sat up straight, with pride in her eyes, for was it not a great prince,
as she thought, asking? But a cloud fell on her face, for he begged the
girl's life. Since there must be death, let him die, and die by fire in
her place! It was then two women cried out: the poor girl for joy--not at
the thought that her life would be saved, but because she thought the man
loved her now, or he would not offer to die for her; and the queen for
hate, because she thought the same. You can guess the rest: they were
both to die, though the king was sorry for the man.

"The king's speaker stood out and asked them if they had anything to say.
The girl stepped forward, her face without any fear, but a kind of noble
pride in it, and said: 'I am ready, O king.'

"The Great Slave bowed his head, and was thinking much. They asked him
again, and he waved his hand at them. The king spoke up in anger, and
then he smiled and said: 'O king, I am not ready; if I die, I die.' Then
he fell to thinking again. But once more the king spoke: 'Thou shalt
surely die, but not by fire, nor now; nor till we have come to our great
camp in our own country. There thou shalt die. But the woman shall die at
the going down of the sun. She shall die by fire, and thou shalt light
the faggots for the burning.'

"The Great Slave said he would not do it, not though he should die a
hundred deaths. Then the king said that it was the woman's right to
choose who should start the fire, and he had given his word, which should
not be broken.

"When the Great Slave heard this he was wild for a little, and then he
guessed altogether what was in the girl's mind. Was not this the true
thing in her, the very truest? Mais oui! That was what she wished--to die