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 on the floor , unable to speak a word . She took a bottle , rubbed him from head to foot with something from it , and thereupon he was as sound as ever ; but after what he had got that night he was very unwilling to try it a second time . The Princess , however , entreated him to stay , saying that the next night would not be so bad , and in the end he gave in and stayed . When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open the door , and there were three of them for every one that there had been the previous evening . He did not make the slightest movement to go out to them or to open the door , but before long they broke it up , and were in on top of him . They laid hold of him , and kept throwing him between them up to the ceiling , or jumping above him , until the cock crew , when they all disappeared . When day came the Princess went to the room to see if he was still alive , and taking the bottle put it to his nostrils , which soon brought him to himself . The first thing he said then was that he was a fool to go on getting himself killed for anyone he ever saw , and was determined to be off and stay there no longer , When the Princess learned his intention she entreated him to stay , reminding him that another night would free her from the spell . ` Besides , ' she said , ` if there is a single spark of life in you when the day comes , the stuff that is in this bottle will make you as sound as ever you were . '
With all this the Irishman decided to stay ; but that night there were three at him XXXXX every one that was there the two nights before , and it looked very unlikely that he would be alive in the morning after all that he got .
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