I will give you three days to seek your shadow. Return to me in the course of that time with a well-fitted shadow, and you shall receive a hearty welcome; otherwise, on the fourth day – remember, on the fourth day – my daughter becomes the wife of another.

In pain a new time is born.

In pain is a new time born.

What use would wings be to a man bound in iron fetters? They would only drive him to even greater despair.

Hope roves in a future of fame and wealth.

The word majesty was now dropped; but, with the deepest respect and humility, I was addressed as the count. What could I do? I accepted the title, and from that moment I was known as Count Peter.

After a prosperous, but to me very wearisome, voyage, we came at last into port. Immediately on landing I got together my few effects; and, squeezing myself through the crowd, went into the nearest and humblest inn which first met my gaze.

My first care the following morning was, to devise some means of discovering the man in the grey cloak.

My vanity was flattered by having been mistaken for our revered sovereign. I ordered a banquet to be got ready for the following evening, under the trees before my house, and invited the whole town.

I ordered gold in the meantime to be showered down without ceasing among the happy multitude.