therefore thou too belongest to me of right.” Then said a certain one of the counsellors of the king: “His royal highness will give thee a sufficient reward for having succeeded in unloosing his daughter’s tongue; but thou canst not marry her thyself, thou art of vulgar birth.” But Vanek would not hear of any other reward, and said: “The king promised without reservation: he who causes his daughter to speak again shall be her husband. The king’s word is law, and if the king wishes others to keep his laws, he must himself be the first to respect them. And therefore the king must give me his daughter.” Guards! bind him,” exclaimed that counsellor; “he who says that the king must do anything, outrages his royal majesty, and is worthy of death. Your royal highness, please command that this criminal be executed by the sword.” And the king said: “Let him be executed by the sword.” And so then and there they bound Vanek, and led him to the scaffold. When they came to the place of execution, Fortune was already waiting for them there, and said privily to Reason: “See how this man has fared with thee. Now it has come to this: he has to lose his head! Retire, that I may enter in thy place!” As soon as Fortune entered into Vanek, the executioner’s sword snapped off close at the hilt, as though someone had cut it in two with scissors; and before they had brought him another, forth from the city on horseback rode a trumpeter as if he were winged, trumpeted gaily and waved a white pennon, and after him drove the king’s coachman to fetch Vanek. And this was how it was. That king’s daughter had said afterwards to her father at home, that, after all, Vanek had only spoken the simple truth, and the king’s word ought not to be broken, and that if Vanek was of vulgar birth the king could easily make him a prince. And the king said: “Thou art right; let him be a prince!” And so they sent the royal coachman at once for Vanek, and instead of him was executed that counsellor who had prompted the king against Vanek. And when after this, Vanek and that royal daughter drove away together from the wedding. Reason happened somehow to be on the road, and seeing that he would have to meet Fortune, he bent his head and fled aside, as if he had been well splashed. And ever since then they say Reason, whenever he has to meet with Fortune, gives him a wide berth.
Note.—In the original there is a play upon the word “maiden” which cannot be given in the translation. Panna means a virgin, as for instance the Virgin Mary, and also a wooden doll or dummy. Shijesti, again, means rather more than good luck or fortune, as it also includes the notion of happiness.
