396 WANDERINGS AND PONDERINGS 



his wife, and the nose of his wife's mother. Now this criminal 

 said he would kill the monster, if the king would spare his life. 

 So the mayor of Hereford sent for a priest, and ordered him to 

 write a letter to the king, and to tell him of the monster and of 

 the offer of the criminal. And the priest, wrote the letter and 

 sealed it ; and the mayor gave it to a groom, who rode eight 

 days with it, and on the eighth night he arrived at Windsor, 

 while the king was sitting at supper, eating a venison pasty, 

 with the queen and his eight children, and two priests. When 

 one of the priests read the letter to the king, he was much 

 troubled, and he rose and left his pasty, and walked up and 

 down the room, and he girt on a double-handed sword at his 

 back, and took courage, and told the priest to write to the 

 mayor of Hereford to allow the criminal to live if he would kill 

 the monster. Then the priest wrote as the king commanded, 

 and the groom took back the letter, and in seven days he 

 arrived at Hereford, and gave the letter to the mayor. 



The next day when the criminal was told that the king had 

 agreed to pardon him if he would kill the monster, he provided 

 himself with a gun with a very long barrel, and he loaded it 

 with a bullet made of silver. He then bought an empty cider 

 hogshead, and took out the head ; and he put the cider hogs- 

 head in a waggon, and then got into the hogshead with his 

 gun, and the head of the hogshead was again put in its place, 

 and the criminal carefully concealed inside. There was a cer- 

 tain place at the meeting of the waters of Lug and Wye where 

 the monster came down every day to drink exactly as the clock 

 struck twelve : so the criminal directed that the hogshead, with 

 himself inside, should be drawn in the waggon, and taken out 

 and left at this place ; and all this was done, and the man 

 drove the waggon away. 



Exactly at twelve o'clock the monster came down to drink, 

 which the criminal knew by the hideous roaring, and also by 

 the powerful smell of sulphur which oozed through the crevices 

 of the hogshead, so he knocked out the bung, and thrust the 

 barrel of the gun through the bung-hole. Then he saw the 

 monster come up slowly out of the water and look about him 

 for somebody to eat : and the criminal trembled with affright, 

 but, recollecting the opportunity of saving his own life, he took 

 steady aim at the monster's left eye, and shot him through the 

 head. Then the dragon breathed forth a terrible stench, and 



