the princess's chest?

It became now a general belief that the princess's ghost walked,
and ate up all those who were to guard her chest, and very soon
there was no one left who would be placed on this duty, and the
king's soldiers deserted the service, before their turn came to
be her bodyguard. The king then promised a large reward to the
soldier who would volunteer for the post. This did for some
time, as there were found a few reckless fellows, who wished to
earn this good payment. But they never got it, for in the
morning, they too had disappeared like the rest.

So it had gone on for something like a whole year; every night a
sentinel had been placed beside the chest, either by compulsion
or of his own free will, but not a single one of the sentinels
was to be seen, either on the following day or any time
thereafter. And so it had also gone with one, on the night
before a certain day, when a merry young smith came wandering to
the town where the king's castle stood. It was the capital of
the country, and people of every king came to it to get work.
This smith, whose name was Christian, had come for that same
purpose. There was no work for him in the place he belonged to,
and he wanted now to seek a place in the capital.

There he entered an inn where he sat down in the public room, and
got something to eat. Some under-officers were sitting there,
who were out to try to get some one enlisted to stand sentry.
They had to go in this way, day after day, and hitherto they had
always succeeded in finding one or other reckless fellow. But on
this day they had, as yet, found no one. It was too well known