The mother comes to him. ‘What is the matter, my child? Don’t be ashamed to tell me everything.’
‘Ah, mother,’ he answered, ‘even though I were to tell you all, you would not be able to give me any advice.’
‘On the contrary, my son, I will give you very good advice.’
Then he said to her, ‘Mother, I have seen the likeness of a beautiful princess in these fine baths; if I do not have her to wife I shall kill myself.’
The mother hears this with delight. ‘That is well, my son. In the meantime, where am I to find her?’
But the Jew lad said to the nobleman, ‘My lord, I will go with him to seek the princess. I make myself answerable for his person, and if any harm befalls him, punish me.’
‘Very well, then; get ready, and set out with the help of God.’
They set out, and on the further side of a large town the young Jew saw a beautiful wand on the road and a little key beside it.
‘I shall dismount and pick up that wand,’ said he.
But the nobleman’s son said to him, ‘What good will that wand do you? You can buy yourself a fine sword in any town.’