The robber took a candle and wanted to look for it, but could not
find it. Then another of them said, "Hast thou looked behind the great
hogshead?" But the old woman cried, "Come and get something to eat, and
leave off looking till the morning, the finger won't run away from you."
Then the robbers said, "The old woman is right," and gave up their search,
and sat down to eat, and the old woman poured a sleeping-draught in their
wine, so that they soon lay down in the cellar, and slept and snored. When
the bride heard that, she came out from behind the hogshead, and had to
step over the sleepers, for they lay in rows on the ground, and great was
her terror lest she should waken one of them. But God helped her, and
she got safely over. The old woman went up with her, opened the doors,
and they hurried out of the murderers' den with all the speed in their
power. The wind had blown away the strewn ashes, but the peas and lentils
had sprouted and grown up, and showed them the way in the moonlight. They
walked the whole night, until in the morning they arrived at the mill,
and then the maiden told her father everything exactly as it had happened.
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