“Well, Prince Ivan! Before I came as a guest, but now I have come as a wooer. Give me the Princess Anna to wife.”
“I won’t interfere with my sister’s freedom. If you gain her affections, let her marry you.”
So the Princess Anna married the Raven, and he bore her away to his own realm. Prince Ivan was left alone. A whole year he lived without his sisters; then he grew weary, and said:—
“I will set out in search of my sisters.”
He got ready for the journey, he rode and rode, and one day he saw a whole army lying dead on the plain. He cried aloud, “If there be a living man there, let him make answer! who has slain this mighty host?”
There replied unto him a living man:
“All this mighty host has been slain by the fair Princess Marya Morevna.”
Prince Ivan rode further on, and came to a white tent, and forth came to meet him the fair Princess Marya Morevna.
“Hail Prince!” says she, “whither does God send you? and is it of your free will or against your will?”
Prince Ivan replied, “Not against their will do brave youths ride!”