Then the fairy prince said to the maiden: “It must be he who took the handkerchief you gave me. Now, he has taken the weeping tree. I am become helpless. No longer will I hold you from one so valorous. Marry whom you will!”
“This strange youth has become my fate,” replied the princess.
She went out, mounted her camel, and rode to her father’s palace, where she entered his presence and stood before him with the greatest respect.
Let us come again to the prince.
After securing the tree and the bear, he returned [[127]]to the horse, remounted, and set off for the palace; where he alighted, entered the presence of the king, and set down before him the pomegranate tree, which had been crying all the time. The bear, also, came following behind, laughing merrily at the discomfiture of the tree.
Bowing three times, the prince then straightened himself to his full height. “Behold, O, king; this third object which has been asked of me!”
The king was amused and gratified. He descended from his throne to greet the prince, and cried: “Bravo, my son! You have done exceedingly well. To whom should I give my daughter if not to the one who saved my life from the dragon, who brought the magic mirror, the precious diamond, and who now has added an endless source of amusement by bringing this tree and the bear?”
Then the scarlet-clothed princess drew near, fell upon her knees before her father, and confessed that she had been enchanted by the fairies. She begged her father’s forgiveness for having listened to their approaches, thus giving them power over her. She protested that the spell was broken; that the courage and patience of a true, human prince had won her heart.
So the two were married. And the festivities continued forty days and nights, during which the [[128]]young husband revealed his own station to all who were at the wedding. Upon the forty-first day he took his princess, and set out for the palace of his own father with a retinue. When this was reached, he left his wife and servants without and went within, to seek his mother, the queen.
Great was the joy of those two at meeting. It seemed that they never could lose their embrace. Finally, the queen led her newly found child to the king, where he related all the wonders that had been wrought for him.