Part 25 (1/2)

So listen to my words, even though they be but those of a woman, and take counsel with the great Sorcerer, from whom nothing is hid, but who knoweth all the mysteries of the earth, and of the air, and of the sea.”

Now the King and his Counsellors liked not this advice, for they hated the Sorcerer, who had, as they thought, too much influence with the Queen; but they were at their wits' end, and knew not to whom to turn for help, so they were fain to do as she said and summon the Wizard before them.

And when he obeyed the summons and appeared in their midst, they liked him none the better for his looks. For he was long, and thin, and awesome, with a beard that came down to his knee, and hair that wrapped him about like a mantle, and his face was the colour of mortar, as if he had always lived in darkness, and had been afraid to look on the sun.

But there was no help to be found in any other man, so they laid the case before him, and asked him what they should do. And he answered coldly that he would think over the matter, and come again to the a.s.sembly the following day and give them his advice.

And his advice, when they heard it, was like to turn their hair white with horror.

For he said that the only way to satisfy the Monster, and to make it spare the land, was to feed it every Sat.u.r.day with seven young maidens, who must be the fairest who could be found; and if, after this remedy had been tried once or twice, it did not succeed in mollifying the Stoorworm and inducing him to depart, there was but one other measure that he could suggest, but that was so horrible and dreadful that he would not rend their hearts by mentioning it in the meantime.

And as, although they hated him, they feared him also, the Council had e'en to abide by his words, and p.r.o.nounced the awful doom.

And so it came about that, every Sat.u.r.day, seven bonnie, innocent maidens were bound hand and foot and laid on a rock which ran into the sea, and the Monster stretched out his long, jagged tongue, and swept them into his mouth; while all the rest of the folk looked on from the top of a high hill--or, at least, the men looked--with cold, set faces, while the women hid theirs in their ap.r.o.ns and wept aloud.

”Is there no other way,” they cried, ”no other way than this, to save the land?”

But the men only groaned and shook their heads. ”No other way,” they answered; ”no other way.”

Then suddenly a boy's indignant voice rang out among the crowd. ”Is there no grown man who would fight that Monster, and kill him, and save the la.s.sies alive? I would do it; I am not feared for the Mester Stoorworm.”

It was the boy a.s.sipattle who spoke, and everyone looked at him in amazement as he stood staring at the great Sea-Serpent, his fingers twitching with rage, and his great blue eyes glowing with pity and indignation.

”The poor bairn's mad; the sight hath turned his head,” they whispered one to another; and they would have crowded round him to pet and comfort him, but his elder brother came and gave him a heavy clout on the side of his head.

”Thou fight the Stoorworm!” he cried contemptuously. ”A likely story! Go home to thy ash-pit, and stop speaking havers;” and, taking his arm, he drew him to the place where his other brothers were waiting, and they all went home together.

But all the time a.s.sipattle kept on saying that he meant to kill the Stoorworm; and at last his brothers became so angry at what they thought was mere bragging, that they picked up stones and pelted him so hard with them that at last he took to his heels and ran away from them.

That evening the six brothers were thres.h.i.+ng corn in the barn, and a.s.sipattle, as usual, was lying among the ashes thinking his own thoughts, when his mother came out and bade him run and tell the others to come in for their supper.

The boy did as he was bid, for he was a willing enough little fellow; but when he entered the barn his brothers, in revenge for his having run away from them in the afternoon, set on him and pulled him down, and piled so much straw on top of him that, had his father not come from the house to see what they were all waiting for, he would, of a surety, have been smothered.

But when, at supper-time, his mother was quarrelling with the other lads for what they had done, and saying to them that it was only cowards who set on bairns littler and younger than themselves, a.s.sipattle looked up from the bicker of porridge which he was supping.

”Vex not thyself, Mother,” he said, ”for I could have fought them all if I liked; ay, and beaten them, too.”

”Why didst thou not essay it then?” cried everybody at once.

”Because I knew that I would need all my strength when I go to fight the Giant Stoorworm,” replied a.s.sipattle gravely.

And, as you may fancy, the others laughed louder than before.

Time pa.s.sed, and every Sat.u.r.day seven la.s.sies were thrown to the Stoorworm, until at last it was felt that this state of things could not be allowed to go on any longer; for if it did, there would soon be no maidens at all left in the country.

So the Elders met once more, and, after long consultation, it was agreed that the Sorcerer should be summoned, and asked what his other remedy was. ”For, by our troth,” said they, ”it cannot be worse than that which we are practising now.”

But, had they known it, the new remedy was even more dreadful than the old. For the cruel Queen hated her step-daughter, Gemdelovely, and the wicked Sorcerer knew that she did, and that she would not be sorry to get rid of her, and, things being as they were, he thought that he saw a way to please the Queen. So he stood up in the Council, and, pretending to be very sorry, said that the only other thing that could be done was to give the Princess Gemdelovely to the Stoorworm, then would it of a surety depart.

When they heard this sentence a terrible stillness fell upon the Council, and everyone covered his face with his hands, for no man dare look at the King.