He went and did not return.
She sent a second one; no more did he come back, so much was he enchanted. She despatched a third; neither did that one return—he was charmed. She sent the fourth, and he returned not either, being enchanted like the others.
‘What can have happened there?’ she asked herself. ‘Has somebody been killed?’
She sent her maid, who forced her way with difficulty among the people; but she also came not back, so much did this golden hen delight her. Another was sent, who with great difficulty forced a passage through the crowd, but she too returned not, so charmed was she. She despatched her third maid-servant, who also penetrated the throng, but, being charmed, did not return. Finally she said [[180]]to the fourth one, ‘I am sending you to see what is happening there; but if you do not come back to tell me, I will have you put to death.’
This one too went. She forced her way after much difficulty through the crowd, but she came not back out of it, so greatly had that golden hen charmed her.
The princess then said to herself, ‘What can be going on there? Here, I’ve sent eight persons, and not one of them has come back to tell me what’s the matter.’
Then she went herself to see what had happened. Peasants and gentlemen gave way before her. She draws near and sees—a golden hen with her young chickens. The Jew lad perceives her and asks her, ‘Does this give pleasure to your royal highness?’
‘Greatly though it pleases me, sir,’ she answered, ‘you will not give it to me.’
He took this hen and presented it to the princess; then, with the help of the good God, he went away. But the princess called after him, and invited him to dine at her father’s. The young Jew returned to the inn, where the nobleman’s son was asleep. He knew nothing of what the young Jew had done. The king sent a very fine carriage to fetch the young Jew; he got into it and drove off. The princess was amusing herself with the hen and its young golden chickens. The king proposed to him that he should live with his daughter.
‘Very well,’ said the young Jew to him. ‘I will live with her.’