Next morning there, on a fine linen napkin, lay another cake like the first, and on it was written:
“Break this, my king, and be comforted.”
They took it up to the king as they had done the first. And the king snatched it like a hungry man. He broke the cake, and there was the necklace and the locket that he had given the queen.
“Where did this come from?” said he.
But they could tell him no more about that than about the other.
All the same, they talked about it down in the kitchen, and the white dove heard what was said.
But that night the little cook-boy hid in the closet to watch, for he wanted to see who it was that brought the cakes that they took up-stairs to the king. So he watched and watched, and by and by the clock struck twelve. And when the last stroke sounded the dove flew down from over the window, and as soon as it lit upon the floor it was the white dove no longer, but the queen herself. She made a sweet cake of sugar and of flour, and in it she put a feather as white as silver. Then she became the white dove again, and flew back over the window where she had sat before.
The next morning they found the third cake lying upon a white napkin, and on the cake was written:
“Break this, my king, for the time has come.”