`But, Princess,' said he, `I dare not take you back to King
Merlin's court. He would think hanging too good for me.'

`Oh, in that case,' she answered, `we had better go to Squirrel
Island; it is lonely enough, and too far off for anyone to follow us
there.'

So she ordered the old boatman to steer for Squirrel Island.

Meanwhile the day was breaking, and the King and Queen and
all the courtiers began to wake up and rub their eyes, and think
it was time to finish the preparations for the wedding. And the
Queen asked for her neck-handkerchief, that she might look smart.
Then there was a scurrying hither and thither, and a hunting everywhere:
they looked into every place, from the wardrobes to the
stoves, and the Queen herself ran about from the garret to the
cellar, but the handkerchief was nowhere to be found.

By this time the King had missed his dagger, and the
search began all over again. They opened boxes and chests of
which the keys had been lost for a hundred years, and found
numbers of curious things, but not the dagger, and the King tore
his beard, and the Queen tore her hair, for the handkerchief and
the dagger were the most valuable things in the kingdom.

When the King saw that the search was hopeless he said:

`Never mind, let us make haste and get the wedding over before
anything else is lost.' And then he asked where the Princess was.
Upon this her nurse came forward and said: