II.





The fact, as is plain, was, that the princess had disappeared in the
folds of the wise woman's cloak. When she rushed from the room, the
wise woman caught her to her bosom and flung the black garment
around her. The princess struggled wildly, for she was in fierce
terror, and screamed as loud as choking fright would permit her; but
her father, standing in the door, and looking down upon the wise
woman, saw never a movement of the cloak, so tight was she held by
her captor. He was indeed aware of a most angry crying, which
reminded him of his daughter; but it sounded to him so far away,
that he took it for the passion of some child in the street, outside
the palace-gates. Hence, unchallenged, the wise woman carried the
princess down the marble stairs, out at the palace-door, down a
great flight of steps outside, across a paved court, through the
brazen gates, along half-roused streets where people were opening
their shops, through the huge gates of the city, and out into the
wide road, vanishing northwards; the princess struggling and
screaming all the time, and the wise woman holding her tight. When
at length she was too tired to struggle or scream any more, the wise
woman unfolded her cloak, and set her down; and the princess saw the
light and opened her swollen eyelids. There was nothing in sight
that she had ever seen before. City and palace had disappeared. They
were upon a wide road going straight on, with a ditch on each side
of it, that behind them widened into the great moat surrounding the