In the days of King Bambita, his two noble daughters oppressed the people, laying heavy taxes on them without the king’s knowledge. The people cursed them, and the curses did their work. The princesses vanished. The king sent some of his servants to look for the princesses. But the servants came back empty-handed. None of them had been able to find the princesses.

Now, a captain and a lieutenant heard of the king’s trouble. So the lieutenant went to the king, and “I see,” says he, “that you are in trouble. I will go and look for the princesses.”

“How much do you want for it?” asked the king.

“Twenty pounds.”

The king agreed, and gave him the money. “If you find them,” said he, “half of my kingdom is yours.” [130]

The lieutenant and the captain had plenty of money now, so they went to an inn and passed the time drinking. On the third day the captain said: “To-day I will go to the king. If he gave you twenty pounds, he is certain to give me more.”

So he went to the king and said: “I see that your majesty is in trouble. I should like to go and look for the princesses.”

“How much do you want for it?” said the king.

“Thirty pounds.”

Well, the king gave him the money without any more ado, adding that, if he found the princesses, he would get half of his kingdom.

They fell to drinking again and had a splendid time.

There was a drummer near them, and he heard them saying that they were to look for the princesses. So he went to the king and said: “I hear that your majesty is prostrated by sore trouble. I, too, would like to look for the princesses.”

“How much do you want for it?”

“Forty pounds, at least.”

The king gave him the money without [131]more ado. The two officers and the drummer left that inn for another, and so they went on spending their money recklessly in one drinking-house after another. The drummer went with the other two, but he was more careful than they were. He was not such a spendthrift as the two officers.

They asked him where he meant to go.

“Wherever you go, I will go too,” he replied.

“Then why don’t you join us and lead a gay life?”

“That I can’t do until I know where to find the princesses.”

They invited him to join them, but he refused to do it.

At last they bought some bread and other food, and they all set out together on their journey. They came to a dark forest, and for a fortnight they searched it through and through, but they could find nothing. They couldn’t find their way out of the forest either, so they agreed that one of them should climb to the top of the highest tree to see which way they ought to go. The drummer, being the youngest, climbed up a pine-tree. He called out: [132]

“I can see a cottage. Look, I will throw my hat towards it, and do you follow the hat.”

Well, they went on until they reached the cottage.

“Go into the room,” says the drummer.

“After you,” said both the officers at once.

So the drummer stepped inside, and an old crone welcomed him.

“Welcome, Drummer Anthony,” said she. “How did you get here?”

“I have come to deliver the princesses, and only for that.”

“Well, you will find them, but those other two fellows will get them from you by a trick.”

She gave him a rope three hundred fathoms long and told him to bind it round his body. She also gave him some wine and a sponge. Then she said: “Not far from here there is a well. When you come to it, you must say that you will let yourself down into the well, if the other fellows will drink the fountain dry.”

When they got to the well, the captain and the lieutenant began to drink the fountain, but it was just as full as before. [133]

“If we kept on drinking this fountain till doomsday,” they said, “we could not drink it dry.”

So the drummer took the sponge, and at once the water began to disappear, and soon the well was dry. They began to quarrel as to who should go down the well. The one on the right side said the other ought to go, but at last they agreed that the drummer, who was the lightest, should go.

So he went down, and, when he reached the bottom of the well, he found a stone there. He drew it aside, and then he saw the light of the other world. He lowered himself on the rope into the other world. There he saw a beautiful palace. He went towards it. When he reached it, he saw that the table was laid for two persons. He ate his meal and then went into the second room. There he laid himself down to sleep, and when he awoke in the morning, he found the Princess Anne in the third room.

“Welcome,” she said; “what has brought you here?”

He told her that he had come to deliver her.

She said: “I don’t know whether you will [134]succeed in that. Here is a sword; see if you can brandish it.”

The drummer took hold of the sword, but he could not even lift it, it was so heavy.

Then the princess gave him a ring. “Take this,” she said, “and whenever you think of me, you will become strong. I have to hold the dragon in my lap for a whole hour. As soon as he comes, he will smell a man. But you must cut him in two, for then I shall be delivered. Just at nine o’clock he comes.”

Just at nine o’clock the palace began to tremble and the dragon came in. But the drummer encountered him and struck him in two with the sword.

After that the princess took him into another room. “Now you have delivered me,” she said. “But my sister is in worse trouble still. She has to hold a dragon in her lap for two hours, and that dragon is even stronger than this one.”

Then they went into the fourth room, where was the Princess Antonia. She, too, greeted him, and told him that he would be able to deliver her if he could brandish the sword beside her. He tried, but he could [135]not even move it. Then she gave him a ring and told him that, whenever he thought of her, he would have the strength of two hundred men. She said, too, that if he succeeded in setting her free she would marry him.

Soon eleven o’clock came. The hall began to tremble and the dragon appeared. But, as he was coming in, Anthony was ready for him near the door, and he managed to cut the dragon in two.

Now, when the two princesses had been set free, they gathered all the precious stones they could to take with them, and went to the opening that led into the world. But the drummer had quite forgotten the old crone’s warning ............