But the old King had no work for her, and knew of none, so he said, “I have a little boy who tends the geese, she may help him.”
The boy was called Conrad, and the true Bride had to help him to tend the geese.
Soon afterward the false Bride said to the young King, “Dearest Husband, I beg you to do me a favor.”
He answered, “I will do so most willingly.”
“Then send for the butcher, and have the head of the horse on which I rode here, cut off, for it vexed me on the way.” In reality, she was afraid that the horse might tell how she had behaved to the King’s Daughter.
Then she succeeded in making the King promise that it should be done, and the faithful Falada was to die. This came to the ears of the real Princess, and she secretly promised the butcher a piece of gold if he would perform a small service for her. There was a great dark-looking gateway in the town, through which, morning and evening, she had to pass with the geese: would he be so good as to nail up Falada’s head on it, so that she might see him again? The butcher promised to do that, and cut off the head, and nailed it fast beneath the dark gateway.
Early in the morning, when she and Conrad drove out their flock beneath this gateway, she said in passing:
“Alas, Falada, hanging there!”
Then the head answered:
“Alas! young Queen, how ill you fare!
If this your tender Mother knew,
Her heart would surely break in two!”