The guard ran out, seized them, brought them to the castle to treat them to rods. When Nikita Koltoma came to Yelena the Beautiful he made no delay, but seized her white hands and said: “Dost know me, Yelena the Beautiful? I am Nikita Koltoma. Well, terrible Tsar, she is in thy power; what thou wishest, that do.”
The Tsar gave command to shoot her, and he made Nikita his first minister; he honored him always, and obeyed him in all things.
KOSHCHÉI WITHOUT-DEATH.
THERE was a Tsar who had one son, and when the Tsarevich was an infant his nurses and maids used to sing to him, “Baiyú, baiyú, Ivan Tsarevich; when thou’lt grow up a man thou’lt find thee a bride in the thirtieth kingdom, beyond the thrice ninth land, Vassilissa Kirbítyevna, and her marrow flows from bone to bone.”
Fifteen years had passed for the Tsarevich, and he went to ask leave to search for his bride. “Where wilt thou go?” asked his father. “Thou art still too small.”
“No, father; when I was small the nurses and maids sang to me, and told where my bride lives; and now I am going to find her.”
The Tsar gave his blessing and sent word to all kingdoms that his son, Ivan Tsarevich, was going for his bride.
Well, the Tsarevich came to a town, gave his horse to be cared for, and went himself to walk along the streets. He walked, and saw that on the square they were punishing a man with a whip. “Why,” asked he, “do ye flog him?”