Page:Czech Folk Tales.pdf/154

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