` You have found it already , ' answered the king , ` for , as I said , neither I nor my family can die till I have levelled this great mountain ; and that will take full eight hundred years longer . Stay here with us and marry my daughter . Eight hundred years is surely long enough to live . ' ` Oh , certainly , ' answered the prince ; ` but , all the same , I would rather go and seek the land where there is no death at all . ' So next morning he bade them farewell , though the princess begged him to stay with all her might ; and when she found that she could not persuade him she gave him as a remembrance a gold ring . This ring was still more useful than the box , because when one wished oneself at any place one was there directly , without even the trouble of flying to it through the air . The prince put it on his finger , and thanking her heartily , went his way . He walked on for some distance , and then he recollected the ring and thought he would try if the princess had spoken truly as to its powers . ' I wish I was at the end of the world , ' he said , shutting his eyes , and when he opened them he was standing in a street full of marble palaces . The men who passed him were tall and strong , and their clothes were magnificent . He stopped some of them and asked in all the twenty-seven languages he knew what was the name of the city , but no one answered him . Then his heart sank within him ; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could understand anything ? he said . Suddenly his eyes fell upon a man dressed after the fashion of his native country , and he ran up to him and spoke to him in his own tongue . ` What city is this , my friend ? ' he inquired . ` It is the capital city of the Blue Kingdom , ' replied the man , ` but the king himself is dead , and his daughter is now the ruler . ' With this news the prince was satisfied , and begged his countryman to show him the way to the young queen 's palace . The man led him through several streets into a large square , one side of which was occupied by a splendid building that seemed borne up on slender pillars of soft green marble . In front was a flight of steps , and on these the queen was sitting wrapped in a veil of shining silver mist , listening to the complaints of her people and dealing out justice .
When the prince came up she saw directly that he was no ordinary man , and telling her chamberlain to dismiss the rest of her petitioners for that day , she signed XXXXX the prince to follow her into the palace .
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