down beside him. Helen the Beautiful had been greatly frightened, but dried her tears quickly when she saw the handsome youth.
"Mount my back, Tzarevich Ivan," said the Wolf, "and take the Tzarevna in your arms."
Tzarevich Ivan sat on the Gray Wolf's back and took Helen the Beautiful in his arms, and the Wolf began running more swiftly than fifty horses, across the three times nine countries, back to the Tzardom of Tzar Afron. The nurse and ladies-in-waiting of the Tzarevna hastened to the Palace, and the Tzar sent many troops to pursue them, but fast as they went they could not overtake the Gray Wolf.
Sitting on the Wolf's back, with the Tzar's beautiful daughter in his arms, Tzarevich Ivan began to love her with his heart and soul, and Helen the Beautiful began also to love him, so that when the Gray Wolf came to the country of Tzar Afron, to whom she was to be given, Tzarevich Ivan began to shed many tears.
"Why dost thou weep, Tzarevich Ivan?" asked the Wolf, and Ivan answered: "Gray Wolf, my friend! Why should I not weep and be desolate? I myself have begun to love Helen the Beautiful, yet now I must give her up to Tzar Afron for the Horse with the Golden Mane. For if I do not,
