Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/147

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TZAREVICH IVAN
111

ber the journeys thou hast made on the back of the Gray Wolf."

Tzarevich Ivan got down, and having bade the Wolf farewell with tears, entered the city and went at once to the Palace, where the Tzarevich Wassily was even then being wed to Helen the Beautiful.

He entered the splendid rooms and came where they sat at table, and as soon as Helen the Beautiful saw him, she sprang up from the table and kissed him on the mouth, crying: "This is my beloved, Tzarevich Ivan, who shall wed me, and not this wicked one, Tzarevich Wassily, who sits with me at table!"

Tzar Wyslaff rose up in his place and questioned Helen the Beautiful and she related to him the whole: how Tzarevich Ivan had won her, with the Horse with the Golden Mane and the Glowing Bird, and how his two elder brothers had slain him as he lay asleep and had threatened her with death so that she should say what they bade.

Tzar Wyslaff, hearing, was angered like a great river in a storm. He commanded that the Tzareviches Dimitry and Wassily be seized and thrown into prison, and Tzarevich Ivan, that same day, was wed to the Princess Helen the Beautiful. The Tzar made a great feast and all the people drank