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THE TWIN BROTHERS. |
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table, the king said : " What did all those wild animals want who came to you to-day, going in and out of my castle ?"
"I cannot tell you yet," she replied, "but if you will send into the town for the master of these animals, then I will do so."
The king sent on hearing this a servant at once to the inn with an invitation to the stranger who owned the animals, and the servant arrived just as the hunter had finished his bet with the landlord.
"See, landlord !" he cried, " the king has sent me an invitation by his servant; but I cannot accept it yet." He turned to the man who waited and said : "Tell my lord the king that I cannot obey his commands to visit him unless he sends me suitable clothes for a royal palace, and a carriage with six horses, and servants to wait upon me."
The servant returned with the message, and when the king heard it, he said to his daughter : " What shall I do ?" " I would send for him as he requests," she replied. So they sent royal robes, and a carriage and six horses with servants, and when the hunter saw them coming, he said to the landlord : " See ! they have sent for me as I wished."
He dressed himself in the kingly clothes, took the handkerchief containing the dragon's tongues, and drove away to the castle.
As soon as he arrived, the king said to his daughter; " How shall I receive him ?"
"I should go and meet him," she replied.
So the king went to meet him, and led him into the royal apartment, and all his animals followed. The king pointed him to a seat by his daughter. The marshal sat on her other side as bridegroom, but the visitor knew it not.
Just at this moment the dragon's seven heads were brought into the room to show to the company, and the king said: " These heads belonged to the dragon who was for so many years the terror of this town. The marshal slew the dragon, and saved my daughter's life, therefore, I have given her to him in marriage, according to my promise."
At this the hunter rose, and, advancing, opened the seven throats of the dragon, and said : " Where are the tongues ?"
The marshal turned white with fear, and knew not what to do. At last, he said in his terror : " Dragons have no tongues." |
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