“If we go away there will be a mighty chase after us. The Sea Tsar will be wroth, and will give us over to death. We must be cunning.” So Vasilísa spat in three corners, and the doors of her room opened, and she, with Iván Tsarévich, ran into Sacred Russia. On the second day, very early, an embassy came from the Sea Tsar to catch the young couple and to summon them into the palace, and they knocked on the door: “Wake up, get up from your sleep; your father is calling you.” “It is yet early: we have not yet had our sleep; come later on,” one pool answered. Then the ambassadors retired, and they waited one hour and another hour, and they knocked again: “This is not the time and season to sleep; this is the time and season to get up.” “Have a little patience, we will get up; we are dressing,” the second pool answered. And the third time the envoys came, saying that the Sea Tsar was angry: “Why are you so long making ready?” “We will be down soon,” answered the third pool. So the messengers waited and waited, and then again knocked. Then there was no answer and no reply, so they broke in the door, and all was empty. Then they went and sent word to the Sea Tsar that the young folk had run away. He was very angry, and he set a mighty hunt after them. But Vasilísa the Wise, with Iván Tsarévich, was already very far ahead: they were leaping on swift horses without staying, without taking breath. “Now, Iván Tsarévich, bend your head down to the grey earth and listen. Is there no noise of a hunt from the Sea Tsar?” Iván Tsarévich leapt down from his horse, put his ear to the ground, and said, “I hear the talk of people, and the tramp of horses.” “This is the hunt after us,” said Vasilísa the Wise. And she at once turned the horses into a green meadow, Iván Tsarévich into an old shepherd, and herself into a brooding lamb. The hunt passed by. “Ho, old man, have you seen a doughty youth with a fair maiden galloping by?” “No, good folk, I have not seen them,” said Iván Tsarévich. “It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by.” So they returned home. “Your Imperial Majesty, we saw no one on the road; we only saw a shepherd feeding a little sheep.” “Why did you not take it? That was themselves!” said the Sea Tsar. And he sent out a second hunt. But Iván Tsarévich and Vasilísa the Wise were leaping far off on their swift steeds. “Now, Iván Tsarévich, put your head to the grey earth and listen whether there is no hunt from the Sea Tsar.” Iván Tsarévich leapt off his horse, put his ear to the grey earth and said, “I hear the talk of people and the hoppety-hop of horses.” “This is the chase, that is the steeds,” said Vasilísa the Wise; and she turned herself into a church, and Iván Tsarévich into an elderly pope and the horses into trees. So the hunt went by. “Ho, _bátyushka_, have you seen a shepherd with a little lamb passing by?”