Then came a sound like thunder, louder and more awful than any he had
ever heard before, and everything around collapsed. The beautiful Fairy,
the flowery Paradise sank deeper and deeper. The Prince saw it sink into
the darkness of night; it shone far off like a little tiny twinkling
star. The chill of death crept over his limbs; he closed his eyes and
lay long as if dead.

The cold rain fell on his face, and the sharp wind blew around his head,
and at last his memory came back. 'What have I done?' he sighed. 'I have
sinned like Adam, sinned so heavily that Paradise has sunk low beneath
the earth!' And he opened his eyes; he could still see the star, the
far-away star, which twinkled like Paradise; it was the morning star in
the sky. He got up and found himself in the wood near the cave of the
winds, and the mother of the winds sat by his side. She looked angry and
raised her hand.

'So soon as the first evening!' she said. 'I thought as much; if you
were my boy, you should go into the bag!'

'Ah, he shall soon go there!' said Death. He was a strong old man, with
a scythe in his hand and great black wings. 'He shall be laid in a
coffin, but not now; I only mark him and then leave him for a time to
wander about on the earth to expiate his sin and to grow better. I will
come some time. When he least expects me, I shall come back, lay him in
a black coffin, put it on my head, and fly to the skies. The Garden of
Paradise blooms there too, and if he is good and holy he shall enter
into it; but if his thoughts are wicked and his heart still full of sin,
he will sink deeper in his coffin than Paradise sank, and I shall only
go once in every thousand years to see if he is to sink deeper or to