Stranica 202 [202]
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 apart¬
ments 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 strong¬
minded 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
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