Then she went away.
Poor Jack, he wandered out into the garden very down-hearted at this, and sure and certain that he would lose his head in the morning.
The little red man came up to him and asked him what was the matter. Jack told him and the red fellow said: “Keep up your heart, and I’ll see what can be done.” And he reminded Jack that he had the Sword of Light, which was never made by mortal man.
He threw his Cloak of Darkness about him, took the Sword of Light with him, and watched by the Princess’s door. Just before midnight she came out and went off, and he followed her to Hell, where the Devil welcomed her with a kiss, and as he did so the little red man raised the Sword of Light and cut the lips off of him and went off as fast as he could.
So in the morning Jack handed them across the table to the Princess, who was shaking with rage, and then he demanded her hand in marriage. And she had to consent.
As soon as they were married, the little red man said to Jack: “I have a wedding present for you.” So he gave him ten blackthorns and told him to break one of these blackthorns on his wife every morning for ten mornings, and if he followed out his instructions faithfully, he would have a good wife on the tenth day.
Seeing the little red man had been such a good friend to him, Jack consented to do this. He broke a blackthorn on her every morning for ten mornings, and for every blackthorn he broke on her she was dispossessed of a devil. And on the tenth day she had lost all her rage and all her fury and all the devils, and she was the best and most perfect girl, as well as the most beautiful one, in all the world.
The little red man on the tenth day asked Jack if he remembered when he set out on his travels paying a hundred guineas to get a corpse buried. Jack said he did.
“Then,” said the little red man, “it was I whom you buried, and I have tried to repay you a little. Now, good-bye, and may you and your wife prosper ever after.”
The little red man disappeared, and Jack and his beautiful wife lived long and happily.