Off they marched; but this time they did not come to any garden with fruits and flowers and fountains and marble baths. Off they marched, and when they stopped it was in front of the king’s palace. This time no nobles and great lords and courtiers were waiting for his coming; but instead of that the town hangman--a great ugly fellow, clad in black from head to foot. Up he came to the beggar, and, catching him by the scruff of the neck, dragged him up the palace steps and from room to room until at last he flung him down at the king’s feet. When the poor beggar gathered wits enough to look about him he saw there a great chest standing wide open, and with holes in the lid. He wondered what it was for, but the king gave him no chance to ask; for, beckoning with his hand, the hangman and the others caught the beggar by arms and legs, thrust him into the chest, and banged down the lid upon him. [Illustration] The king locked it and double-locked it, and set his seal upon it; and there was the beggar as tight as a fly in a bottle. They carried the chest out and thrust it into a cart and hauled it away, until at last they came to the sea-shore. There they flung chest and all into the water, and it floated away like a cork. And that is how the king set about to ruin the poor beggar-man. Well, the chest floated on and on for three days, and then at last it came to the shore of a country far away. There the waves caught it up, and flung it so hard upon the rocks of the sea-beach that the chest was burst open by the blow, and the beggar crawled out with eyes as big as saucers and face as white as dough. After he had sat for a while, and when his wits came back to him and he had gathered strength enough, he stood up and looked around to see where Fate had cast him; and far away on the hill-side he saw the walls and the roofs and the towers of the great town, shining in the sunlight as white as snow. “Well,” said he, “here is something to be thankful for, at least,” and so saying and shaking the stiffness out of his knees and elbows, he started off for the white walls and the red roofs in the distance. At last he reached the great gate, and through it he could see the stony streets and multitudes of people coming and going. But it was not for him to enter that gate. Out popped two soldiers with great battle-axes in their hands and looking as fierce as dragons. “Are you a stranger in this town?” said one in a great, gruff voice. “Yes,” said the beggar, “I am.” “And where are you going?” “I am going into the town.” “No, you are not.” “Why not?” “Because no stranger enters here. Yonder is the pathway. You must take that if you would enter the town.” [Illustration] “Very well,” said the beggar, “I would just as lief go into the town that way as another.”