He reached the field of battle; he cut all his enemies to pieces; not a single one of them escaped.
He returned home, this fool, with his horse and all the rest; he hid his horse and his sabre and all the rest, so that nobody would know anything of them. These two brothers arrived after the fool had returned. The king asked them, ‘Were you at the war, my children?’
‘Yes, father, we were there, but thy son-in-law was not there.’
‘And what was he about?’
‘He! he was amusing himself hunting frogs; but a prince came and cut the whole army to pieces; not a soul of them has escaped.’
Then the king reproached his daughter thus: ‘What, then, hast thou done to marry a husband who amuses himself catching frogs?’
‘Is the fault mine, father? Even as God has given him to me, so will I keep him.’
The next day those two sons of the king did not go to the war, but the king himself went there with his son-in-law. But the fool mounted his horse the quickest and set out first; the king came after, not knowing where his son-in-law had gone. The king arrived at the war, and found that his son-in-law had already cut to pieces the whole of the [[161]]enemy’s army. And therefore the other king said to this one that henceforth he would no more war against him. They shook hands with each other, these two kings. The fool was wounded in his great toe. His father-in-law noticed it, he tore his own handkerchief and dressed the wounded foot; and this handkerchief was marked with the king’s name. The fool got home quickest, before his father-in-law; he pulled off his boots and lay down to sleep, for his foot pained him. The king came home, and his sons asked him, ‘Father, was our brother-in-law at the war?’
‘No, I saw nothing of him, he was not there; but a prince was there who has exterminated the whole army. Then this king and I shook hands in token that never more should there be war between us.’
Then his daughter said, ‘My husband has my father’s handkerchief round his foot.’