But as he looked down from the air he saw a very strange sight -- a beautiful girl chained to a stake at the high-water mark of the sea . The girl was so frightened or so tired that she was only prevented from falling by the iron chain about her waist , and there she hung , as if she were dead . The boy was very sorry for her and flew down and stood beside her . When he spoke she raised her head and looked round , but his voice only seemed to frighten her . Then he remembered that he was wearing the Cap of Darkness , and that she could only hear him , not see him . So he took it off , and there he stood before her , the handsomest young man she had ever seen in all her life , with short curly yellow hair , and blue eyes , and a laughing face . And he thought her the most beautiful girl in the world . So first with one blow of the Sword of Sharpness he cut the iron chain that bound her , and then he asked her what she did there , and why men treated her so cruelly . And she told him that she was the daughter of the King of that country , and that she was tied there to be eaten by a monstrous beast out of the sea ; for the beast came and devoured a girl every day . Now the lot had fallen on her ; and as she was just saying this a long fierce head of a cruel sea creature rose out of the waves and snapped at the girl . But the beast had been too greedy and too hurried , so he missed his aim the first time . Before he could rise and bite again the boy had whipped the Terrible Head out of his wallet and held it up . And when the sea beast leaped out once more its eyes fell on the head , and instantly it was turned into a stone . And the stone beast is there on the sea-coast to this day . Then the boy and the girl went to the palace of the King , her father , where everyone was weeping for her death , and they could hardly believe their eyes when they saw her come back well . And the King and Queen made much of the boy , and could not contain themselves for delight when they found he wanted to marry their daughter . So the two were married with the most splendid rejoicings , and when they had passed some time at court they went home in a ship to the boy 's own country . For he could not carry his bride through the air , so he took the Shoes of Swiftness , and the Cap of Darkness , and the Sword of Sharpness up to a lonely place in the hills . There he left them , and there they were found by the man and woman who had met him at home beside the sea , and had helped him to start on his journey . When this had been done the boy and his bride set forth for home , and landed at the harbor of his native land .
But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own mother , flying for her life from the wicked King , who now wished to kill her because he found XXXXX she would never marry him !
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