“Tell your son, the fool, that I and my lovely daughter salute him, and we beg of him to come to the palace and show us all the wonderful things we are told he possesses. If he is willing to make me a present of them I will give him half my kingdom, and will name him as my successor in the throne. My daughter also will take him for her husband.”
The mother ran off to her son, and persuaded him to accept the king’s invitation, and go to the palace with his wonderful treasures. The lad fastened on his girdle, put on his hat, hid the cloth in his bosom, took his stick in his hand, and set off to the Court. When he came there the king was engaged, but the lad was received very politely by his attendants. Music struck up as he came to the palace, the soldiers presented arms, and altogether the lad was received very much better than he could have expected. At length, when he was introduced into the hall in which was the king, the lad took off his hat and bowed.
“What,” said he, “O king, do you desire? I have come to lay at the foot of your throne the cloth, the girdle, the stick, and the hat. In return for these presents I only ask that your royal favour may light on the humblest of your subjects.”
“Tell me then, fool,” said the king, “how much money do you want for those things?”
“Money,” replied the lad, “a fool like me does not want money. The king promised my mother to give me half his kingdom, and his daughter in marriage. I only ask so much!”
The king’s officer signed to the soldiers to come in. They laid hands on the lad suddenly, dragged him out into the courtyard, and there, while the drums beat and the trumpets sounded, they killed him and buried him.
As the soldiers pierced him to the heart, some drops of blood sprang forth, and fell under the windows of the princess, who wept at the sight and shed tears on the reddened earth. Wonderful to tell! from these drops of blood there sprang up an apple-tree which grew till it reached the windows of the princess’s apartments. When the princess laid her hand on the boughs of the tree, an apple fell off into her bosom. The princess took it up and played with it.
The next day, when night came on, all were asleep in the palace save the guards, the king’s officer, and the princess. The guards were watching, as usual, with their arms in their hands. The princess was playing with the apple, and could not sleep. As for the king’s officer, soon after he lay down he was roused by a terrible noise. The cudgel appeared before him, and though he ran round and round his chamber, it pursued and beat him, crying—
“You good-for-nothing fellow! Don’t be so envious and unjust. Don’t return evil for good, and steal what belongs to others. Take that, and that, and that!”
The officer called aloud and cried for mercy, but the stick still laid on.