When he had ascended to the garden the ten maids were waiting for him and one of them held out her arms to him. He responded with alacrity and she held him so lovingly that for a moment his resolution wavered. But he released himself only to be folded in the arms of another and another until the last one twined her arms about him.
It had been a gallant struggle, but it had ended there had not the neighing of his horse recalled him to himself.
Thereupon he tore himself away, ran up the ladder, down the other side, mounted his horse, and they flew down the steep incline with such speed that though the old serpent had returned with new eyes they cleared his body at a single bound and were off through the mountains in the twinkling of a star, speeding toward the palace of the princess.
When he entered the hall but one suitor had been tested and he lay dead on the floor. There followed him in, however, a horde of would-be lovers, of all stations and degrees, but the strict order of arrival was observed, and he stood next in succession.
As he advanced toward the bewitching being his eyes burned and his pulse throbbed with twice its usual power. He was drawn with such magnetism he could not resist. She was even more comely than any of the charmers he had met in the mountain.
He was within ten paces of her and she was looking at him yearningly, when there suddenly appeared between them the ten maids, who asked of her:
“Which of us is the most beautiful?”
The princess queen was undecided, glancing slowly from one to the other. Then she was bewildered, and at last cried:
“I cannot tell, for you are all so lovely it is impossible for any mortal to say.”
Thereupon they clapped their hands and vanished.