But the next
morning no one came to take him to the gallows, and he sat all day in
total darkness. At sunset Frog-eye Fearsome opened the door again to
thrust in another crust and some water and say, "In the morning you
shall be drowned; drowned in the Witch's mill-pond with a great stone
tied to your heels."
Again the croaking creature stood and gloated over his victim, then left
him to the silence of another long day in the dungeon. The third day he
opened the door and hopped in, rubbing his webbed hands together with
fiendish pleasure, saying, "You are to have no food and drink to-night,
for the Witch has thought of a far more horrible punishment for you. In
the morning I shall surely come again, and then--beware!"
Now as he stopped to grin once more at the poor Prince, a Fly darted in,
and, blinded by the darkness of the dungeon, flew straight into a
spider's web, above the head of Ethelried.
"Poor creature!" thought Ethelried. "Thou shalt not be left a prisoner
in this dismal spot while I have the power to help thee." He lifted the
scissors and with one stroke destroyed the web, and gave the Fly
its freedom.
As soon as the dungeon had ceased to echo with the noise that Frog-eye
Fearsome made in banging shut the heavy door, Ethelried heard a low
buzzing near his ear. It was the Fly, which had alighted on
his shoulder.
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