"We could not injure them, indeed, any more than we could the boy, but they did not seem to have any unusual strength, although the goat's head is harder than a battering-ram." "Well," mused the Queen, "there is surely some way to conquer that slight boy.

If you are afraid to undertake the job, I shall go myself.
By some stratagem I shall manage to make him my prisoner.

He will not dare to defy a Queen, and no magic can stand against a woman's cunning." "Go ahead, if you like," replied the King, with an evil grin, "and if you are hung up by the thumbs or cast into a dungeon, it will serve you right for thinking you can succeed where a skilled warrior dares not make the attempt." "I'm not afraid," answered the Queen.

"It is only soldiers and bullies who are cowards." In spite of this assertion, Queen Cor was not so brave as she was cunning.

For several days she thought over this plan and that, and tried to decide which was most likely to succeed.