V.

Upon the appointed day the lad went to his tryst, and at noon the
Fairy Queen appeared, and gave him a sling, and a smooth pebble from
the beach, saying:

"I have blessed your arms, and I have blessed the sling and the
stone.

"Now as the clock strikes three,
Go up the hill near the mill,
And in the ring stand still
Till you hear the click of the mill.
Then with thy arm, with power and might,
You shall strike and smite
The devil of a witch called Jezabel light,
And you shall see an awful sight."

The lad did as he was bidden, and presently he heard the huntsman's
horn and the hue and cry, and saw the hare running down the opposite
hill-side, where the hounds seemed to gain on her, but as she
breasted the hill on which he stood she gained on them. As she came
towards the mill he threw his stone, and it lodged in her skull, and
when he ran up he found he had killed the old witch. As the huntsmen
came up they crowded round him, and praised him; and then they
fastened the witch's body to a horse by ropes, and dragged her to
the bottom of the valley, where they buried her in a ditch. That
night, when the miser heard of her death, he dropped down dead on