The king thought and thought, frowned hard and rubbed his ear. At last
he gave consent, and ordered out his royal yacht, with 100 cross-bows,
100 knights, and 1,000 soldiers, to escort the Princess Helena.
Off sailed the yacht with the princess and her escort. The brothers
Simon came on board to conduct the princess to their ship, and, led by
the brothers and followed by her nurse and other women, she crossed the
crystal plank from one vessel to another.
The seventh Simon spread out his goods, and had so many curious and
interesting tales to tell about them, that the princess forgot
everything else in looking and listening, so that she did not know that
the fourth Simon had seized the prow of the ship, and that all of a
sudden it had vanished from sight, and was racing along in the depths
of the sea.
The crew of the royal yacht shouted aloud, the knights stood still with
terror, the soldiers were struck dumb and hung their heads. There was
nothing to be done but to sail back and tell the king of his loss.
How he wept and stormed! “Oh, light of my eyes,” he sobbed; “I am
indeed punished for my pride. I thought no one good enough to be your
husband, and now you are lost in the depths of the sea, and have left
me alone! As for all of you who saw this thing—away with you! Let them
be put in irons and lock them up in prison, whilst I think how I can
best put them to death!”
Whilst the King of Busan was raging and lamenting in this fashion,
Simon’s ship was swimming like any fish under the sea, and when the
island was well out of sight he brought it up to the surface again. At
that moment the princess recollected herself. “Nurse,” said she, “we
have been gazing at these wonders only too long. I hope my father won’t
be vexed at our delay.”
She tore herself away and stepped on deck. Neither the yacht nor the
island was in sight! Helena wrung her hands and beat her breast. Then
she changed herself into a white swan and flew off. But the fifth Simon
seized his bow and shot the swan, and the sixth Simon did not let it
fall into the water but caught it in the ship, and the swan turned into
a silver fish, but Simon lost no time and caught the fish, when, quick
as thought, the fish turned into a black mouse and ran about the ship.
It darted towards a hole, but before it could reach it Simon sprang
upon it more swiftly than any cat, and then the little mouse turned
once more into the beautiful Princess Helena.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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