FAIRY TALES 217

“Over in that cliff a terrible ogre lives,” she said. “He steals away every bride just as soon as she is married. And no one can kill him; for he keeps his soul hidden away, no one knows where. To—morrow he will take our princess away, and we shall never see her again, for she will be a prisoner of the terrible ogre.”

The next day the royal wedding took place, and the beautiful princess was spirited away by the ogre, just as the two old women had said she would be. The prince went to the king and said:

“If you will give me your youngest daughter for my wife, I can promise you that I will de- stroy the terrible ogre.”

The king wished to wait until the ogre had been killed, but the prince said:

“No, the wedding must take place first.”

The king was so anxious to have the ogre de- stroyed, that he said the ceremony might take place at once.

The prince warned the princess that she would be carried away by the ogre just as her sister had been, but that he would rescue her —so she should have no fear. Then the prin- cess was willing to marry the prince.

The ceremony took place at once, and no sooner was it over than the princess was drawn away, by invisible hands, and in an instant she had become invisible too.