"What! Shall a humble shepherd face a dragon unafraid and the daughter of the Tsar tremble!"
"Father," the Princess cried, "it isn't the dragon that I'm afraid of!"
"What then?" the Tsar asked.
But what it was she was afraid of the Princess would not confess. Instead she said:
"If the welfare of my country require that I kiss the shepherd on the forehead, I shall do so."
So the next morning when the shepherd started out with his sheep, the falcon on his shoulder, the dogs at his heels, the bagpipes under his arm, the Princess walked beside him.
Her eyes were downcast and he saw that she was trembling.
"Do not be afraid, dear Princess," he said to her. "Nothing shall harm you—I promise that!"
"I'm not afraid," the Princess murmured. But she continued to blush and tremble and, although the shepherd tried to look into her eyes to reassure her, she kept her head averted.
This time the Tsar himself and many of his courtiers had gone on before and taken their stand on the hill that overlooked the lake to see the final combat of the shepherd and the dragon.