They were astonished though at how greedily the Queen devoured the meat , and how much she ate of it , and were no longer surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King . As soon as she had finished it the Giant disappeared with the trough by the same way as he had come , and the Queen returned to her human shape . Now we must go back to the King 's son after he had been put in charge of the nurse . One evening , after she had lit a candle and was holding the child , several planks sprang up in the floor of the room , and out at the opening came a beautiful woman dressed in white , with an iron belt round her waist , to which was fastened an iron chain that went down into the ground . The woman came up to the nurse , took the child from her , and pressed it to her breast ; then she gave it back to the nurse and returned by the same way as she had come , and the floor closed over her again . Although the woman had not spoken a single word to her , the nurse was very much frightened , but told no one about it . Next evening the same thing happened again , just as before , but as the woman was going away she said in a sad tone , ` Two are gone , and one only is left , ' and then disappeared as before . The nurse was still more frightened when she heard the woman say this , and thought that perhaps some danger was hanging over the child , though she had no ill-opinion of the unknown woman , who , indeed , had behaved towards the child as if it were her own . The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ` and only one is left ; ' but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one day was left , since she had come for two days already . At last the nurse made up her mind to go to the King , and told him the whole story , and asked him to be present in person next day about the time when the woman usually came . The King promised to do so , and came to the nurse 's room a little before the time , and sat down on a chair with his drawn sword in his hand . Soon after the planks in the floor sprang up as before , and the woman came up , dressed in white , with the iron belt and chain . The King saw at once that it was his own Queen , and immediately hewed asunder the iron chain that was fastened to the belt . This was followed by such noises and crashings down in the earth that all the King 's Palace shook , so that no one expected anything else than to see every bit of it shaken to pieces . At last , however , the noises and shaking stopped , and they began to come to themselves again . The King and Queen embraced each other , and she told him the whole story -- how the Witch came to the ship when they were all asleep and sent her off in the boat . After she had gone so far that she could not see the ship , she sailed on through darkness until she landed beside a three-headed Giant . The Giant wished her to marry him , but she refused ; whereupon he shut her up by herself , and told her she would never get free until she consented . After a time she began to plan how to get her freedom , and at last told him that she would consent if he would allow her to visit her son on earth three days on end . This he agreed to , but put on her this iron belt and chain , the other end of which he fastened round his own waist , and the great noises that were heard when the King cut the chain must have been caused by the Giant 's falling down the underground passage when the chain gave way so suddenly .
The Giant 's dwelling , indeed , was right under the Palace , and the terrible shakings must have been caused by him XXXXX his death-throes .
After about before by if in over so until with