Then the king was exceeding terrified, and said presently, ‘I will write a letter to the queen, and this lad shall take it to her.’
So he wrote this letter: ‘Dear wife, have this lad put forthwith to death, else he will undo us all.’
Nameless set out with the letter for the queen, but on his way to the city lost himself in a forest, and there met a lady in white who said to him, ‘You have lost yourself. Come to my hut, and rest a bit; then I’ll soon bring you to the queen.’
She led Nameless to her hut, and there he fell fast asleep. The old lady took the letter from his pocket, burnt it, and put another in its stead. When the lad awoke, to his great amazement he found himself in front of the king’s house. So he went in to the queen and gave her the letter, in which stood written: ‘Dear wife, at once call the pope, and let him plight this lad to our daughter. I wish him to marry her, else a great ill will befall us.’
The queen did as her husband, the king, desired. She bade call the pope, and Nameless and the king’s fair daughter became man and wife. When the king came home and learnt of this wedding, he had the letter brought, and saw it was his own handwriting. Then he asked his son-in-law [[135]]where he had been and whom he had spoken with; and when Nameless told him about the lady in white, the king knew that the fairy[1] had aided him. Nameless was not at all the son-in-law he wanted, and he sought to make away with him, so said, ‘Go into the world and fetch me three golden hairs from the head of the Sun-King, then shall you be king along with me.’
Sorrowfully Nameless set out, for he loved his young wife, and she too loved him dearly. As he wandered on he came to a great black lake, and saw a white boat floating on the water. He cried to the old man in it, ‘Boat ahoy! come and ferry me over.’
The old man answered, ‘I will take you across if you’ll promise to bring me word how to escape out of this boat, for only then can I die.’
Nameless promised, and the old man ferried him over the black water. Soon after Nameless came to a great city, where an old man asked him, ‘Whither away?’
‘To the Sun-King,’ said Nameless.
‘Couldn’t be better. Come, I’ll bring you to our king, who’ll have something to say to you.’