“In the town.”
Emelian and the maiden went to the town. She took him to a little house on the very edge and they married and set up housekeeping.
One day the King went for a drive beyond the town, and when passing Emelian’s gate, Emelian’s wife came out to look at him. When the King saw her he marvelled.
“What a beauty!” he thought. He stopped the carriage and called her to him.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Emelian the peasant’s wife.”
“How came a beauty like you to marry a peasant?” he asked. “You should have been a queen.”
“Thank you for your kind words,” she said; “a peasant husband is good enough for me.”
The King talked to her a while and went on his way. When he returned to the palace Emelian’s wife did not go out of his head for a moment. The whole night he could not sleep and kept on thinking how he could take her away from Emelian, but no possible way occurred to him. He summoned his servants and asked them to think of a way.
And the servants said to him, “Get Emelian to come and be a labourer in the palace. We will wear him out with work, then his wife will become a widow and you can have her.”