“No, thanks,” said Niels. “I might fall down on the other side, or break my leg or neck, and then the little dog wouldn’t get shot after all.” “No fear of that,” said the giant; “the rampart is quite wide on the top, and covered with long grass, so that you will come down as softly as though you fell on a feather-bed.” Niels had to believe him, and allowed the giant to throw him up. He came down on his feet quite unhurt, but the little black dog heard the dump, and rushed out of its kennel at once. It was just opening its mouth to bark, when Niels fired, and it fell dead on the spot. “Go down on the inside now,” said the giant, “and see if you can open the gate to us.” Niels made his way down into the courtyard, but on his way to the outer gate he found himself at the entrance to the large hall of the castle. The door was open, and the hall was brilliantly lighted, though there was no one to be seen. Niels went in here and looked round him: on the wall there hung a huge sword without a sheath, and beneath it was a large drinking-horn, mounted with silver. Niels went closer to look at these, and saw that the horn had letters engraved on the silver rim: when he took it down and turned it round, he found that the inscription was:— Whoever drinks the wine I hold Can wield the sword that hangs above; Then let him use it for the right, And win a royal maiden’s love. Niels took out the silver stopper of the horn, and drank some of the wine, but when he tried to take down the sword he found himself unable to move it. So he hung up the horn again, and went further in to the castle. “The giants can wait a little,” he said. Before long he came to an apartment in which a beautiful princess lay asleep in a bed, and on a table by her side there lay a gold-hemmed handkerchief. Niels tore this in two, and put one half in his pocket, leaving the other half on the table. On the floor he saw a pair of gold-embroidered slippers, and one of these he also put in his pocket. After that he went back to the hall, and took down the horn again. “Perhaps I have to drink all that is in it before I can move the sword,” he thought; so he put it to his lips again and drank till it was quite empty. When he had done this, he could wield the sword with the greatest of ease, and felt himself strong enough to do anything, even to fight the giants he had left outside, who were no doubt wondering why he had not opened the gate to them before this time. To kill the giants, he thought, would be using the sword for the right; but as to winning the love of the princess, that was a thing which the son of a poor sheep-farmer need not hope for. When Niels came to the gate of the castle, he found that there was a large door and a small one, so he opened the latter. “Can’t you open the big door?” said the giants; “we shall hardly be able to get in at this one.”