home; they will present you with a bride exactly such as you covet."
Marvel-land was very remote from the prince's home, and very difficult of access, but nothing could deter him from undertaking the journey. He started forthwith, travelled over land and sea, and searched the forest with the utmost diligence, till at length he found the tree. He broke off three fine apples, and as, in the first transports of his joy, he could not resist the curiosity which urged him, he opened one of them on the spot. A lovely maiden came out of it so enchantingly fair, and so exactly corresponding to the image he had formed, that he was lost in admiration. But the maiden, so far from being well disposed towards him, gazed on him with looks of scorn, and bitterly reproaching him for having carried her off, vanished from his sight.