` Oh , never would I allow that . ' And all that the princess could get from him was that he would always wear a sword , and have somebody with him when he left the palace . When the prince and princess had been married a few months , the prince heard that his stepmother was dead , and his father was old and ill , and longing to have his eldest son by his side again . The young man could not remain deaf to such a message , and he took a tender farewell of his wife , and set out on his journey home . It was a long way , and he was forced to rest often on the road , and so it happened that , one night , when he was sleeping in a city on the banks of the great river , a huge crocodile came silently up and made its way along a passage to the prince 's room . Fortunately one of his guards woke up as it was trying to steal past them , and shut the crocodile up in a large hall , where a giant watched over it , never leaving the spot except during the night , when the crocodile slept . And this went on for more than a month . Now , when the prince found that he was not likely to leave his father 's kingdom again , he sent for his wife , and bade the messenger tell her that he would await her coming in the town on the banks of the great river . This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long , and narrowly escaped being eaten by the crocodile . During the weeks that followed the prince amused himself as best he could , though he counted the minutes to the arrival of the princess , and when she did come , he at once prepared to start for the court . That very night , however , while he was asleep , the princess noticed something strange in one of the corners of the room . It was a dark patch , and seemed , as she looked , to grow longer and longer , and to be moving slowly towards the cushions on which the prince was lying . She shrank in terror , but , slight as was the noise , the thing heard it , and raised its head to listen . Then she saw it was the long flat head of a serpent , and the recollection of the prophecy rushed into her mind . Without waking her husband , she glided out of bed , and taking up a heavy bowl of milk which stood on a table , laid it on the floor in the path of the serpent -- for she knew that no serpent in the world can resist milk . She held her breath as the snake drew near , and watched it throw up its head again as if it was smelling something nice , while its forky tongue darted out greedily . At length its eyes fell upon the milk , and in an instant it was lapping it so fast that it was a wonder the creature did not choke , for it never took its head from the bowl as long as a drop was left in it . After that it dropped on the ground and slept heavily . This was what the princess had been waiting for , and catching up her husband 's sword , she severed the snake 's head from its body . The morning after this adventure the prince and princess set out for the king 's palace , but found when they reached it , that he was already dead .
They gave him a magnificent burial , and then the prince had to examine the new laws which had been made XXXXX his absence , and do a great deal of business besides , till he grew quite ill from fatigue , and was obliged to go away to one of his palaces on the banks of the river , in order to rest .
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