After he was left alone, there were people passing on horses and afoot, in coaches and chaises, in carriages and in wheelbarrows, all going to see the great sight.  And all asked Billy why he was not on his way.  But Billy said he didn’t care about going.

When the last passer-by was out of sight, Billy ran and dressed himself in his master’s best suit of clothes, took the brown mare from the stable, and was off to the king’s town.

When he came there, he saw a big round place with great high seats built up around it, and all the people sitting there.  Down in the midst was the champion, walking up and down proudly, with two men behind him to carry his heavy sword.  And up in the centre of the seats was the princess, with her maidens; she was looking very pretty, but nervous.

The fight was about to begin when Billy got there, and the herald was crying out how the champion would fight the dragon for the princess’s sake, when suddenly there was heard a fearsome great roaring, and the people shouted, “Here he is now, the dragon!”

The dragon had more heads than the biggest of the giants, and fire and smoke came from every one of them.  And when the champion saw the creature, he never waited even to take his sword,—­he turned and ran; and he never stopped till he came to a deep well, where he jumped in and hid himself, up to the neck.

When the princess saw that her champion was gone, she began wringing her hands, and crying, “Oh, please, kind gentlemen, fight the dragon, some of you, and keep me from being eaten!  Will no one fight the dragon for me?” But no one stepped up, at all.  And the dragon made to eat the princess.

Just then, out stepped Billy from the crowd, with his fine suit of clothes and his hide belt on him.  “I’ll fight the beast,” he says, and swinging his stick three times round his head, to give him the strength of a thousand men besides his own, he walked up to the dragon, with easy gait.  The princess and all the people were looking, you may be sure, and the dragon raged at Billy with all his mouths, and they at it and fought.  It was a terrible fight, but in the end Billy Beg had the dragon down, and he cut off his heads with the sword.

There was great shouting, then, and crying that the strange champion must come to the king to be made prince, and to the princess, to be seen.  But in the midst of the hullabaloo Billy Begs slips on the brown mare and is off and away before anyone has seen his face.  But, quick as he was, he was not so quick but that the princess caught hold of him as he jumped on his horse, and he got away with one shoe left in her hand.  And home he rode, to his master’s house, and had his old clothes on and the mare in the stable before his master came back.

When his master came back, he had a great tale for Billy, how the princess’s champion had run from the dragon, and a strange knight had come out of the clouds and killed the dragon, and before anyone could stop him had disappeared in the sky.  “Wasn’t it wonderful?” said the old gentleman to Billy.  “I should say so,” said Billy to him.