Princess:  (Looking out.) Oh! he is but going to his death.  It would be better for me to throw myself into the tide and make an end of it.

(Is rushing to door.)

King:  (Holding her.) He is drawing his sword.  Himself and the Dragon are thrusting at one another on the flags!

Princess:  Oh, close the curtains!  Shut out the sound of the battle.

(Dall Glic closes curtains.)

King:  Strike up now a tune of music that will deafen the sound!

(Orchestra plays.  Princess is kneeling by King.  Music changes from discord to victory.  Two Aunts and Gateman rush in.  Noise of cheering heard without as the Gateman silences music.)

Gateman:  Great news and wonderful news and a great story!

First Aunt:  The fight is ended!

Second Aunt:  The Dragon is brought to his last goal!

Gateman:  That young fighting man that has him flogged!  Made at him like a wave breaking on the strand!  They crashed at one another like two days of judgment!  Like the battle of the cold with the heat!

First Aunt:  You’d say he was going through dragons all his life!

Second Aunt:  It can hardly put a stir out of itself!

Gateman:  That champion has it baffled and mastered!  It is after being chased over seven acres of ground!

First Aunt:  Drove it to its knees on the flaggy shore and made an end of it!

King:  God bless that man to-day and to-morrow!

Second Aunt:  He has put it in a way it will eat no more kings’ daughters!

Princess:  And the stranger that mastered it—­is he safe?

First Aunt:  What signifies if he is or is not, so long as we have our own young prince to bring home!

Gatekeeper:  He is not safe.  No sooner had he the beast killed and conquered than he fell dead, and the life went out of him.

Princess:  Oh, that is not right!  He to be dead and I living after him!

King:  He was surely noble and high-blooded.  There are some that will be sorry for his death.

Princess:  And who should be more sorry than I myself am sorry?  Who should keen him unless myself?  There is a man that gave his life for me, and he young and all his days before him and shut his eyes on the white world for my sake!

Queen:  Indeed he was a man you might have been content to wed with, hard and all as you are to please.

Princess:  I never will wed with any man so long as my life will last, that was bought for me with a life was more worthy by far than my own!  He is gone out of my reach; let him wait for me to give him my thanks on the other side.  Bring me now his sword and his shield till I will put them before me and cry my eyes down with grief!