So the prince went to his friends and told them the news.
“You will help me to-day?” he said, turning to the fat man; “and for once you will have a good meal.”
So they went straightway to the field where the oxen were, and in no time at all the fat man had gobbled up every one, and still looked hungry. Then the prince took him down to the cellar, and he quenched his thirst with the hundred casks of wine.
Again the youth presented himself to the witch, and astonished her with the news that the task was done.
“Oho! my fine fellow,” she grumbled to herself, “I will catch you yet.
“To-night,” she added aloud, “I will bring the princess and leave her to sit with you; but beware lest you fall asleep, for if I come at twelve and find the princess gone, you are a lost man!”
“That does not sound difficult,” thought the prince. “Surely I can keep awake, if I want to.”
So he told his servants what the third task was to be, and they all agreed that a watch had better be kept, lest the old woman should play some trick.
At nightfall the old queen brought her daughter to the prince’s house and returned to the palace. As soon as she was gone, the long man wound himself around the house; the listener lay with his ear to the ground; the fat one stood in the doorway, completely blocking the entrance, and the keen-eyed one kept watch. Within sat the princess, silent as a statue, the moonlight lighting up her beautiful face with a radiant glory, so that the prince could only gaze at her in awe and wonder. So far it was well; but at half past eleven a spell, cast by the old queen, fell on them all, and they slept, and immediately the princess was spirited away.
At a quarter to twelve the spell lost its power, and they awoke to discover what a calamity had fallen upon them.