‘All right,’ I said, ‘but why?’

‘Come with me.’

We went a little way into the wood.

‘You . . .’ said the Princess. ‘We can’t just fight it out, I do see that. But we want to help the child, don’t we? Well, and so what’s the mother’s name?’

‘Collin. Frau Collin.’ I said very proudly.

‘Right – and how do you want to help?’ She was right. We didn’t have the address. Zurich . . . Zurich . . . what else had the child said?

The Princess continued, ‘I whispered to her that we would pass the house in half an hour, and she was to try to get the address to us on a bit of paper. I’m sure it won’t work–the poor child is so petrified as it is. But we’ll see . . . What an old dragon, though! She really does spit fire!’

‘Magnificent woman,’ said Karlchen. ‘There’s someone I’d like to marry! I mean . . . what I mean is . . .’

‘Let’s go and lie down in the meadow for a while,’ said the Princess.

‘Did you see that, Karlchen,’ I said, ‘the woman’s hair was standing on end! I’ve never seen anything like it . . .’

‘You can put as much make-up as you like on your bum, but you can’t turn it into a face. That woman . . .’

‘Quiet!’ said the Princess. We listened. From the house, some distance away now, came the sound of a high scolding voice. We couldn’t hear what was being said, we could only hear someone shouting angrily. My blood rose. Perhaps she was beating the child.

‘Pah!’ muttered Karlchen. The meadow disappeared and the Princess’ deep alto reached me as through a haze.

‘We’ll go straight to the house afterwards . . . we have to . . .’