“O my cousin Jack, this is heavy news indeed, but I have a large vault underground where I will run and hide myself, and you shall lock, bolt, and bar me in, and keep the keys till the king’s son is gone.”
Jack, having now secured the giant, returned and fetched his master, and both made merry with the best dainties the house afforded. In the morning Jack furnished his master with fresh supplies of gold and silver, and having set him three miles on the road out of the giant’s smell, he returned and let his uncle out of the hole, who asked Jack what he should give him for his care of him, seeing his castle was demolished.
“Why,” said Jack, “I desire nothing but your old rusty sword, the coat in the closet, and the cap and the shoes at your bed’s head.”
“Ay,” said the giant, “thou shalt have them, and be sure keep you them, for my sake. They are things of excellent use. The coat will keep you invisible, the cap will furnish you with knowledge, the sword cuts asunder whatever you strike, and the shoes are of extraordinary swiftness. They may be serviceable to you, so take them with all my heart.”
Jack took them, and immediately followed his master. Having overtaken him, they soon arrived at the lady’s dwelling, who, finding the king’s son to be a suitor, prepared a banquet for him, which being ended, she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, saying—“You must show me this to-morrow morning, or lose your head,” and then she put it in her bosom.
The king’s son went to bed right sorrowful, but Jack’s cap of knowledge instructed him how to obtain the handkerchief. In the midst of the night the lady called upon her familiar to carry her to Lucifer. Jack whipped on his coat of darkness, with his shoes of swiftness, and was there before her, but could not be seen by reason of his coat, which rendered him perfectly invisible to Lucifer himself. When the lady came she gave him the handkerchief, from whom Jack took it, and brought it to his master, who, showing it the next morning to the lady, saved his life. This much surprised the lady, but he had yet a harder trial to undergo. The next night the lady salutes the king’s son, telling him he must show her the next day the lips she kissed last or lose his head.
“So I will,” replied he, “if you kiss none but mine.”
“It is neither here nor there for that,” says she. “If you do not, death is your portion.”
At midnight she went again and chid Lucifer for letting the handkerchief go.
“But now,” said she, “I shall be too hard for the king’s son, for I will kiss thee, and he is to show me the lips I kissed last, and he can never show me thy lips.”