So at dewy sunrise the Prince, lying on the turf beside the sun-dial, heard her voice—
“Florizel! Florizel! My hair has grown so long that it is pushing me out of the window.”
“Get out on to the window-sill,” said he, “and twist your hair three times round the great iron hook that is there.”
And she did.
Then the Prince climbed up the rose bush with his naked sword in his teeth, and he took the Princess’s hair in his hand about a yard from her head and said—
“Jump!”
The Princess jumped, and screamed, for there she was hanging from the hook by a yard and a half of her bright hair; the Prince tightened his grasp of the hair and drew his sword across it.
Then he let her down gently by her hair till her feet were on the grass, and jumped down after her.
They stayed talking in the garden till all the shadows had crept under their proper trees and the sun-dial said it was breakfast time.
Then they went in to breakfast, and all the Court crowded round to wonder and admire. For the Princess’s hair had not grown.