In a moment a glittering palace arose before the eyes of the Fairy which blinded her with its dazzling splendour , and with its many doors and passages prevented her for some time from finding her way out of it . In the meantime the black girl hurried on with the Prince , hastening to reach the river , where once on the other side they would for ever be out of the wicked Fairy 's power . But before they had accomplished half the way they heard again the rustle of her garments and her muttered curses pursuing them closely . The Prince was terrified ; he dared not look back , and he felt his strength giving way . But before he had time to despair the girl uttered some more magic words , and immediately she herself was changed into a pond , and the Prince into a duck swimming on its surface . When the Fairy saw this her rage knew no bounds , and she used all her magic wits to make the pond disappear ; she caused a hill of sand to arise at her feet , meaning it to dry up the water at once . But the sand hill only drove the pond a little farther away , and its waters seemed to increase instead of diminishing . When the old woman saw that the powers of her magic were of so little avail , she had recourse to cunning . She threw a lot of gold nuts into the pond , hoping in this way to catch the duck , but all her efforts were fruitless , for the little creature refused to let itself be caught . Then a new idea struck the wicked old woman , and hiding herself behind the rock which had sheltered the fugitives , she waited behind it , watching carefully for the moment when the Prince and her daughter should resume their natural forms and continue their journey . She had not to wait long , for as soon as the girl thought her mother was safely out of the way , she changed herself and the Prince once more into their human shape , and set out cheerfully for the river . But they had not gone many steps when the wicked Fairy hurried after them , a drawn dagger in her hand , and was close upon them , when suddenly , instead of the Prince and her daughter , she found herself in front of a great stone church , whose entrance was carefully guarded by a huge monk . Breathless with rage and passion , she tried to plunge her dagger into the monk 's heart , but it fell shattered in pieces at her feet . In her desperation she determined to pull down the church , and thus to destroy her two victims for ever . She stamped three times on the ground , and the earth trembled , and both the church and the monk began to shake . As soon as the Fairy saw this she retreated to some distance from the building , so as not to be hurt herself by its fall . But once more her scheme was doomed to failure , for hardly had she gone a yard from the church than both it and the monk disappeared , and she found herself in a wood black as night , and full of wolves and bears and wild animals of all sorts and descriptions . Then her wrath gave place to terror , for she feared every moment to be torn in pieces by the beasts who one and all seemed to defy her power . She thought it wisest to make her way as best she could out of the forest , and then to pursue the fugitives once more and accomplish their destruction either by force or cunning . In the meantime the Prince and the black girl had again assumed their natural forms , and were hurrying on as fast as they could to reach the river .
But when they got there they found that there was no way XXXXX which they could cross it , and the girl 's magic art seemed no longer to have any power .
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