“It would give me the greatest pleasure, your majesty, to stay in your
palace if I had not a ship in which I came to your country, and which I
can leave in charge of no one. If, however, your majesty wishes it, I
will come every day to the palace, and get the cat accustomed to your
daughter.”
So the Czar ordered him to come. Simeon went every day to the beautiful
Princess Helena, and one day he said to her—
“Gracious lady, I have come a long while to you, but I have noticed that
you never go out. Would you not like to see my vessel? I could show you
fine goods, gold-stuff, and diamonds, such as you have never seen.”
The princess went away to her father, and begged his permission for her
to take a walk on the quay. The Czar gave it her, but told her to take
her attendants and maids with her. So the princess went with Simeon.
When they had come to the quay, Simeon invited the princess on board his
vessel, and, calling his brothers to show her all the various goods, he
said, after a time—
“Tell your servants and maids to leave the ship so that I can show you
some costly things they must not see.”
So the princess bade them leave the vessel. When she was alone, the
thief ordered his brothers to cut the cable, set all sail, and put out
to sea. In the meanwhile he amused the princess, showing her the things,
and giving presents to her. So they spent several hours examining the
goods. At last the princess told him that it was time for her to go
home, as the Czar would be expecting her. But when she went up out of
the cabin, she saw that the vessel was already far out at sea, and that
she was far away from the coast. Then she beat upon her breast, changed
herself to a swan, and flew upwards; but the fifth Simeon, seizing his
gun, shot at her, and the sixth caught her as she was falling into the
water and brought her to the vessel. The princess became a young woman
once more.
The attendants and maids, who had gone to the quay with the princess,
and had seen the ship sail away with her, told the Czar of the trick
Simeon had played them, and he ordered that all his fleet should go in
pursuit. It had come near to Simeon’s vessel, when the fourth brother
laid hold of the vessel by the prow and dragged it off to the
underground kingdom. The sailors of the fleet saw the vessel vanish, and
they thought that it had sunk with the beautiful princess; so, going
back to the Czar Say, they told him of the ship’s disappearance.
The brothers came safely home, and led the fair Princess Helena to the
Czar Ados, who gave the Simeons, in reward for their great service,
their freedom and much gold, silver, and many precious stones. And he
lived with the princess for many years, prosperous and happy.
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