CHAPTER IX
Everybody told him a different tale. One said that it was an old castle haunted by spirits; another, that it was a meeting-place for all the witches and sorcerers in the land, who gathered there to practise their secret rites.
“No, no,” said a third. “That castle is the home of a giant, and all the people in these parts are very much afraid of him, so I have been told, because he steals their cattle and their crops, and even carries off their children to be his servants. And they cannot go to the rescue of those he has imprisoned in this way, because of the forest all round the castle, which is so dense that nobody can force his way through. And so they went on, one saying one thing, and one another, for each repeated what he had heard. At last an old peasant stepped forward.
“Fifty years ago, my Prince,” said he, “my father told me the story of that castle, and since he was born in these parts, I think it was the true story, and I will tell it you if you would like to hear it.”
The Prince nodded eagerly, and the old man went on:
“My father said that years before he himself was born a King and Queen lived in the castle with their daughter, the most beautiful Princess that ever was seen. In some way or other they angered the fairies, who put a spell upon the place and upon every one within it, so that they fell into a deep sleep. My father said that this sleep would last a hundred years, but at the end of that time a King’s son should come and waken the beautiful Princess and make her his bride.”
When the young Prince heard these words he felt his heart beat quickly. Something seemed to tell him that he and no other was the King’s son who was destined to remove the spell, and he cried: “Show me the way to the castle, for I will take this adventure upon me.”
But the old man shook his head. “I have not yet told you all, my Prince. Many are the young men who have tried to force their way through the thick wood that guards the enchanted castle. Each of them thought that he, and he alone, was destined to awaken the Sleeping Beauty, and each of them set out with high hopes; but none of them all came back, and their bones, whitened by the wind and rain, lie among the thorns of the thick
“What,” cried the Prince with flashing eyes, “shall I hold back when others have dared? This very hour I will attempt to enter the castle, and if I do not return, carry home the news of how I have died.”
Then without paying any heed to the words of those who would prevent him from rushing into such danger, the eager young man set out, his heart on fire with thoughts of love and glory. Nobody showed him the way, but he could see the towers of the castle rising above the distant wood, and when he entered the wood itself, and the towers were hidden, each path he took led him nearer to the place where he would be.
At last he came to an open glade, and there before him was a tangled hedge of thorn, stretching in either direction as far as the eye could see.
