When some days had elapsed
and the princes did not return, either of them, the whole court was in
sorrow. Then the third son went hunting, to see whether he could not
find his brothers. When he issued from the town, again up sprang a hare
out of a bush, and the prince after it, and hither and thither, till the
hare fled into the water-mill. But the prince did not choose to follow
it, but went to find other game, saying to himself: "When I return I
shall find you." After thus he went for a long time up and down the
hill, but found nothing, and then returned to the water-mill; but when
he got there, there was only an old woman in the mill. The prince
invoked God in addressing her: "God help you, old woman!" The old woman
replied: "God help you, my son!" Then the prince asked her: "Where, old
woman, is my hare?" She replied: "My son, that was not a hare, but a
dragon. It kills and throttles many people." Hearing this, the prince
was somewhat disturbed, and said to the old woman: "What shall we do
now? Doubtless my two brothers also have perished here." The old woman
answered: "They have indeed; but there's no help for it. Go home, my
son, lest you follow them." Then he said to her: "Dear old woman, do you
know what? I know that you will be glad to liberate yourself from that
pest." The old woman interrupted him: "How should I not? It captured me,
too, in this way, but now I have no means of escape.
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