“I see truth written on her beautiful face.”
“Is that so? I don’t see it. Perhaps my eyes are not as good as they used to be. Well, well; let us see what the white hen will do.”
They took the hen outside the castle, and put her down. Presently the gravel began to fly. It was like a storm. The air was filled with earth and stones, and the old count was filled with astonishment.
“The hen is bewitched,” said the count.
“Did I not tell you that the girl is honest?”
“And handsome?”
“And handsome.”
Before daybreak the white hen had dug a deep trench around the castle. The trench is shown to travellers to-day, a very remarkable proof of the truth of the story, with only one missing link in the chain of evidence.
The next morning the enemy appeared, but when he came to the trench he forbore to storm the castle.