Oldal 97 [97]
THE BROTHER AND SISTER. 69
The maiden shrieked out when she saw, instead of the fawn,
a man standing there with a gold crown on hishead. But the
King looked kindly on her, took her by the hand, and said,
‘“‘ Will you go with me to my castle, and be my dear wife?”
Oh yes,” answered the maiden, "but the fawn must
come too. I could not leave him.” And the King said,
“He shall remain with you as long as you live, and shall
lack nothing.” Then the fawn came bounding in, and the
sister tied the cord of rushes to him, and led him by her own
hand out of the little house.
The King put the beautiful maiden on his horse, and
carried her to his castle, where the wedding was held with
great pomp ; so she became lady Queen, and they lived together
happily for a long while; the fawn was well tended and
cherished, and he gambolled about the castle garden.
Now the wicked stepmother, whose fault it was that the
children were driven out into the world, never dreamed but
that the sister had been eaten up by wild beasts in the forest,
and that the brother, in the likeness of a fawn, had been slain
by the hunters. But when she heard that they were so happy,
and that things had gone so well with them, jealousy and envy
arose in her heart, and left her no peace, and her chief
thought was how to bring misfortune upon them.
Her own daughter, who was as ugly as sin, and had only
one eye, complained to her, and said,
I never had the chance of being a Queen.”
‘‘ Never mind,” said the old woman, to satisfy her ; " when
the time comes, I shall be at hand.”
After a while the Queen brought a beautiful baby-boy into
the world, and that day the King was out hunting. The old
witch took the shape of the bedchamber woman, and went into
the room where the Queen lay, and said to her,
“Come, the bath is ready; it will give you refreshment
and new strength. Quick, or it will be cold.”
Her daughter was within call, so they carried the sick
Queen into the bath-room, and left her there. And in the
bath-room they had made a great fire, so as to suffocate the
beautiful young Queen.
When that was managed, the old woman took her daughter,
put a cap on her, and laid her in the bed in the Queen’s place,