When night came he climbed up into the same tree as the Englishman had been on the night before . As soon as day came he also saw the castle , and set out towards it ; but when he reached it he could see no signs of fire or living being about it . Before long , however , he heard the window opened above his head , looked up , and beheld the most beautiful woman he had ever seen . He asked if she would give him food and drink , and she answered kindly and heartily that she would , if he would only come inside . This he did very willingly , and she set before him food and drink that he had never seen the like of before . In the room there was a bed , with diamond rings hanging at every loop of the curtains , and everything that was in the room besides astonished him so much that he actually forgot that he was hungry . When she saw that he was not eating at all , she asked him what he wanted yet , to which he replied that he would neither eat nor drink until he knew who she was , or where she came from , or who had put her there . ' I shall tell you that , ' said she . ' I am an enchanted Princess , and my father has promised that the man who releases me from the spell shall have the third of his kingdom while he is alive , and the whole of it after he is dead , and marry me as well . If ever I saw a man who looked likely to do this , you are the one . I have been here for sixteen years now , and no one who ever came to the castle has asked me who I was , except yourself . Every other man that has come , so long as I have been here , lies asleep in the big room down there . ' ` Tell me , then , ' said the Irishman , ` what is the spell that has been laid on you , and how you can be freed from it . ' ` There is a little room there , ' said the Princess , ` and if I could get a man to stay in it from ten o'clock till midnight for three nights on end I should be freed from the spell . ' ' I am the man for you , then , ' said he ; ' I will take on hand to do it . ' Thereupon she brought him a pipe and tobacco , and he went into the room ; but before long he heard a hammering and knocking on the outside of the door , and was told to open it . ' I wo n't , ' he said . The next moment the door came flying in , and those outside along with it . They knocked him down , and kicked him , and knelt on his body till it came to midnight ; but as soon as the cock crew they all disappeared . The Irishman was little more than alive by this time .
As soon as daylight appeared the Princess came , and found him lying full length XXXXX the floor , unable to speak a word .
If after at before from in of on till while