‘I demand a horse of diamonds, garments of diamonds, and some money.’
He arrayed himself and set out. He overtook his two brothers, but this time he did not beat them; only he gave them each twenty ducats. He reached the king’s city, and the nobles tried to seize him. He sprang up on to the second story, and for the second time he kissed the princess, who gave him her gold ring. Well, they wished to take him, but he said to them, ‘If you had all the wit in the world you could not catch me.’ But they were determined to seize him. He fled away like the wind. He came to the bush; he struck it thrice; the fairy issued from it and came to him, and took his horse and his clothes. He gathered some wood, and returned to the house; his mother is pleased with him and says, ‘There, now! that is how thou shouldst always behave’; and she gave him something to eat. He went and crouched behind the stove. His two brothers arrived; the mother questioned them.
‘Mother,’ they answered, ‘this prince could not be taken.’
‘And has he not given you a beating?’
‘No, mother; on the contrary, he gave us each twenty ducats more.’
‘To-morrow,’ said the mother, ‘you shall not go there again.’
And the two brothers answered, ‘No, we will go there no more.’
Aha! so much the better.
This king gave yet another feast, and he decreed that ‘All the princes, as many as there shall be of them, shall come to my palace so that my daughter may identify her husband among them.’ This feast lasted four days, but the husband of the princess was not there. What did this king do? He ordained a third feast for beggars and poor country-folk, and he decreed that ‘Every one come, be he [[159]]blind or halt, let him not be ashamed, but come.’ This feast lasted for a week, but the husband of the princess was not there. What then did the king do? He sent his servants with the order to go from house to house, and to bring to him the man upon whom should be found the princess’s ring. ‘Be he blind or halt, let him be brought to me,’ said the king.
Well, the servants went from house to house for a week, and all who were found in each house they called together, in order to make the search. At last they came to this same house in which dwelt the fool. As soon as the fool saw them he went and lay down upon the stove. In came the king’s servants, gathered the people of the house together, and asked the fool, ‘What art thou doing there?’