He went along under the gold and silver trees, in the direction she had taken, until at last he came to a tall flight of steps that led up to the doorway of the snow-white palace. The door stood open, and into it the prince went. He saw not a soul, but he heard a noise as of blows and the sound as of some one weeping. He followed the sound, until by-and-by he came to a great vaulted room in the very centre of the palace. A curtain hung at the doorway. The prince lifted it and peeped within, and this was what he saw:
In the middle of the room was a marble basin of water as clear as crystal, and around the sides of the basin were these words, written in letters of gold:
"Whatsoever is False, that I make True."
Beside the fountain upon a marble stand stood a statue of a beautiful woman made of alabaster, and around the neck of the statue was a thread of gold. The queen stood beside the statue, and beat and beat it with her steel-tipped whip. And all the while she lashed it the statue sighed and groaned like a living being, and the tears ran down its stone cheeks as though it were a suffering Christian. By-and-by the queen rested for a moment, and said, panting, "Will you give me the thread of gold?" and the statue answered "No." Whereupon she fell to raining blows upon it as she had done before.
So she continued, now beating the statue and now asking it whether it would give her the thread of gold, to which the statue always answered "No," and all the while the prince stood gazing and wondering. By-and-by the queen wearied of what she was doing, and thrust the steel-tipped lash back into her bosom again, upon which the prince, seeing that she was done, hurried back to the garden where she had left him and pretended to be gathering the golden fruit and jewel flowers.
The queen said nothing to him good or bad, except to command him to grind at the great stone mill as he had done on the other side of the water. Thereupon the prince did as she bade, and presently the brazen boat came skimming over the water more swiftly than the wind. Again the queen and the prince entered it, and again it carried them to the other side whence they had come.
No sooner had the queen set foot upon the shore than she stopped and gathered up a handful of sand. Then, turning as quick as lightning, she flung it into the prince's face. "Be a black dog," she cried in a loud voice, "and join your comrades!"
And now it was that the ring that the prince's mother had given him stood him in good stead. But for it he would have become a black dog like those others, for thus it had happened to all before him who had ferried the witch queen over the water. So she expected to see him run away yelping, as those others had done; but the prince remained a prince, and stood looking her in the face.
When the queen saw that her magic had failed her she grew as pale as death, and fell to trembling in every limb. She turned and hastened quickly away, and the prince followed her wondering, for he neither knew the mischief she had intended doing him, nor how his ring had saved him from the fate of those others.
So they came back up the stairs and out through the stone wall into the palace garden. The queen pressed her hand against the stone and it turned back into its place again. Then, beckoning to the prince, she hurried away down the garden. Before he followed he picked up a coal that lay near by, and put a cross upon the stone; then he hurried after her, and so came to the palace once more.
By this time the cocks were crowing, and the dawn of day was just beginning to show over the roof-tops and the chimney-stacks of the town.
As for the queen, she had regained her composure, and, bidding the prince wait for her a moment, she hastened to her chamber.
There she opened her book of magic, and in it she soon found who the prince was and how the ring had saved him.
When she had learned all that she wanted to know she put on a smiling face and came back to him. "Ah, prince," said she, "I well know who you are, for your coming to my country is not secret to me. I have shown you strange things to-night. I will unfold all the wonder to you another time. Will you not come back and sup with me again?"
"Yes," said the prince, "I will come whensoever you bid me;" for he was curious to know the secret of the statue and the strange things he had seen.
"And will you not give me a pledge of your coming?" said the queen, still smiling.
"What pledge shall I give you," said the prince.
"Give me the ring that is upon your finger," said the queen; and she smiled so bewitchingly that the prince could not have refused her had he desired to do so.
Alas for him! He thought no evil, but, without a word, drew off the ring and gave it to the queen, and she slipped it upon her finger.
"O fool!" she cried, laughing a wicked laugh, "O fool! to give away that in which your safety lay!" As she spoke she dipped her fingers into a basin of water that stood near by and dashed the drops into the prince's face. "Be a raven," she cried, "and a raven remain!"
In an instant the prince was a prince no longer, but a coal-black raven. The queen snatched up a sword that lay near by and struck at him to kill him. But the raven-prince leaped aside and the blow missed its aim.
By good luck a window stood open, and before the queen could strike again he spread his wings and flew out of the open casement and over the house-tops and was gone.
On he flew and on he flew until he came to the old man's house, and so to the room where his foster-father himself was sitting.
He lit upon the ground at the old man's feet and tried to tell him what had befallen, but all that he could say was "Croak! croak!"
"What brings this bird of ill omen?" said the old man, and he drew his sword to kill it. He raised his hand to strike, but the raven did not try to fly away as he had expected, but bowed his neck to receive the stroke. Then the old man saw that the tears were running down from the raven's eyes, and he held his hand.
