But neither, nor both together, made a reason for driving away the princess's creature.

Doubtless she had been the goblins' creature, but the last time he saw her was in the king's house and the dove tower, and at the old princess's feet.

So he left her to do as she would, and the dance of the birds continued only a semicircle, troubled at the edges, and returning upon itself.
But their song and their motions, nevertheless, and the waving of their wings, began at length to make him very sleepy.

All the time he had kept doubting whether they could really be birds, and the sleepier he got, the more he imagined them something else, but he suspected no harm.
Suddenly, just as he was sinking beneath the waves of slumber, he awoke in fierce pain.

The birds were upon him--all over him--and had begun to tear him with beaks and claws.