Silent for Seven Years

There was once a mother and father with two little boys and a girl. The father was often away from home traveling and one day when he was away the two little boys said to their mother, "We are going to meet Papa! " Their mother replied, "Yes, yes, go ahead."

When they reached the woods the children stopped to play. Shortly afterward, they saw their father approaching and ran up and grabbed him around the legs, saying, "Papa! Papa!"

The father was in a bad humor that day and replied, "Don't bother me! Go away!" But the boys paid no attention and went on pulling on his legs.

Thoroughly irritated, the father yelled, "The Devil take you both! " In that moment the Devil came out and took them away before the father knew what had happened to them.

When the mother saw the father return without the children, she became worried and started crying. Her husband first told her he didn't know where they were, then he admitted cursing them, after which they disappeared from sight.

At that, their little sister spoke up. "Even if it means losing my own life, I'm going out to look for them." Ignoring her parents' protests, she got together a little food and departed.

Coming to a palace with an iron door, she went in and found herself before a gentleman, whom she asked, "Have you by any chance seen my brothers who were kidnapped by the Devil?"

"I can't say that I have. But go through that door into a room with twenty-four beds and see if the boys are there."

In effect, the maiden found her brothers in bed and was overjoyed. "So you are here, little brothers! That means you're safe after all!"

"Take a closer look," replied the brothers, "and see whether we are safe."

She peered beneath the bedclothes and beheld countless flames. "Oh, my brothers! What can I do to save you?"

"If you do not speak for seven years you will save us. But in that time you must go through fire and water."

"Don't worry, you can count on me."

She left them and walked back through the other room past the gentleman sitting there. He motioned to her to approach, but she shook her head, made the sign of the cross, and left the palace.

After walking and walking she found herself in a forest. Exhausted, she lay down and went to sleep. A king out hunting passed by and saw her sleeping. "What a beautiful girl!" he exclaimed, then woke her up to ask whatever brought her to the forest. With her head she made a sign that she was not there by her will. The king then asked, "Would you like to come with me?" and she nodded yes. Taking her at first for a deaf-mute, the king spoke loudly, but shortly realized she could hear even a whisper.

He got home and took her out of the carriage, telling his mother he had found a speechless maiden asleep in the forest, whom he was going to marry.

"I'll never consent to it!" exclaimed his mother.

"But here, I make the decisions," he snapped, and the wedding took place.

The mother-in-law was wicked-hearted and treated her daughter-in-law shamefully, but the daughter-in-law endured all in silence. Meanwhile she found herself with child. The mother-in-law forged a letter to her son calling him to a certain city where he was supposedly being swindled. The king said goodbye to his expectant wife and went off to attend to the matter. The wife gave birth to a baby boy, but the mother-in-law, in league with the midwife, placed a dog in bed beside the new mother and took the baby stuffed in a box to the palace roof. The poor young woman looked on frantically, but then remembered her condemned brothers and bit her tongue.

The mother-in-law wrote her son immediately that his wife had given birth to a dog. The king replied that he wished to hear no more about his wife. He ordered that she be given a little money for food and turned out of the palace before he got home.

But the old woman told a servant to take the young wife off, kill her, throw her body into the sea, and bring back her clothes.

When they reached the seashore, the servant said, "Please bow your head now, madam, as I'm obliged to kill you." With tears in her eyes, the young woman sank to her knees and joined her hands. Moved to pity, the servant merely cut off her hair and took all her clothes, leaving her his own shirt and trousers to put on.

Alone on the deserted shore, the young woman at last spotted a ship at sea and signaled to it. The ship carried soldiers who asked her who she was, never once suspecting she was a girl. In sign language she explained she was a sailor from a shipwrecked vessel and its sole survivor. The soldiers said, "Even if you can't talk, you can still help us wage war."

There was a battle, and the young woman fired her share of cannon shots. Because of her bravery, her comrades in arms made her a corporal right away. Once the war was over she requested a discharge, which was granted.

Back on land, she didn't know which way to turn. At night she spied a tumbledown house and went inside. Hearing footsteps at midnight, she peeped out and saw thirteen murderers go out the back door. She let them get well out of sight, then went to the rear of the house and found a large table laid for a feast. Thirteen places were set, and she went around the table taking just a tiny bit of food at each place, so that the murderers would find nothing missing when they came back. Then she returned to her hiding place, but forgot to remove her spoon from one of the plates before she left. The murderers came home in the middle of the night, and one of them noticed the spoon at once. "Look! Some stranger has been in here meddling."

"Well," replied another murderer, "let's go back out while one of us stays behind to keep watch." And so they did.

Thinking they had all left, the girl jumped out and the murderer grabbed her. "I have you now, you rogue! You just wait!"

Thoroughly frightened, she explained by signs that she was a mute and had come in because she was lost. The murderer comforted her and gave her food and drink. The others came home, heard the tale, and said, "Now that you are here you shall remain with us. Otherwise we'd have to kill you."

Nodding her agreement, she stayed on with them.

The murderers never left her by herself. One day the ringleader said to her, "Tomorrow night we're all going to descend on the palace of a certain king and steal all his valuables. You shall come with us."

He told her the name of the king, who happened to be her own husband, whom she wrote and warned of the danger. As a result, when the murderers started through the front door of the palace at midnight, the servants barricaded there in the dark hall slew them one by one. Thus died the ringleader and five others, while all the rest fled in every direction, leaving the young woman, who was also dressed as a murderer, at the mercy of the servants. What did they do but seize her, bind her hand and foot, and carry her off to prison. From her cell she could see them constructing the gallows in the town square. Only one more day, and her seven years of silence would be up. In sign language she begged them to put off her execution until tomorrow, to which the king consented. The next day they led her to the scaffold. On the first step she asked them in signs if, instead of executing her at three o'clock, they would wait one more hour. The king agreed to this also. Four o'clock struck and she was moving a step higher, when two warriors came forward, bowed to the king, and begged permission to speak.

"Speak," said the king.

"Why is that young man being sent to his death?"

The king explained why.

"That is no man, mind you, but our sister!" And they told the king why she had not uttered a word for the last seven years. Then they said to her, "Speak up, the danger is over, and we are safe."

They removed her shackles and, in the presence of the whole city, she said, "I'm the king's wife, and my wicked mother-in-law killed my baby. Go to the roof, get that box, and see whether I gave birth to a dog or to a baby boy." The king sent his servants for the box, and there inside lay a baby's skeleton.

At that, the whole city shouted, "String up the queen and the midwife in place of this courageous soul!" And so died the two old women, while the young wife returned to the palace with her husband, and the two brothers became prime ministers of the king.