The One-Handed Murderer

There was once a miser king, so miserly that he kept his only daughter in the garret for fear someone would ask for her hand and thus oblige him to provide her with a dowry.

One day a murderer came to town and stopped at the inn across the street from the king's palace. Right away he wanted to know who lived over there. "That's the home of a king," he was told, "so miserly that he keeps his daughter in the garret."

So what does the murderer do at night but climb up on the king's roof and open the small garret window. Lying in bed, the princess saw the window open and a man on the ledge. "Help! Burglar!" she screamed. The murderer closed the window and fled over the rooftops. The servants came running, saw the window closed, and said, "Your Highness, you were dreaming. There's no one here."

The next morning she asked her father to let her out of the garret, but the king said, "Your fears are imaginary. No one in the world would ever think of coming up here."

The second night the murderer opened the window at the same hour. "Help! Burglar!" screamed the princess, but again he got away, and no one would believe her.

The third night she fastened the window with a strong chain and, with pounding heart, stood guard all by herself holding a knife. The murderer tried to open the window, but couldn't. He thrust in one hand, and the princess cut it clean off at the wrist. "You wretch!" cried the murderer. "You'll pay for that! " And he fled over the rooftops.

The princess showed the king and the court the amputated hand, and everybody finally believed her and complimented her courage. From that day on, she no longer slept in the garret.

Not too long after that, the king received a request for an audience from an elegant young stranger who wore gloves. He was so well-spoken that the king took an instant liking to him. Talking of this and that, the stranger mentioned that he was a bachelor in search of a genteel bride, whom he would marry without a dowry, being so wealthy himself. Hearing that, the king thought, This is just the husband for my daughter, and he sent for her. The minute the princess saw the man she shuddered, having the strong impression she already knew him. Once she was alone with her father, she said, "Majesty, I'm all but sure that's the burglar whose hand I cut off."

"Nonsense," replied the king. "Didn't you notice his beautiful hands and elegant gloves? He's a nobleman beyond any shadow of a doubt."

To make a long story short, the stranger asked for the princess's hand, and to obey her father and escape his tyranny, she said yes. The wedding was short and simple, since the bridegroom couldn't remain away from his business and the king was unwilling to spend any money. He gave his daughter, for a bridal present, a walnut necklace and a worn-out foxtail. Then the newly weds drove off at once in a carriage.

The carriage entered a forest, but instead of following the main road it turned off onto a scarcely visible trail that led deeper and deeper into the underbrush. When they had gone some distance, the bridegroom said, "My dear, pull off my glove."

She did, and discovered a stump. "Help!" she cried, realrzing she'd married the man whose hand she had cut off.

"You're in my power now," said the man. "I am a murderer by profession, mind you. I'll now get even with you for maiming me."

The murderer's house was at the edge of the forest, by the sea. "Here I've stored all the treasure of my victims," he said, pointing to the house, "and you will stay and guard it."

He chained her to a tree in front of the house and walked off. The princess remained by herself, tethered like a dog, and before her was the sea, over which a ship glided from time to time. She tried signaling to a passing ship. On board they saw her through their telescope and sailed closer to see what the matter was. The crew disembarked, and she told them her story. So they set her free and took her aboard, together with all the murderer's treasure.

It was a ship of cotton merchants, who thought it wise to conceal the princess and all the treasure underneath the bales of cotton. The murderer returned and found his wife gone and the house ransacked. She could have only escaped by the sea, he thought to himself, and then saw the ship disappearing into the distance. He got into his swift sailboat and caught up with the ship. "All that cotton overboard! " he ordered. "I must find my wife who has fled."

"Do you want to ruin us?" asked the merchants. "Why not run your sword through the bales to see if anyone is hiding in them?"

The murderer started piercing the cotton with his sword and, before long, wounded the girl hiding there. But as he drew his sword out, the cotton wiped the blood off, and the sword came out clean.

"Listen," said the sailors, "we saw another ship approach the coast, that one down there."

"I'll investigate at once," said the murderer. He left the ship carrying cotton and directed his sailboat toward the other ship.

The girl, who had received a mere scratch on her arm, was put ashore in a safe port. But she protested, saying, "Throw me into the sea! Throw me into the sea!"

The sailors talked the matter over, and one oldtimer in their midst whose wife had no children, offered to take the girl home with him, together with part of the murderer's jewels. The sailor's wife was a good old soul and gave her a mother's love. "Poor dear, you will be our daughter!"

"You are such good people," said the girl. "I'm going to ask just one favor: let me always stay inside and be seen by no man."

"Don't worry, dear, nobody ever comes to our house."

The old man sold a few jewels and bought embroidery silk, so the girl spent her time embroidering. She made an exquisite tablecloth, working into it every color and design under the sun, and the old woman took it to the nearby house of a king to sell.

"But who does this fine work?" asked the king.

"One of my daughters, Majesty," replied the old woman.

"Go on! That doesn't look like the work of a sailor's daughter," said the king, and bought the tablecloth.

The old woman used the money to buy more silk, and the girl embroidered a beautiful folding screen, which the old woman also took to the king.

"Is this really your daughter's work?" asked the king. He was still suspicious, and secretly followed her home.

Just as the old woman was closing the door, the king walked up and stuck his foot in it; the old woman let out a cry. Hearing the cry from her room, the girl thought the murderer had come after her and she fainted from fright. The old woman and the king came in and tried to revive her. She opened her eyes and, seeing that it was not the murderer, regained her senses.

"But what are you so afraid of?" asked the king, charmed with this girl.

"It's just my bad luck," she replied, and would say nothing more.

So the king started going to that house every day to keep the girl company and watch her embroider. He had fallen in love with her and finally asked for her hand in marriage. You can just imagine the old people's amazement. "Majesty, we are poor people," they began.

"No matter, I'm interested in the girl."

"I am willing," said the maiden, "but on one condition."

"What is that?"

"I refuse to see all men regardless of who they are, except you and my father." (She now called the old sailor her father.) "I will neither see them nor be seen by them."

The king consented to that. Jealous beyond measure, he was delighted she wanted to see no man but him.

Thus were they married in secret, so that no man would see her. The king's subjects were not at all happy over the matter, for when had a king ever married without showing the people his wife? The strangest of rumors began circulating. "He's married a monkey. He's married a hunchback. He's married a witch." Nor were the people the only ones to gossip; the highest dignitaries at the court also talked. So the king was forced to say to his wife, "You must appear in public for one hour and put an end to all those rumors."

The poor thing had no choice but obey. "Very well, tomorrow morning from eleven till noon I will appear on the terrace."

At eleven o'clock, the square was more packed than it had ever been. People had come from all over the country, even from the backwoods. The bride walked onto the terrace, and a murmur of admiration went up from the crowd. Never had they seen so beautiful a queen. She, however, scanned the crowd with uneasiness, and there in its midst stood a man cloaked in black. He brought his hand to his mouth and bit it in a threatening gesture, then held up his other arm, which ended in a stump. The queen sank to the ground in a swoon.

They carried her inside at once, and the old woman said over and over, "You would have to show her off! You would have to show her off against her will. Now just see what's happened!"

The queen was put to bed, and all the doctors were called in, but her illness baffled everyone. She insisted on remaining shut up and seeing no one, and she trembled all the time.

Meanwhile the king received a visit from a well-to-do foreign gentleman with a glib tongue and full of flattery. The king invited him to stay for dinner. The stranger, who was none other than the murderer, graciously accepted and ordered wine for everyone in the royal palace. Casks, barrels, and demijohns were brought in at once, but every drop of the wine had been drugged. That evening, guards, servants, ministers, and everybody else drank their fill and, by night, they were dead drunk and snoring, the king loudest of all.

The murderer went through the palace making sure that on the stairs, in the corridors and all the rooms there was no one who wasn't flat on his back and sleeping. Then he tiptoed into the queen's room and found her hunched up in a corner of her bed and wide-eyed, almost as though she expected him.

"The hour has come for my revenge," hissed the murderer. "Get out of bed and fetch me a basin of water to wash the blood from my hands when I've cut your throat."

The queen ran out of the room to her husband. "Wake up! For heaven's sake, wake up!" But he slept on. Everybody in the whole palace slept, and there was no way in the world to wake them up. She got the basin of water and returned to her room.

"Bring me some soap, too," ordered the murderer as he sharpened his knife.

She went out, tried once more to rouse her husband, but to no avail. She then returned with the soap..

"And the towel?" asked the murderer.

She went out, got the pistol off of her sleeping husband, wrapped it in the towel and, making a motion to hand the towel to the murderer, fired a shot point-blank into his heart.

At that shot, the drunk people all woke up at the same time and, with the king in the lead, ran into her room. They found the murderer slain and the queen freed at last from her terror.