464 THE YELLOW DWARF.

king to combat ; and down they went into the court-yard. The
sun was immediately turned as red as blood, the air became
dark, it thundered heavily, and the flashes of lightning dis-
covered two giants vomiting fire on each side of the Yellow
Dwarf. The king behaved with such undaunted courage, as to
give the dwarf great trouble; but he was dismayed when he
saw the Desert Fairy, mounted on a winged griffin, and, with
her head covered with snakes, strike the princess so hard with
a lance, that she fell into the queen’s arms, covered with blood.
He immediately left the combat, to go to her relief, but the
dwarf was too quick for him ; and flying on his Spanish cat to
the balcony where she was, he took her from her mother's
arms, leaped with ser upon the top of the palace, and imme-
diately disappeared.

As the king stood confused and astonished at this strange
adventure, he suddenly found a mist before his eyes, and felt
himself lifted up in the air by some extraordinary power ; for
the Desert Fairy had fallen in love with him. To secure him
for herself, therefore, she carried him to a frightful cavern,
hoping he would there forget All-Fair, and tried many artifices
to complete her designs. But finding this scheme ineffectual,
she resolved to carry him to a place altogether as pleasant as
the other was terrible ; and accordingly placed him in a chariot
drawn by swans, In passing through the air, he was unspeak-
ably surprised to see his beloved princess in a castle of polished
steel, leaning her head on one hand, and wiping away her tears
with the other. ‘She happened to look up, and had the morti-
fication to see the king sitting by the fairy ; who, then, by her
art, made herself appear extremely beautiful. Had not the
king been sensible of the fairy's power, he would certainly then
have tried to free himself from her by some means or other 5
but he knew it would be in vain, and therefore pretended to