PRINCE'S MOTHER. Not very long. The dew is rising from the roses, the corn-crake's call is heard among the grass, the morning breeze is coming from the sea.
SWANWHITE'S MOTHER. Let us make haste with what we have on hand, my sister.
PRINCE'S MOTHER. You called me so that we might talk of our children.
SWANWHITE'S MOTHER. Once I was walking in a green field in the land that knows no sorrow. There I met you, whom I had always known, yet had not seen before. You were lamenting your poor boy's fate, left to himself here in the vale of sorrow. You opened up your heart to me, and my own thoughts, that dwell unwillingly below, were sent in search of my deserted daughter—destined to marry the young king, who is a cruel man, and evil.
PRINCE'S MOTHER. Then I spoke, while you listened: "May worth belong to worth; may love, the powerful, prevail; and let us join these lonely hearts, in order that they may console each other!"
SWANWHITE'S MOTHER. Since then heart has kissed heart and soul enfolded soul. May sorrow turn to joy, and may their youthful happiness bring cheer to all the earth!
PRINCE'S MOTHER. If it be granted by the powers on high!
SWANWHITE'S MOTHER. That must be tested by the fire of suffering.
PRINCE'S MOTHER. [Taking in her hand the helmet left behind by the PRINCE] May sorrow turn to joy—this very day, when he has mourned his mother one whole year!
She exchanges the black feathers on the helmet for white and red ones.