" So the king ordered them to note his words,
what he should say. There was a hired female servant there, and she said
to him: "George, it will be evil for you to-day; they're going to clear
you out of the world." He answered: "Oh, I'm not afraid. When I was only
just twelve years old, I killed twelve of them at one blow!" But this
was the fact: when his mother was baking a flat-cake, a dozen flies
settled upon her, and he killed them all at a single blow.
When they heard this, they said: "Nothing else will do but we must shoot
him." So they drew up the soldiers, and said they would hold a review in
his honour, for they would celebrate the wedding in the square before
the castle. Then they conducted him thither, and the soldiers were
already going to let fly at him. But George said to the man who held his
thumb in the bottle in the place of a stopper: "You said, if you pulled
your thumb out, you could besprinkle everything. Pull it out--quick!"
"Oh, sir, I'll easily perform that." So he pulled out his thumb and gave
them all such a sprinkling that they were all blind, and not one could
see.
So, when they perceived that nothing else was to be done, they told him
to go, for they would give him the damsel. Then they gave him a handsome
royal robe, and the wedding took place. I, too, was at the wedding; they
had music there, sang, ate, and drank; there was meat, there were
cheesecakes, and baskets full of everything, and buckets full of strong
waters.
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