The following day , when the sun was at its highest and hottest , she noticed her draw a fan from the folds of her dress and hold it before her eyes . The fairy , in a rage , tried to snatch it from her , but the princess would not let it go . ` Give me that fan at once ! ' cried Grimace . ` Never while I live ! ' answered the princess , and , not knowing where it would be safest , placed it under her feet . In an instant she felt herself rising from the ground , with the fan always beneath her , and while Grimace was too much blinded by her fury to notice what was going on the princess was quickly soaring out of her reach . All this time Souci had been wandering through the world with his precious thread carefully fastened round him , seeking every possible and impossible place where his beloved princess might chance to be . But though he sometimes found traces of her , or even messages scratched on a rock , or cut in the bark of a tree , she herself was nowhere to be found . ` If she is not on the earth , ' said Souci to himself , ` perhaps she is hiding somewhere in the air . It is there that I shall find her . ' So , by the help of his thread , he tried to mount upwards , but he could go such a little way , and hurt himself dreadfully when he tumbled back to earth again . Still he did not give up , and after many days of efforts and tumbles he found to his great joy that he could go a little higher and stay up a little longer than he had done at first , and by-and-bye he was able to live in the air altogether . But alas ! the world of the air seemed as empty of her as the world below , and Souci was beginning to despair , and to think that he must go and search the world that lay in the sea . He was floating sadly along , not paying any heed to where he was going , when he saw in the distance a beautiful , bright sort of bird coming towards him . His heart beat fast -- he did not know why -- and as they both drew near the voice of the princess exclaimed , ` Behold the bird without feathers and the bridge without an arch ! ' So their first meeting took place in the air , but it was none the less happy for that ; and the fan grew big enough to hold the king as well as Aveline , who had hastened to give them some good advice . She guided the fan above the spot where the two armies lay encamped before each other ready to give battle . The fight was long and bloody , but in the end the Iron King was obliged to give way and surrender to the princess , who set him to keep King Souci 's sheep , first making him swear a solemn oath that he would treat them kindly .
Then the marriage took place , in the presence of Girouette , whom they had the greatest trouble XXXXX find , and who was much astonished to discover how much business had been got through in her absence .
as at before in near on than though to under