第20章 The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret(4)

The youth painted a mask that was the precise copy of them, and when he had put it on, no one would have known one boy from the other.They set out at once for the Sultan's palace, and when they reached it, they were taken straight into his presence.He made a sign for them to come near; they all bowed low in greeting.He asked them about their journey; they answered his questions all together, and in the same words.If one sat down to supper, the others sat down at the same instant.When one got up, the others got up too, as if there had been only one body between them.The Sultan could not detect any difference between them, and he told his aunt that he would not be so cruel as to kill all three.

'Well, you will see a difference to-morrow,' replied the witch, 'for one will have a cut on his sleeve.That is the youth you must kill.'

And one hour before midnight, when witches are invisible, she glided into the room where all three lads were sleeping in the same bed.She took out a pair of scissors and cut a small piece out of the boy's coat-sleeve which was hanging on the wall, and then crept silently from the room.But in the morning the youth saw the slit, and he marked the sleeves of his two companions in the same way, and all three went down to breakfast with the Sultan.The old witch was standing in the window and pretended not to see them;but all witches have eyes in the backs of their heads, and she knew at once that not one sleeve but three were cut, and they were all as alike as before.After breakfast, the Sultan, who was getting tired of the whole affair and wanted to be alone to invent some other plan, told them they might return home.So, bowing low with one accord, they went.

The princess welcomed the boy back joyfully, but the poor youth was not allowed to rest long in peace, for one day a fresh letter arrived from the Sultan, saying that he had discovered that the young man was a very dangerous person, and that he must be sent to Turkey at once, and alone.The girl burst into tears when the boy told her what was in the letter which her father had bade her to carry to him.'Do not weep, love of my heart,' said the boy, 'all will be well.I will start at sunrise to-morrow.'

So next morning at sunrise the youth set forth, and in a few days he reached the Sultan's palace.The old witch was waiting for him at the gate, and whispered as he passed: 'This is the last time you will ever enter it.' But the sword clanked, and the lad did not even look at her.As he crossed the threshold fifteen armed Turks barred his way, with the Sultan at their head.Instantly the sword darted forth and cut off the heads of everyone but the Sultan, and then went quietly back to its scabbard.The witch, who was looking on, saw that as long as the youth had possession of the sword, all her schemes would be in vain, and tried to steal the sword in the night, but it only jumped out of its scabbard and sliced off her nose, which was of iron.And in the morning, when the Sultan brought a great army to capture the lad and deprive him of his sword, they were all cut to pieces, while he remained without a scratch.

Meanwhile the princess was in despair because the days slipped by, and the young man did not return, and she never rested until her father let her lead some troops against the Sultan.She rode proudly before them, dressed in uniform; but they had not left the town more than a mile behind them, when they met the lad and his little sword.When he told them what he had done they shouted for joy, and carried him back in triumph to the palace; and the king declared that as the youth had shown himself worthy to become his son-in-law, he should marry the princess and succeed to the throne at once, as he himself was getting old, and the cares of government were too much for him.But the young man said he must first go and see his mother, and the king sent him in state, with a troop of soldiers as his bodyguard.

The old woman was quite frightened at seeing such an array draw up before her little house, and still more surprised when a handsome young man, whom she did not know, dismounted and kissed her hand, saying: 'Now, dear mother, you shall hear my secret at last! Idreamed that I should become King of Hungary, and my dream has come true.When I was a child, and you begged me to tell you, Ihad to keep silence, or the Magyar king would have killed me.And if you had not beaten me nothing would have happened that has happened, and I should not now be King of Hungary.'

[From the Folk Tales of the Magyars.]