I might smite my horse dead under me with a missed blow. And
besides that, I must be near to my beasts.'
'As you will,' said the king. 'Three horses then, Sir
Bronzebeard.'
The colonel departed, doubting sorely in his heart how to accoutre
and lead from the barrack stables three horses, in the teeth of his
revolted regiment.
In the hall he met the housemaid.
'Can you lead a horse?' he asked.
'Yes, sir.'
'Are you willing to die for the king?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Can you do as you are bid?'
'I can keep on trying, sir.'
'Come then. Were I not a man I would be a woman such as you.'
When they entered the barrack yard, the soldiers scattered like
autumn leaves before a blast of winter. They went into the stable
unchallenged - and lo! in a stall, before the colonel's eyes, stood
the king's white charger, with the royal saddle and bridle hung
high beside him!
'Traitorous thieves!' muttered the old man in his beard, and went
along the stalls, looking for his own black charger. Having found
him, he returned to saddle first the king's. But the maid had
already the saddle upon him, and so girt that the colonel could
thrust no finger tip between girth and skin. He left her to finish
what she had so well begun, and went and made ready his own. He
then chose for the princess a great red horse, twenty years old,
which he knew to possess every equine virtue.
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