"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass, which is
green."
"Come down quickly," cried Blue Beard, "or I will come up to you."
"I am coming," answered his wife; and then she cried, "Anne, sister
Anne, dost thou not see any one coming?"
"I see," replied sister Anne, "a great dust, which comes from this
side."
"Are they my brothers?"
"Alas! no, my sister, I see a flock of sheep."
"Will you not come down?" cried Blue Beard.
"One moment longer," said his wife, and then she cried out, "Anne,
sister Anne, dost thou see nobody coming?"
"I see," said she, "two horsemen, but they are yet a great way off."
"God be praised," replied the poor wife, joyfully; "they are my
brothers; I will make them a sign, as well as I can, for them to make
haste."
Then Blue Beard bawled out so loud that he made the whole house tremble.
The distressed wife came down and threw herself at his feet, all in
tears, with her hair about her shoulders.
"All this is of no help to you," says Blue Beard: "you must die;" then,
taking hold of her hair with one hand, and lifting up his sword in the
air with the other, he was about to take off her head. The poor lady,
turning about to him, and looking at him with dying eyes, desired him to
afford her one little moment to her thoughts.
"No, no," said he, "commend thyself to God," and again lifting his arm--
At this moment there was such a loud knocking at the gate that Blue
Beard stopped suddenly. The gate was opened, and presently entered two
horsemen, who, with sword in hand, ran directly to Blue Beard. He knew
them to be his wife's brothers, one a dragoon, the other a musketeer. He
ran away immediately, but the two brothers pursued him so closely that
they overtook him before he could get to the steps of the porch. There
they ran their swords through his body, and left him dead. The poor wife
was almost as dead as her husband, and had not strength enough to arise
and welcome her brothers.
Blue Beard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all his
estate. She made use of one portion of it to marry her sister Anne to a
young gentleman who had loved her a long while; another portion to buy
captains' commissions for her brothers; and the rest to marry herself to
a very worthy gentleman, who made her forget the sorry time she had
passed with Blue Beard.