The Blue Mountainspage 5 / 9
He was very sorry when he heard this, and could not understand why the sleep should have fallen upon him just when she was coming. He decided, however, to go early to bed that night, in order to rise in time the next morning, and so he did.
When it was getting near nine o'clock he went out to the garden to wait till she came, and the fair-haired boy along with him; but as soon as the boy got the chance he stuck the pin into his master's coat again, and he fell asleep as before. Precisely at nine o'clock came the princess in the carriage with four horses and asked the boy if his master had got up yet; but he said, "No, he is asleep, just as yesterday." "Dear! dear!" said the princess. "I am sorry for him. Was the sleep he had last night not enough for him? Tell him that he will never see me here again; and here is a sword that you will give him in my name, and my blessing with it."
With this she went off, and as soon as she had gone the boy took the pin out of his master's coat. He awoke instantly, and the first word he said was: "Have you seen her?" The boy said he had, and there was the sword she had left for him. The Irishman was ready to kill the boy out of anger, but when he gave a glance over his shoulder the fair-haired boy was gone.
Being thus left alone, he thought of going into the room where all the men were lying asleep, and there among the rest he found his two friends. Then he remembered what the princess had told him- that he had only to touch them with the rod she had given him and they would all awake; and the first he touched were his own friends. They started to their feet at once, and he gave them as much silve and gold as they could carry when they went away. There was plenty to do before he got all the others wakened, for the two doors of the castle were crowded with them all the day long.
He was so grieved at the loss of the princess that finally he thought he would go about the world to see if he could find anyone to give him news of her. So he took the best horse in the stable and set out. Three years he spent traveling through forests and wilderness; but could find no one able to tell him anything of the princess.