The Crimson Fairy Book, part 3 · page 21 2101But the shepherd broke in with, “I do not fear a hundred deaths, and I will only say it if I may have the princess for my wife.”102“Then go to a hundred deaths!” roared the king, and ordered the shepherd to be thrown down the deep vault of scythes.103The guards dragged him away to a dark dungeon, in the middle of which was a deep well with sharp scythes all round it.104At the bottom of the well was a little light by which one could see if anyone was thrown in whether he had fallen to the bottom.105When the shepherd was dragged to the dungeons he begged the guards to leave him alone a little while that he might look down into the pit of scythes; perhaps he might after all make up his mind to say “To your good health” to the king.106So the guards left him alone and he stuck up his long stick near the well, hung his cloak round the stick and put his hat on the top.107He also hung his knapsack up inside the cloak so that it might seem to have some body within it.108When this was done he called out to the guards and said that he had considered the matter but after all he could not make up his mind to say what the king wished.109The guards came in, threw the hat and cloak, knapsack and stick all down the well together, watched to see how they put out the light at the bottom and came away, thinking that now there really was an end of the shepherd.110But he had hidden in a dark corner and was laughing to himself all the time.1 2← previousThe Crimson Fairy Book, part 2next →The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4↑ back to The Crimson Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/3/page/2/