‘And why have you not laid a complaint against him before the king?’
‘But he gave us ten ducats apiece.’
‘I will not send you any more to the king,’ said the mother to them.
‘Mother, they have posted sentinels all over the town to arrest him, the prince; for he has already kissed the king’s daughter, after doing which he took to flight. Then the sentinels were posted. We are certain to catch this prince.’
The fool then said to them, ‘How will you be able to seize him, since evidently he knows a trick or two?’
‘Thou art a fool,’ said the two wise brothers to him; ‘we are bound to capture him.’ [[158]]
‘Capture away, with the help of the good God,’ replied the fool.
Three days later the two wise brothers set out, leaving the fool cowering behind the stove.
‘Go and fetch some wood,’ called his mother to him.
He roused himself and went, with the good God. He came to the bush, and struck it three times. The fairy issued out of it and asked, ‘What dost thou demand?’