Further along the road which led to his old home the prince found the great tree torn up by its roots , and the king of the eagles sitting dead on the ground , with his wings outspread as if for flight . A flutter ran through the feathers as the drops of water fell on them , and the eagle lifted his beak from the ground and said : ` Oh , how long I must have slept ! How can I thank you for having awakened me , my dear , good friend ! ' ` You would have slept till eternity if I had not been here to waken you ' ; answered the prince . Then the king remembered about the tree , and knew that he had been dead , and promised , if ever he had the chance , to repay what the prince had done for him . At last he reached the capital of his father 's kingdom , but on reaching the place where the royal palace had stood , instead of the marble galleries where he used to play , there lay a great sulphur lake , its blue flames darting into the air . How was he to find his father and mother , and bring them back to life , if they were lying at the bottom of that horrible water ? He turned away sadly and wandered back into the streets , hardly knowing where he was going ; when a voice behind him cried : ` Stop , prince , I have caught you at last ! It is a thousand years since I first began to seek you . ' And there beside him stood the old , white-bearded , figure of Death . Swiftly he drew the ring from his finger , and the king of the eagles , the bald-headed king , and the mist-veiled queen , hastened to his rescue . In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him tight , till the prince should have time to reach the Land of Immortality . But they did not know how quickly Death could fly , and the prince had only one foot across the border , when he felt the other grasped from behind , and the voice of Death calling : ` Halt ! now you are mine . ' The Queen of the Immortals was watching from her window , and cried to Death that he had no power in her kingdom , and that he must seek his prey elsewhere . ` Quite true , ' answered Death ; ` but his foot is in my kingdom , and that belongs to me ! ' ` At any rate half of him is mine , ' replied the Queen , ` and what good can the other half do you ? Half a man is no use , either to you or to me ! But this once I will allow you to cross into my kingdom , and we will decide by a wager whose he is . ' And so it was settled .
Death stepped XXXXX the narrow line that surrounds the Land of Immortality , and the queen proposed the wager which was to decide the prince 's fate . '
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