And there upon the edge of the moor they stopped, but in the clear
moonlight they could see the Queen among the horrid hags and trolls. The
King turned away sadly and said not a word, for he loved his quiet Queen
very much.
But the wicked old woman began to whisper and tell abroad about the
Queen's nightly visit to the moor, and at last the King's best men came
to him and said, "We will not have a Queen who is a witch; the people
demand of you that she be burnt alive."
Then the King was so sad that there was no end to his sadness, for now
he saw that he could not save her. He was obliged to order her to be
burnt alive on a pile of wood. When the pile was all ablaze, and they
were about to put her on it, she made signs to them to take twelve
boards and lay them around the pile.
On these she laid the shirts for her brothers all completed but that for
the youngest, which lacked its left sleeve; she had not had time to
finish it. And as soon as ever she had done that, they heard a flapping
and whirring in the air, and down came twelve wild ducks from over the
forest, and each snapped up his shirt in his bill and flew off with it.
"See now!" said the old woman to the King, "wasn't I right when I told
you she was a witch! Make haste and burn her before the pile burns low."
"Oh!" said the King, "we've wood enough and to spare, and so I'll wait a
bit, for I have a mind to see what the end of this will be.
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