working hard at the eleventh, while the mob jeered her and said, “See the
witch, how she mutters! She has no hymn-book in her hand. She sits there
with her ugly sorcery. Let us tear it in a thousand pieces.”
And then they pressed towards her, and would have destroyed the coats
of mail, but at the same moment eleven wild swans flew over her, and
alighted on the cart. Then they flapped their large wings, and the crowd
drew on one side in alarm.
“It is a sign from heaven that she is innocent,” whispered many of them;
but they ventured not to say it aloud.
As the executioner seized her by the hand, to lift her out of the cart, she
hastily threw the eleven coats of mail over the swans, and they immediately
became eleven handsome princes; but the youngest had a swan’s wing,
instead of an arm; for she had not been able to finish the last sleeve of the
coat.
“Now I may speak,” she exclaimed. “I am innocent.”
Then the people, who saw what happened, bowed to her, as before a
saint; but she sank lifeless in her brothers’ arms, overcome with suspense,
anguish, and pain.
“Yes, she is innocent,” said the eldest brother; and then he related all that
had taken place; and while he spoke there rose in the air a fragrance as from
millions of roses. Every piece of faggot in the pile had taken root, and threw
out branches, and appeared a thick hedge, large and high, covered with
roses; while above all bloomed a white and shining flower, that glittered
like a star. This flower the king plucked, and placed in Eliza’s bosom, when
she awoke from her swoon, with peace and happiness in her heart. And all
the church bells rang of themselves, and the birds came in great troops. And
a marriage procession returned to the castle, such as no king had ever before
seen.
