When he arrived at the bank of the river he sat there weeping, not knowing what to do. The young lady comes to him, and says:
“What! You are weeping! Did not I tell you that I would always help you?”
It was eleven o’clock. The young lady says to him:
“You must cut me in pieces with this sabre, and throw all the pieces into the water.”
The lad will not do it by any means. He says to her:
“I prefer to die here on the spot than to make you suffer.”
The lady says to him, “It is nothing at all what I shall suffer, and you must do it directly—the favourable moment is passing by like this, like this.”
The lad, trembling all over, begins with his sabre. He throws all the pieces into the river; but, lo! a part of the lady’s little finger sticks to a nail in his shoe. The young lady comes out of the water and says to him:
“You have not thrown everything into the water. My little finger is wanting.”[53]
After having looked for it, he sees that he has it under his foot, hooked on to a nail. The young lady gives him the ring. She tells him to go without losing a moment; for he must give it to the king at noon. He arrives happily (in time). The young lady, as she goes into the house, bangs the door with all her might and begins to cry out: