So Peppercorn and the Pikeman fought, and before very long the first son-in-law of the king was slain. [[75]]Then Peppercorn returned home quickly, and opening his box, bade the bee and fly take away the horse and the fine clothes.
The king sought everywhere for the stranger who had killed his son-in-law, but no one knew anything about him. So, after some days, the city crier went round again, proclaiming that the Mill-turner, the second son-in-law of the king, would fight anyone who dared to meet him.
Peppercorn again let out his bee and his fly, and asked for a finer horse and handsomer clothes than the last. So they brought him a very gorgeous suit, and a most beautiful coal-black charger, and with these he went on the field to meet the Mill-turner. They fought, but Peppercorn soon killed the king’s second son-in-law, and again went to his lodgings, where he ordered the bee and fly to take the horse and clothes with them into their little box.
Now, not only the king, but all his people were very much puzzled as to who the powerful knight could be who had killed the two valiant sons-in-law of the king. So a strict search was made, and he was sought everywhere. But no one could tell anything about him; while such horses as he rode and such clothes as he wore were not to be found in the whole kingdom.
Some time had passed since the king’s sons-in-law had been killed, and people had begun to be a little quieter and had given up all hope of finding out who the stranger knight might be. Then Peppercorn wrote [[76]]a letter to the king’s youngest daughter, and sent it to her by the old woman in whose house he lived. In the letter he told the princess everything that had happened to him since he had sent her up in the basket to his false comrades, and told her also that he himself had slain both of the traitors in fair fight.
The young princess, as soon as she had read the letter, quickly ran to her father and begged him to pardon Peppercorn. The king saw he could not justly deny her this favour, since the two men who had been killed had deceived and deserted their friend, without whose superior courage they would never have been themselves his sons-in-law, seeing that all the three princesses, but for Peppercorn, must have remained in the other world where Yard-high-forehead-and-span-long-beard had carried them.
So, after thinking all this over in his mind, the king told his daughter that he willingly forgave Peppercorn, and that she might invite him to the palace. This the princess did at once, and very soon after, Peppercorn made his appearance before the king in splendid attire and was received very kindly.
Not long afterwards, the marriage of Peppercorn with the beautiful princess, the king’s youngest daughter, was celebrated with great rejoicings, and the king built them a fine house near his palace to live in.
There Peppercorn and his princess lived long and happily, and he never had any wish to wander again about the world. [[77]]