Soon after this, the false bride said to her betrothed, "Dearest, will you grant me a favor?"
"Yes," said he; "with the greatest pleasure."
"Then let the butcher be summoned, that he may cut off the head of the horse on which I rode hither, for it has angered me on the way." In reality she feared lest the horse might tell how she had used the rightful Princess, and she was glad when it was decided that Falada should die.
This came to the ears of the Princess, and she promised secretly to the butcher to give him a piece of gold if he would show her a kindness, which was, that he would nail the head of Falada over a certain large and gloomy arch, through which she had to pass daily with the geese, so that then she might still see her old steed as she had been accustomed. The butcher promised, and, after killing the horse, nailed the head in the place which the Princess pointed out, over the door of the arch.
Early in the morning, when she and Conrad drove the geese through the arch, she said in passing:
"Ah, Falada, that you hang so high!"
and the head replied:
"Ah Princess, that you go humbly by!
Thy mother's heart would surely break
Were she to know of your heart-ache!"
Then she drove on through the town to a field. When they arrived in the meadow, she sat down and unloosened her hair, which was of pure gold. Its shining appearance so charmed Conrad that he tried to pull out a couple of locks. So she sang: