‘It isn’t much use for me to tell you lest my lot becomes yours.’
‘I am not afraid of that. Tell me who you are and what has brought you here,’ begged the prince.
‘My story is not long,’ she said, smiling sadly. ‘I am a princess from Arabia, and twelve robbers who dwell in this place are fighting among themselves as to which shall have me to wife.’
‘Shall I save you?’ asked the prince. And she answered:
‘Yes; but you can’t do it. To begin with, how could you break the chain I am bound with?’
‘Oh, that’s easy enough,’ said he, taking out his sword; and directly it touched the chain the links fell apart and the princess was free.
‘Come!’ said the prince, taking her hand. But she drew back.
‘No, I dare not!’ she cried. ‘If we should meet the robbers in the passage they would kill us both.’
