Fidel goes as they had told him. He asks the king for a horse and
a sword. The king gives him a horse blind and lame. Fidel was not
pleased with it. He begins his march, wishing to get on as quickly as
possible, but when he had gone a little distance, the horse sticks
in the mud, and cannot in any way get out of it. While he is there,
the white mare comes to him. She gives him a beautiful horse, and a
lance and a sword, and tells him that he will see his brothers-in-law
encamped round a city, but not to stop there with them, but to ride
straight to the city; that the gates will be shut, but as soon
as he shall have touched them with his lance they will be broken
to pieces, and that they will make peace with him. He does as she
told him, and starts off on his horse like the lightning, without
paying the slightest attention to his brothers-in-law. He goes up
to the city, and as soon as he has touched the gates with his sword
they are in pieces. He enters the city, and all the world comes out
and makes him a thousand fêtes. They declare that they wish for no
more war. They give him the key of the treasury and all the papers,
and he retires from there with all the honours. When he returns he
tells his brothers-in-law to retire--that the war is finished. They
go back again. He stops at the place where he had left his old horse
in the mud. He sends away his beautiful horse with all his things,
and Fidel stops there, not being able to drag his old horse out of
the mud. When his brothers-in-law pass, they mock at him (and ask
him) if it is there that he has passed all his time. He tells them,
"Yes." The others go on ahead, and at length he also arrives at the
king's house. He leaves his old horse there and goes off home. He
does not tell his wife what has happened, and they live in their hole.
The king was getting old, and he had entirely lost his sight. Somebody
gave him to understand that there was a water which made people young
again, and another which restored sight. He told his sons-in-law
that they must go (and look for it)--that he could not live long
like that. And both of them start off. Their wives, at starting,
had given each a golden apple. [114] They go far away; but they find
nothing. Tired at last, they stop in a beautiful city. They take each
of them a wife, and they live according to their fancy. When Fidel saw
that his brothers-in-law did not arrive, he said to his wife that he
must go off; perhaps he might be able better to find the waters which
his father wanted. He goes off without saying anything to the king,
and travels on, and on, and on.
He meets an old woman, who says to him, "Where are you going to?" He
tells her how he wants a water which gives sight to the blind and
makes the old young, [115] and that he would not go back home without
finding it. This old woman says to him:
"You will see two animals fighting close to you, and you will gather
the herb which makes the dead to live; you will have it boiled,
and you will keep this water for yourself."
This lad goes on a little farther, and he sees two lizards fighting so
fiercely that one kills the other. The one who was left alive takes
a blade of grass and touches the dead and rekindles his life. [116]
Fidel gathers this grass, and goes off to this old woman. The old
woman gives him two bottles, telling him that the one is for giving
sight to the blind, and the other for making old men young; that he
must not sell these waters for money, but must make an exchange of
them for two golden apples which his brothers-in-law have in this
very city, and that it is to them that he must give this water.
Fidel goes into the city, and as soon as he has entered, he cries:
"Who wishes to buy the water that gives sight to the blind, and the
water which makes old men young?"
His two brothers-in-law appear, and say that they must have some of
this water, and ask what it costs. And he tells them that he does
not sell it, but only gives it in exchange for golden apples. These
gentlemen willingly make the exchange. But they wish to make trial
of it directly; they bring an old blind dog, and immediately he
grows young again. Judge how pleased they were with their water of
power. They set off to the king, and this water makes him become very
young and gives him sight. The king wishes to have great rejoicings,
and invites all his friends in the neighbourhood. Fidel arrives at
home, and says nothing to his wife. When he hears that the king is
going to have rejoicings, he sends his wife to ask the king if he would
not like them to go there too; that they would help, one in cutting the
wood, and the other in serving at table. She did not wish to go there
at all. She told her husband that she would a hundred times sooner
stop at home; but her husband sends her off by force, (saying) that
they ought to be there on that day. She goes, then, the poor woman,
against her wish. She asks her father if he does not want some one
to help on the feast day. The father says, "No!"--they have servants
enough. An old general who was sitting by his side said to him:
"Why do you not let them come?"