"That's right, my beauty!" cried the princess; "drain it dry."

She let it go, left it hanging, and sat down on a great stone, with
her black cat, which had followed her all round the cave, by her
side. Then she began to knit and mutter awful words. The snake hung
like a huge leech, sucking at the stone; the cat stood with his
back arched, and his tail like a piece of cable, looking up at the
snake; and the old woman sat and knitted and muttered. Seven days
and seven nights they remained thus; when suddenly the serpent
dropped from the roof as if exhausted, and shrivelled up till it
was again like a piece of dried seaweed. The witch started to her
feet, picked it up, put it in her pocket, and looked up at the
roof. One drop of water was trembling on the spot where the snake
had been sucking. As soon as she saw that, she turned and fled,
followed by her cat. Shutting the door in a terrible hurry, she
locked it, and having muttered some frightful words, sped to the
next, which also she locked and muttered over; and so with all the
hundred doors, till she arrived in her own cellar. Then she sat
down on the floor ready to faint, but listening with malicious
delight to the rushing of the water, which she could hear
distinctly through all the hundred doors.

But this was not enough. Now that she had tasted revenge, she lost
her patience. Without further measures, the lake would be too long
in disappearing. So the next night, with the last shred of the
dying old moon rising, she took some of the water in which she had
revived the snake, put it in a bottle, and set out, accompanied by
her cat. Before morning she had made the entire circuit of the
lake, muttering fearful words as she crossed every stream, and