"Lovely stranger," they asked, "from what Tzardom dost thou come, of what father art thou daughter, and how art thou named ?"

Helen the Beautiful, being roughly awakened, and seeing Tzarevich Ivan dead, was greatly frightened and cried with bitter tears: "I am the Tzar s daughter, Helen the Beautiful, and I belong to Tzarevich Ivan whom ye have put to a cruel death. If ye were brave knights, ye had ridden against him in the open field, then might ye have been victorious over him with honour, but instead of that ye have slain him when he was asleep. What praise will such an act receive?"

But Tzarevich Wassily set the point of his sword against her breast and said: “Listen, Helen the Beautiful ! Thou art now in our hands. We shall a lovely Princess, they were envious, and Tzarevich bring thee to our little father. Tzar Wyslaff, and thou shalt tell him that we, and riot Tzarevich Ivan, found the Glowing Bird, and won the Horse with the Golden Mane and thine own lovely self. If thou dost not swear by all holy things to say this, then this instant will we put thee to death 1" And the beautiful Tzar s daughter, frightened by their threats, swore that she would speak as they commanded.

Tzarevich Dimitry and Tzarevich Wassily cast lots to see who should take Helen the Beautiful and who the Horse with the Golden Mane and the Glowing Bird. The Princess fell to Tzarevich Wassily and the horse and the bird to Tzarevich Dimitry, and Tzarevich Wassily took Helen the Beautiful on his horse and Tzarevich Dimitry took the Glowing Bird and the Horse with the Golden Mane and both rode swiftly to the Palace of their father, Tzar Wyslaff.

The Tzar rejoiced greatly to see them. To Tzarevich Dimitry, since he had brought him the Glowing Bird, he gave the half of his Tzardom, and he made a festival which lasted a whole month, at the end of which time Tzarevich Wassily was to wed the Princess, Helen the Beautiful. As for Tzarevich Ivan, dead and cut into pieces, he lay on the green plain for thirty days. And on the thirty-first day it chanced that the Grey Wolf passed that way. He knew at once by his keen scent that the body was that of Tzarevich I van. While he sat grieving for his friend, there came fly ing an iron-beaked she-crow with two fledglings, who alighted on the ground and would have eaten of the flesh, but the Wolf leaped up and seized one of the young birds. Then the mother Crow, flying to a little distance, said to him: "O Grey Wolf, wolf s-son! Do not devour my little child, since it has in no way harmed thee."

And the Grey Wolf answered: "Listen, Crow, crow s-daughter! Serve me a certain service, and I will not harm thy fledgling. I have heard that across three times nine countries, in the thirtieth Tzardom, are two springs, so placed that none save a bird can come to them, which give forth, the one the water of death, and the other the water of life. Bring to me two bottles of these waters, and I will let thy fledgling go safe and sound. But if thou dost not, then I will tear it in pieces and devour it."

“I will indeed do thee this service, Grey Wolf," said the Crow, "only harm not my child," and immediately flew away as swiftly as an arrow. The Grey Wolf waited one day, he waited two days, he waited three days, and on the fourth day the she-crow came flying with two little bottles of water in her beak.

The Grey Wolf tore the fledgling into pieces. He sprinkled the pieces with the water of death and they instantly grew together, he sprinkled the dead body with the water of life and the fledgling shook itself and flew away with the she- crow, safe and sound. The Grey Wolf then sprinkled the pieces of the body of Tzarevich Ivan with the water of death and they grew together, he sprinkled the dead body with the water of life, and Tzarevich Ivan stood up, stretched himself and said: “How long I must have slept !"

“Yes, Tzarevich Ivan," the Grey Wolf said, “and thou wouldst have slept for ever had it not been for me. For thy brothers cut thee into pieces and took away with them the beautiful Tzar’s daughter, the Horse with the Golden Mane and the Glowing Bird. Make haste now and mount on my back, for thy brother Tzarevich Wassily to-day is to wed thy Helen the Beautiful."

Tzarevich Ivan made haste to mount, and the Grey Wolf began running, swifter than a hundred horses, toward the Palace of Tzar Wyslaff. Whether the way was long or short, he came soon to the city, and there at the gate the Grey Wolf stopped. “Get down now, Tzarevich Ivan," he said. “I am no longer a servant of thine and thou shalt see me no more, but sometimes remember the journeys thou hast made on the back of the Grey Wolf."

Tzarevich Ivan got down, and having bade the Wolf farewell with tears, entered the city and went at once to the Palace, where the Tzarevich Wassily was even then being wed to Helen the Beautiful. He entered the splendid rooms and came where they sat at table, and as soon as Helen the Beauti ful saw him, she sprang up from the table and kissed him on the mouth, crying: “This is my beloved, Tzarevich Ivan, who shall wed me, and not this wicked one, Tzarevich Wassily, who sits with me at table!"

Tzar Wyslaff rose up in his place and questioned Helen the Beautiful and she related to him the whole: how Tzarevich Ivan had won her, with the Horse with the Golden Mane and the Glowing Bird, and how his two elder brothers had slain him as he lay asleep and had threatened her with death so that she should say what they bade. Tzar Wyslaff, hearing, was angered like a great river in a storm. He commanded that the Tzare- viches Dimitry and Wassily be seized and thrown into prison, and Tzarevich Ivan, that same day, was wed to the Princess Helen the Beautiful. The Tzar made a great feast and all the people drank wine and mead till it ran down their beards, and the festival lasted many days till there was no one hungry or thirsty in the whole Tzardom. And when the rejoicing was ended, the two elder brothers were made, one a scullion and the other a cowherd, but Tzarevich Ivan lived always with Helen the Beautiful in such harmony and love that neither of them could bear to be without the other even for a single moment.