But the young man would not be persuaded, and went the next day to the king’s palace. Before going out of the hut, however, he said to his anxious old mother, ‘Good-bye, mother.’
He had not walked very far before a gipsy met him, and asked, ‘Where are you going, my young man?’
‘I am going to the king’s palace,’ answered the youth, ‘and I mean, God helping me, to marry the king’s daughter.’
‘But, my dear comrade,’ said the gipsy, keeping near him, ‘how can you really expect that she will marry you, when you are so poor? Only a shepherd!’
‘Eh!’ returned the young man; ‘but I know what birth-marks she has, and the king has sent out a proclamation that whoever guesses these shall have her for his wife.’
‘If it is so,’ rejoined the cunning gipsy, ‘I myself will also go to the palace with you.’
The young man was glad to have company on the road, and so he and the gipsy travelled on together until they came to the residence of the king.
When they came to the palace they found a large number of people who had come to ‘try their luck,’ and guess what birth-marks the princess had. But it was lost time, for every one of them, after going past the king and guessing ‘by good luck’ at the marks of the princess, was obliged to go away, having lost his time and gained nothing. At length the turn came for the young shepherd to pass before the king, and the gipsy kept close to him to hear what he would say.
So the youth stepped before the king and said, ‘The princess has a star on each shoulder, and a crescent on the throat——’
At this moment the gipsy shouted loudly, ‘Look there! that is just what I was going to say!’