She no sooner returned to her apartment, than she locked herself in, and began to weep bitterly at the thought of losing her poor ruby, which she bathed with her tears, and kissed with the utmost tenderness.
When the ruby felt the hot tears that fell from the princess's eyes, and heard her deep sighs, it assumed the human form, and said to her: "Princess, on whom my life hangs, I beseech you, do not thus immoderately grieve at my misfortune. Let us rather devise some means of rescue; for that physician who so zealously covets the possession of me, is no other than my greatest foe Lactantius, who desires to kill me. Therefore I implore you, do not give me into his hand, but feign to be indignant, and dash me against the wall: leave the rest to my care."
The following morning the physician again visited the king, who informed him that his daughter still persisted that she did not possess the ring. Lactantius much displeased, on hearing this, however, positively asserted that the ruby was in the princess's collection.
Thereupon the king again sent for the princess, and in the physician's presence said to her: "Violante, thou knowest that I owe the restoration of my health to this man's skill and care. He requires no other recompense of me than that ring which he declares to be in thy possession, and which thou dost assert thou hast not. I should have thought thy love for me would have led thee not to give thy ruby alone, but thy very life. I beseech thee, by the obedience thou owest to me, by the affection I have borne thee, to withhold it from me no longer."
The princess, on hearing her father's will so decidedly expressed, returned to her room, collected all her jewels, amongst which she laid the ruby, and taking them one by one in her hand, in the presence of her father, showed them each in succession to the physician, who, the moment he saw the ruby, would have laid his hand on it, saying: "Princess, this is the ring I wish for, and which the king has promised me."
But the princess, repelling him, said: "Stay, master, you shall have it!" and holding the ring in her hand, exclaimed: "Then it is this precious jewel, so infinitely dear to me, that you covet: I must renounce this, for the loss of which I shall be inconsolable for life. But I do not yield it willingly, but only because the king, my father, requires it of me."
With these words she flung the ruby against the wall. As it fell to the ground it instantly changed into a beautiful pomegranate, which burst as it fell, and its seeds were scattered all over the room.
The physician as quickly became a cock, in order to swallow all the seeds, and thus to destroy the unlucky Dionysius; but he had miscalculated: one of the seeds had so concealed itself that the cock could not discover it. The seed watched its opportunity, transformed itself into a fox, who throwing himself on master cock, seized him by the throat, and strangled and devoured him in the presence of the astonished monarch and his daughter Violante. Dionysius then resumed his human form, and related all to the king, who thought he could not do better than immediately give him his daughter in marriage. They lived long together in peace and happiness, and the good old father of Dionysius became, instead of an indigent man, a rich and powerful one; whilst, on the other hand, the cruelty of Lactantius had cost him his life.