The Blue Mountainspage 3 / 9
Then she brought him a pipe and tobacco, and he went into the room; but before long he heard a hammering and knocking on the outside of the door and was told to open it. "I won't," he said. The next moment the door came flying in, and those outside along with it. They knocked him down, and kicked him, and knelt on his body till it came to midnight; but as soon as the cock crew they all went away. The Irishman was little more than alive by this time. As soon as daylight appeared the princess came and found him lying full length on the floor, unable to speak a word. She took a bottle, rubbed him from head to foot with something from it, and then he was as sound as ever. But after what he had got that night he was very unwilling to try it a second time. But the princess urged him to stay, saying that the next night would not be so bad, and in the end he gave in and stayed.
When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had been the evening before. He did not make the slightest movement to go out to them or to open the door, but before long they broke it up and were on top of him. They laid hold of him and kept throwing between them up to the ceiling or jumping above him until the cock crew, when they all went away. When day came the princess went to the room to see if he was still alive, and, taking the bottle, put it to his nose, which soon brought him to himself. the first thing he said then was: "I am a fool to go on getting myself killed for anyone I ever saw. I will be off and stay here no longer."
When the princess heard him saw this she entreated him to stay, reminding him that one more night would free her from the spell. "Besides, she said, "if there is a single spark of life in you when the day comes, the stuff that is in this bottle will make you as sound as ever you were."
With all this the Irishman decided to stay; but that night there were three at him for every one that was there the two nights before, and it looked very unlikely that he would be alive in the morning after all that he got. When morning dawned and the princess came to see if he was still alive, she found him lying on the floor as if dead. She tried to see if there was breath in him, but could not quite make it out. Then she put her hand on his pulse and found a faint movement in it. So she poured what was in the bottle on him, and before long he rose up on his feet and was as well as ever he was. Well, that was business was finished, and the princess was freed from the spell.