So General Blackbird was shut in the stable.
At midnight, when all the world was asleep, Blackbird said:
“Come out, Rope, and come out, Stick!
Tie the horses lest they kick.
Beat the horses on the head!
Beat them till they fall down dead!”
Out came the Rope and the Club, and the Rope bound all the horses until they could not move, and the Club beat them until they all fell down dead.
Then the Rope and the Club climbed back into the Blackbird’s ear, and they all went to sleep again.
The next morning the King said, “I am sure my wild horses have settled that Blackbird. Go out and bring in his corpse.”
The servants went out to the stable, and there was the Blackbird sitting on a stall, drumming away on his walnut shell, while all around him were the dead bodies of the horses. Now these horses had cost the King a great deal of money and to have them killed in this way was more than he could stand.