That night , however , it had not the same appearance as on the previous one ; it was less ugly . When all was quiet in the church , the smith lay down before the altar and slept calmly till the following morning , when the colonel came to fetch him . He was taken up to the king again , and things went on as the day before . He got his money , but would give no explanation whether he had seen the king 's daughter , and he would not take the post again , he said . But after he had got a good breakfast , and tasted well of the king 's wines , he undertook to go on guard again the third night , but he would not do it for less than the half of the kingdom , he said , for it was a dangerous post , and the king had to agree , and promise him this . The remainder of the day went like the previous one . He played the boastful soldier , and the merry smith , and he had comrades and boon-companions in plenty . At eight o'clock he had to put on his uniform again , and was shut up in the church . He had not been there for an hour before he had come to his senses , and thought , ` It 's best to stop now , while the game is going well . ' The third night , he was sure , would be the worst ; he had been drunk when he promised it , and the half of the kingdom , the king could never have been in earnest about that ! So he decided to leave , without waiting so long as on the previous nights . In that way he would escape the little man who had watched him before . All the doors and posterns were locked , but he finally though of creeping up to a window , and opening that , and as the clock struck nine , he crept out there . It was fairly high in the wall , but he got to the ground with no bones broken , and started to run . He got down to the shore without meeting anyone , and there he got into a boat , and pushed off from land . He laughed immensely to himself at the thought of how cleverly he had managed and how he had cheated the little man . Just then he heard a voice from the shore , ` Good evening , Christian , where are you going ? ' He gave no answer . ` To-night your legs will be too short , ' he thought , and pulled at the oars . But he then felt something lay hold of the boat , and drag it straight in to shore , for all that he sat and struggled with the oars .
The man then laid hold of him , and said , ` You must remain at your post , as you have promised , ' and whether he liked it or not , Christian had just to go back XXXXX him the whole way to the church .
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