"ON A CERTAIN NIGHT, DURING A STORM OF THUNDER AND RAIN, HE LOST HIS WAY."
Then the Princes set out, each by a different road, agreeing in a year's time to meet at a certain place a short distance from their home.
The two elder met with many adventures, but it is only the youngest that we shall follow.
This youngest Prince was very courteous, merry, clever and accomplished, he was tall, handsome, and all that a prince should be.
Very seldom a day passed without his buying dogs, little dogs, big dogs, sporting dogs, spaniels, hounds, dogs of all sorts. When he found a beautiful one and then came across a still better, he let the first one go, for being alone—the Princes had declined to take any attendants—he could not take charge of thirty or forty thousand dogs.
He travelled on, keeping to one road, until on a certain night, during a storm of thunder and rain, he lost his way, and after some wandering arrived at a most superb castle where nobody was to be seen but about a dozen hands all holding torches. Other hands pushed him forwards, and guided him through one apartment after another, all so rich in precious stones and beautiful paintings, that it was like enchantment.
After passing through sixty rooms, the hands stopped him, and here the wet garments of the Prince were taken away, and he was clad in raiment of the most exquisite description. The hands then conducted him into a banqueting hall, where entered a little figure, not two feet high, covered with a long black crepe veil, followed by a great procession of cats.