“That would indeed be the simplest thing to do,” replied the fish, “and it lies in our power to fulfil your wish; but, if my mistress frees you from the power of the wicked Misdral, she must promise him in exchange that another ill shall befall your house.  Your army is in the field, and if you return to your family, then will the giant help your enemies; they will defeat you, will capture your capital, and possibly something evil might befall your mother.”

George sprang up and waved his hand in negation.  Then his curly head fell, and he said sadly, but decisively:  “I will stay here and starve.”

The fish in his delight slapped the water with his tail until it splashed high, and continued, although his first speech had already made him hoarse: 

“No, no; it need not be so bad as that.  If you are willing to go into the world as a poor boy, and never to tell any one that you are a prince, nor what your name is, nor whence you come, then no enemy will be able to do your army or the lady duchess any harm.”

“And shall I never see my mother and Wendelin again?” George asked, and the tears poured down over his cheeks like the water over the stalactites.

“Oh yes!” the fish replied, “if you are courageous, and do something good and great, then you may return to your home.”

“Something good and great,” George repeated, “that will be very difficult; and, if I should succeed in doing something that I thought good and great, how could I know whether the fairy considered it so?” “Whenever the grey lock grows on your head, you may declare yourself to be the son of a duke and go home;” the fish whispered.  “Follow me.  I will light the way for you.  It is lucky that you have run about so much and are so thin, otherwise you might stick fast on the way.  Now pay attention.  This pool drains itself, through a passage under the mountain, into the lake.  I shall swim in front of you until we come to the big basin into which the springs of these mountains empty their waters.  After that I must keep to the right, in order to get back into the lake, but you must take the left passage, and let the current carry you along for an hour, when it will join the head of the great Vitale river, and flow out into the open air.  Continue with the stream until it turns towards the east, then you must climb over the mountains, and keep ever northwards.  Hold your hand under my mouth that I may give you money for your journey.”

George did as he was bid, and the fish poured forty shining groschen into his hand.  Each one of them would pay for a day’s nourishment and a night’s lodging.

The fish then dived under, George plunged after it into the pool, and followed the shimmering light that emanated from his scaly guide.  Sometimes the rocky passages, through which he crawled on his stomach in shallow water, became so small that he bumped his head, and had to press his shoulders together in order to pass, and often he thought that he would stick fast among the rocks, like a hatchet in a block of wood.  He always managed to free himself, however, and finally reached the big basin, where a crowd of maidens with green hair and scaly tails were sporting, and they invited him to come and play tag with them.  But the fish advised him not to stop with the idle hussies, and then parted from him.