To shew them that what he said was true, he unlocked the gate, and set them all free.  Then he led them to the great room, where they feasted plentifully.  Supper being over, they searched the Giant’s coffers, and Jack shared the store among the captives.  Jack started at sunrise to the house of the Knight, whom he had left not long before.

[Illustration:  Initial]

Presently Jack reached the Knight’s castle, where he was received with the greatest joy.  In honour of the hero’s exploits, a grand feast was given, which lasted many days.  The Knight also presented Jack with a beautiful ring, on which was engraved the Giant dragging the knight and the lady by the hair, with this motto: 

  “We were in sad distress, you see,
     Under the Giant’s fierce command,
   But gained our lives and liberty
     By valiant Jack’s victorious hand.”

Among the guests present at the feast were fire aged gentlemen, who were fathers to some of those captives who had been freed by Jack from the dungeon.  These old men pressed round him with tears of joy, and returned him thanks.  One day the bowl went round merrily, and every one drank to the health and long life of the gallant hero.  The hall resounded with peals of laughter and joyful cries.

[Illustration:  A pale Herald interrupteth the Feast]

But, lo! to the midst, a herald, pale and breathless with haste and terror, rushed in, and told the company, that Thundel, a Giant with an immense head, having heard of the death of his two kinsmen, was come to take revenge on Jack, and that he was now near the house, and the country-people all flying before him.

At this dismal news, the very boldest of the guests trembled; but Jack drew his sword, and said, “Let him come; I have a tool to pick his teeth with.  Pray, ladies and gentlemen, walk into the garden, and you shall joyfully behold the Giant’s defeat and death.”

The knight’s castle was surrounded by a moat, thirty feet deep and twenty wide, over which lay a drawbridge.  Jack set men to work, to cut the bridge on both sides, near the middle; and then dressing himself in his invisible coat, went against the Giant with his sword of sharpness.  As he came close to him, though the Giant could not see him, yet he cried out,—­

“Fie! foh! fum!  I smell the blood of an Englishman; Be he alive or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.”

“Say you so, my friend?” said Jack; “you are a clever miller indeed!”

“Art thou,” cried the Giant, “the villain who killed my kinsmen?  Then I will tear thee with my teeth, and grind thy bones to powder.”

“You must catch me first,” said Jack; and throwing off his invisible coat, he put on his shoes of swiftness, and began to run; the Giant following him like a walking castle, making the earth shake at every step.

[Illustration:  The Stratagem of Jack with the Giant Thundel]