When
she had eaten the pear, she was satisfied, and went and concealed
herself among the bushes. The King to whom the garden belonged, came
down to it next morning, and counted, and saw that one of the pears was
missing, and asked the gardener what had become of it, as it was not
lying beneath the tree, but was gone. Then answered the gardener, “Last
night, a spirit came in, who had no hands, and ate off one of the pears
with its mouth.” The King said, “How did the spirit get over the water,
and where did it go after it had eaten the pear?” The gardener
answered, “Some one came in a snow-white garment from heaven who made a
dam, and kept back the water, that the spirit might walk through the
moat. And as it must have been an angel, I was afraid, and asked no
questions, and did not cry out. When the spirit had eaten the pear, it
went back again.” The King said, “If it be as thou sayest, I will watch
with thee to-night.”

When it grew dark the King came into the garden and brought a priest
with him, who was to speak to the spirit. All three seated themselves
beneath the tree and watched. At midnight the maiden came creeping out
of the thicket, went to the tree, and again ate one pear off it with
her mouth, and beside her stood the angel in white garments. Then the
priest went out to them and said, “Comest thou from heaven or from
earth? Art thou a spirit, or a human being?” She replied, “I am no
spirit, but an unhappy mortal deserted by all but God.” The King said,
“If thou art forsaken by all the world, yet will I not forsake thee.”
He took her with him into his royal palace, and as she was so beautiful
and good, he loved her with all his heart, had silver hands made for
her, and took her to wife. After a year the King had to take the field, so he commended his young
Queen to the care of his mother and said, “If she is brought to bed
take care of her, nurse her well, and tell me of it at once in a
letter.” Then she gave birth to a fine boy. So the old mother made
haste to write and announce the joyful news to him. But the messenger
rested by a brook on the way, and as he was fatigued by the great
distance, he fell asleep. Then came the Devil, who was always seeking
to injure the good Queen, and exchanged the letter for another, in
which was written that the Queen had brought a monster into the world. When the King read the letter he was shocked and much troubled, but he
wrote in answer that they were to take great care of the Queen and
nurse her well until his arrival. The messenger went back with the
letter, but rested at the same place and again fell asleep. Then came
the Devil once more, and put a different letter in his pocket, in which
it was written that they were to put the Queen and her child to death. The old mother was terribly shocked when she received the letter, and
could not believe it. She wrote back again to the King, but received no
other answer, because each time the Devil substituted a false letter,
and in the last letter it was also written that she was to preserve the
Queen’s tongue and eyes as a token that she had obeyed. But the old mother wept to think such innocent blood was to be shed,
and had a hind brought by night and cut out her tongue and eyes, and
kept them. Then said she to the Queen, “I cannot have thee killed as
the King commands, but here thou mayst stay no longer. Go forth into
the wide world with thy child, and never come here again.” The poor
woman tied her child on her back, and went away with eyes full of
tears. She came into a great wild forest, and then she fell on her
knees and prayed to God, and the angel of the Lord appeared to her and
led her to a little house on which was a sign with the words, “Here all
dwell free.” A snow-white maiden came out of the little house and said,
“Welcome, Lady Queen,” and conducted her inside. Then they unbound the
little boy from her back, and held him to her breast that he might
feed, and laid him in a beautifully-made little bed. Then said the poor
woman, “From whence knowest thou that I was a queen?” The white maiden
answered, “I am an angel sent by God, to watch over thee and thy
child.” The Queen stayed seven years in the little house, and was well
cared for, and by God’s grace, because of her piety, her hands which
had been cut off, grew once more. At last the King came home again from the war, and his first wish was
to see his wife and the child. Then his aged mother began to weep and
said, “Thou wicked man, why didst thou write to me that I was to take
those two innocent lives?” and she showed him the two letters which the
Evil-one had forged, and then continued, “I did as thou badest me,” and
she showed the tokens, the tongue and eyes. Then the King began to weep
for his poor wife and his little son so much more bitterly than she was
doing, that the aged mother had compassion on him and said, “Be at
peace, she still lives; I secretly caused a hind to be killed, and took
these tokens from it; but I bound the child to thy wife’s back and bade
her go forth into the wide world, and made her promise never to come
back here again, because thou wert so angry with her.” Then spoke the
King, “I will go as far as the sky is blue, and will neither eat nor
drink until I have found again my dear wife and my child, if in the
meantime they have not been killed, or died of hunger.”

Thereupon the King travelled about for seven long years, and sought her
in every cleft of the rocks and in every cave, but he found her not,
and thought she had died of want. During the whole of this time he
neither ate nor drank, but God supported him. At length he came into a
great forest, and found therein the little house whose sign was, “Here
all dwell free.” Then forth came the white maiden, took him by the
hand, led him in, and said, “Welcome, Lord King,” and asked him from
whence he came. He answered, “Soon shall I have travelled about for the
space of seven years, and I seek my wife and her child, but cannot find
them.” The angel offered him meat and drink, but he did not take
anything, and only wished to rest a little. Then he lay down to sleep,
and put a handkerchief over his face. Thereupon the angel went into the chamber where the Queen sat with her
son, whom she usually called “Sorrowful,” and said to her, “Go out with
thy child, thy husband hath come.” So she went to the place where he
lay, and the handkerchief fell from his face. Then said she,
“Sorrowful, pick up thy father’s handkerchief, and cover his face
again.” The child picked it up, and put it over his face again. The
King in his sleep heard what passed, and had pleasure in letting the
handkerchief fall once more. But the child grew impatient, and said,
“Dear mother, how can I cover my father’s face when I have no father in
this world? I have learnt to say the prayer, ‘Our Father, which art in
Heaven,’ thou hast told me that my father was in Heaven, and was the
good God, and how can I know a wild man like this?