Page 202 [202]
OCR
LABOULAYE’S FAIRY BOOK always to be of the same mind with the stronger, and to demand a fee for having no opinion. ‘The queen had fallen into his incorruptible hands. She had been imprisoned for three days, and the town was already beginning to talk of something else, when one morning Rachimburg abruptly entered the king’s apartments with a distracted air, and threw himself trembling at his feet. ‘Sire,’ said he, “I bring you my head. The queen has disappeared." " What do you tell me!" exclaimed the king, turning pale. “The thing is impossible; the dungeon is barred on all sides." “Yes,” said the jailer, "the thing is impossible, that is certain; the bars are in their places, the walls are whole, and neither the locks nor the bolts have been disturbed: but there are witches in the world that pass through walls without moving a stone, and who knows but what the prisoner is one of them? Was it ever known whence she came?" The king sent in search of the doctor. He was a strongminded man and had little faith in witches. He sounded the walls, shook the bars, and cross-examined the jailer, but all to no purpose. ‘Trusty men were sent everywhere through the town, and spies were set on the countess, whom the doctor suspected, but all in vain, and after a 162
