“I am very pleased to hear it,” said the old king. “It is just what I wish.”
Then all the people shouted “Hurrah.” The band played music in the
streets, the bells rang, and the cake-women took the black crape off the
sugar-sticks. There was universal joy. Three oxen, stuffed with ducks and
chickens, were roasted whole in the market-place, where every one might
help himself to a slice. The fountains spouted forth the most delicious wine,
and whoever bought a penny loaf at the baker’s received six large buns, full
of raisins, as a present. In the evening the whole town was illuminated. The
soldiers fired off cannons, and the boys let off crackers. There was eating
and drinking, dancing and jumping everywhere. In the palace, the high-born
gentlemen and beautiful ladies danced with each other, and they could be
heard at a great distance singing the following song:-
“Here are maidens, young and fair,
Dancing in the summer air;
Like two spinning-wheels at play,
Pretty maidens dance away-
Dance the spring and summer through
Till the sole falls from your shoe.”
But the princess was still a witch, and she could not love Jean. His
fellow-traveller had thought of that, so he gave Jean three feathers out of the
swan’s wings, and a little bottle with a few drops in it. He told him to place
a large bath full of water by the princess’s bed, and put the feathers and the
drops into it. Then, at the moment she was about to get into bed, he must
give her a little push, so that she might fall into the water, and then dip her
three times. This would destroy the power of the magician, and she would
love him very much. Jean did all that his companion told him to do. The
princess shrieked aloud when he dipped her under the water the first time,
and struggled under his hands in the form of a great black swan with fiery
eyes. As she rose the second time from the water, the swan had become
white, with a black ring round its neck. Jean allowed the water to close once
