Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/145

Rh "Oh," said the queen, in great astonishment, "how can you, my dear son, think of marrying, when you are only a white lamb?"

"But I do wish it, nevertheless, mother."

The lamb then changed himself into a handsome prince and went to the Lord of the Great Council, and asked his eldest daughter in marriage; and his proposal being accepted, the prince asked the princess: "Have you any objection to marry a white lamb?"

To which she replied: "I should have no objection, for I would kill it when I went to bed."

The white lamb married the princess, and matters went on very pleasantly until they went to bed, when the prince saw a knife, which his wife had hidden under her pillow, to kill him with. So he pulled out the knife and killed the princess.

Some time after this, the lamb said to his mother:

"Oh, mother, I wish to marry the king's second daughter."

"Is it possible, my son, that you wish to marry a second time?"

The white lamb did, however, go a second time to the palace, and engaged himself to marry the king's second daughter; and he put her the same question as he had done to her sister, and she replied in nearly the same words: "Let the lamb marry me if he likes, for I shall kill him, and thus get rid of him."