"Tell me; why did you draw off their blood in those phials?" "Why, in order that the bride and bridegroom might die. To-morrow morning no one will be able to wake them. I alone know how to bring them back to life." "How's that managed?" "The bride and bridegroom must have cuts made in their heels, and some of their own blood must then be poured back into those wounds. I've got the bridegroom's blood stowed away in my right-hand pocket, and the bride's in my left." The Soldier listened to this without letting a single word escape him. Then the Warlock began boasting again. "Whatever I wish," says he, "that I can do!" "I suppose it's quite impossible to get the better of you?" says the Soldier. "Why impossible? If any one were to make a pyre of aspen boughs, a hundred loads of them, and were to burn me on that pyre, then he'd be able to get the better of me. Only he'd have to look out sharp in burning me; for snakes and worms and different kinds of reptiles would creep out of my inside, and crows and magpies and jackdaws would come flying up. All these must be caught and flung on the pyre. If so much as a single maggot were to escape, then there'd be no help for it; in that maggot I should slip away!" The Soldier listened to all this and did not forget it. He and the Warlock talked and talked, and at last they arrived at the grave. "Well, brother," said the Warlock, "now I'll tear you to pieces. Otherwise you'd be telling all this." "What are you talking about? Don't you deceive yourself; I serve God and the Emperor." The Warlock gnashed his teeth, howled aloud, and sprang at the Soldier--who drew his sword and began laying about him with sweeping blows. They struggled and struggled; the Soldier was all but at the end of his strength. "Ah!" thinks he, "I'm a lost man--and all for nothing!" Suddenly the cocks began to crow. The Warlock fell lifeless to the ground. The Soldier took the phials of blood out of the Warlock's pockets, and went on to the house of his own people. When he had got there, and had exchanged greetings with his relatives, they said: "Did you see any disturbance, Soldier?" "No, I saw none." "There now! Why we've a terrible piece of work going on in the village. A Warlock has taken to haunting it!" After talking awhile, they lay down to sleep. Next morning the Soldier awoke, and began asking: "I'm told you've got a wedding going on somewhere here?" "There was a wedding in the house of a rich moujik," replied his relatives, "but the bride and bridegroom have died this very night--what from, nobody knows." "Where does this moujik live?" They showed him the house. Thither he went without speaking a word. When he got there, he found the whole family in tears. "What are you mourning about?" says he. "Such and such is the state of things, Soldier," say they.