“My son!  You are the great conqueror of evil monsters.  Now close by there lives one well worthy of your prowess.  On the top of yonder high hill is an enchanted castle kept by a giant named Galligantua, who, by the help of a wicked old magician, inveigles many beautiful ladies and valiant knights into the castle, where they are transformed into all sorts of birds and beasts, yea, even into fishes and insects.  There they live pitiably in confinement; but most of all do I grieve for a duke’s daughter whom they kidnapped in her father’s garden, bringing her hither in a burning chariot drawn by fiery dragons.  Her form is that of a white hind; and though many valiant knights have tried their utmost to break the spell and work her deliverance, none have succeeded; for, see you, at the entrance to the castle are two dreadful griffins who destroy every one who attempts to pass them by.”

Now Jack bethought him of the coat of darkness which had served him so well before, and he put on the cap of knowledge, and in an instant he knew what had to be done.  Then the very next morning, at dawn-time, Jack arose and put on his invisible coat and his slippers of swiftness.  And in the twinkling of an eye there he was on the top of the mountain!  And there were the two griffins guarding the castle gates—­horrible creatures with forked tails and tongues.  But they could not see him because of the coat of darkness, so he passed them by unharmed.

And hung to the doors of the gateway he found a golden trumpet on a silver chain, and beneath it was engraved in red lettering: 

  Whoever shall this trumpet blow
  Will cause the giant’s overthrow. 
  The black enchantment he will break,
  And gladness out of sadness make.

No sooner had Jack read these words than he put the horn to his lips and blew a loud

“Tantivy!  Tantivy!  Tantivy!”

Now at the very first note the castle trembled to its vast foundations, and before he had finished the measure, both the giant and the magician were biting their thumbs and tearing their hair, knowing that their wickedness must now come to an end.  But the giant showed fight and took up his club to defend himself; whereupon Jack, with one clean cut of the sword of strength, severed his head from his body, and would doubtless have done the same to the magician, but that the latter was a coward, and, calling up a whirlwind, was swept away by it into the air, nor has he ever been seen or heard of since.  The enchantments being thus broken, all the valiant knights and beautiful ladies, who had been transformed into birds and beasts and fishes and reptiles and insects, returned to their proper shapes, including the duke’s daughter, who, from being a white hind, showed as the most beauteous maiden upon whom the sun ever shone.  Now, no sooner had this occurred than the whole castle vanished away in a cloud of smoke, and from that moment giants vanished also from the land.