Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/157

Rh to do it that at last the girl, to get rid of the old woman, consented, and began to try them on. She had hardly put one of the shoes on when one of her eyes was completely closed. She put on the other shoe, and the other eye was also closed, and that instant she fell on the floor, dead. The old woman, surprised and frightened at what she saw, ran away, and left the neighbourhood as fast as she could.

When the robbers came home and saw their beloved sister lying dead on the floor, they wondered how she had come by her death; they were sorely grieved and wept over her corpse.

"But," said they, "it is a shame for such a face and figure to be hidden underground; we must put her in a coffin with a glass lid, and place it on the hills where the king's son comes to hunt with his nobles; it is right he should see such a rare and lovely flower."

The robbers had a beautiful coffin made, in which they laid the body of their dear sister, and strewed flowers over her, and then, fastening the glass cover down, they carried her to a retired spot on the hills.

Now it so happened that the king's son, as he was hunting one day with a number of courtiers, passed the very spot where the girl's body was laid, and seeing the coffin, they wondered why it was placed in such an unusual way and locality. The prince looked into the coffin and was at once fascinated