Now, the fair Tsarévna had been noticing the horseherd for a long time, for a very long time, for how could so fair a maiden overlook the beautiful boy? She wanted to know why the horses he kept were always so much shapelier and statelier than those which the other herds looked after. “I will one day go into his room,” she said, “and see where the poor devil lives.” As every one knows, a woman’s wish is soon her deed. So one day she went into his room, when Iván Tsarévich was giving his horses drink. And there she saw the mirror, and looking into that she knew everything. She took the magical cloth, the mirror, and the pipe. Just about then there was a great disaster threatening the Tsar. The seven-headed monster, Ídolishche, was invading his land and demanding his daughter as his wife. “If you will not give her to me willy, I will take her nilly!” he said. And he got ready all his immense army, and the Tsar fared ill. And he issued a decree throughout his land, summoned the _boyárs_ and knights together, and promised any who would slay the seven-headed monster half of his wealth and half his realm, and also his daughter as his wife. Then all the princes and knights and the _boyárs_ assembled together to fight the monster, and amongst them Dyád’ka. The horseherd sat on a pony and rode behind. Then the Woodsprite came and met him, and said: “Where are you going, Iván Tsarévich?” “To the war.” “On this sorry nag you will not do much, and still less if you go in your present guise. Just come and visit me.” He took him into his hut and gave him a glass of _vódka_. Then the King’s son drank it. “Do you feel strong?” asked the Woodsprite. “If there were a log there fifty _puds_, I could throw it up and allow it to fall on my head without feeling the blow.” So he was given a second glass of _vódka_. “How strong do you feel now?” “If there were a log here one hundred _puds_, I could throw it higher than the clouds on high.” Then he was given a third glass of _vódka_. “How strong are you now?” “If there were a column stretching from heaven to earth, I should turn the entire universe round.” So the Woodsprite took _vódka_ out of another bottle and gave the King’s son yet more drink, and his strength was increased sevenfold. They went in front of the house; and he whistled loud, and a black horse rose out of the earth, and the earth trembled under its hoofs. Out of its nostrils it breathed flames, columns of smoke rose from its ears, and as its hoofs struck the ground sparks arose. It ran up to the hut and fell on its knees. “There is a horse!” said the Woodsprite. And he gave Iván Tsarévich a sword and a silken whip.