‘Well, what does he say?’ asked the Princess.
‘I really hardly like to tell you,’ answered the lady-in-waiting.
‘Oh, then you can whisper it to me.’
‘He is disobliging!’ said the Princess, and went away. But she had only gone a few steps when the bells rang out so prettily—
‘Where is Augustus dear?
Alas! he’s not here, here, here.’
‘Listen!’ said the Princess. ‘Ask him whether he will take ten kisses from my ladies-in-waiting.’
‘No, thank you,’ said the Swineherd. ‘Ten kisses from the Princess, or else I keep my pot.’
‘That is very tiresome!’ said the Princess. ‘But you must put yourselves in front of me, so that no one can see.’
And the ladies-in-waiting placed themselves in front and then spread out their dresses; so the Swineherd got his ten kisses, and she got the pot.
What happiness that was! The whole night and the whole day the pot was made to boil; there was not a fire-place in the whole town where they did not know what was being cooked, whether it was at the chancellor’s or at the shoemaker’s.