Upon the appointed day the lad went to his tryst, and at noon the Fairy
Queen appeared, and gave him a sling, and a smooth pebble from the
beach, saying:
“I have blessed your arms, and I have blessed the sling and the stone.
“Now as the clock strikes three,
Go up the hill near the mill,
And in the ring stand still
Till you hear the click of the mill.
Then with thy arm, with power and might,
You shall strike and smite
The devil of a witch called Jezabel light,
And you shall see an awful sight.”
The lad did as he was bidden, and presently he heard the huntsman’s
horn and the hue and cry, and saw the hare running down the opposite
hill-side, where the hounds seemed to gain on her, but as she breasted
the hill on which he stood she gained on them. As she came towards the
mill he threw his stone, and it lodged in her skull, and when he ran
up he found he had killed the old witch. As the huntsmen came up they
crowded round him, and praised him; and then they fastened the witch’s
body to a horse by ropes, and dragged her to the bottom of the valley,
where they buried her in a ditch. That night, when the miser heard of
her death, he dropped down dead on the spot.
As the lad was going home the queen appeared to him, and told him to be
at the ring the following day at noon.