And when the champion saw the creature,
he never waited even to take his sword,--he turned and ran; and he never
stopped till he came to a deep well, where he jumped in and hid himself,
up to the neck.
When the princess saw that her champion was gone, she began wringing her
hands, and crying, "Oh, please, kind gentlemen, fight the dragon, some of
you, and keep me from being eaten! Will no one fight the dragon for me?"
But no one stepped up, at all. And the dragon made to eat the princess.
Just then, out stepped Billy from the crowd, with his fine suit of clothes
and his hide belt on him. "I'll fight the beast," he says, and swinging
his stick three times round his head, to give him the strength of a
thousand men besides his own, he walked up to the dragon, with easy gait.
The princess and all the people were looking, you may be sure, and the
dragon raged at Billy with all his mouths, and they at it and fought. It
was a terrible fight, but in the end Billy Beg had the dragon down, and he
cut off his heads with the sword.
There was great shouting, then, and crying that the strange champion must
come to the king to be made prince, and to the princess, to be seen. But
in the midst of the hullabaloo Billy Begs slips on the brown mare and is
off and away before anyone has seen his face.
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