She was pretty enough.No one could be more lovely or more entertaining than she—but what good did that do?She was a wicked witch,who was responsible for many handsome Princes losing their lives.She had decreed that any man might come to woo her.Anybody might come,whether he were Prince or beggar,it made no difference to her,but he must guess the answer to three questions that she asked him.If he knew the answers,she would marry him and he would be King over all the land when her father died.But if he could not guess the right answers,she either had him hanged or had his head chopped off.That was how bad and wicked the beautiful Princess was.
The old King,her father,was terribly distressed about it,but he could not keep her from being so wicked,because he had once told her that he would never concern himself with her suitors—she could do as she liked with them.Whenever a Prince had come to win the Princess's hand by making three guesses,he had failed.Then he was either hanged or beheaded,for each suitor was warned beforehand,when he was still free to abandon his courtship.The old King was so distressed by all this trouble and grief that for one entire day every year he and all his soldiers went down on their knees to pray that the Princess might reform;but she never would.As a sign of mourning,old women who drank schnapps would dye it black before they quaffed it—so deeply—did they mourn—and more than that they couldn't do.
“That abominable Princess,”John said,“ought to be flogged.It would be just the thing for her,and if I were the old King I'd have her whipped till her blood ran.”
“Hurrah!”they heard people shout outside the inn.The Princess was passing by,and she was so very beautiful that everyone who saw her forgot how wicked she was,and everyone shouted “Hurrah.”Twelve lovely maidens,all dressed in white silk and carrying golden tulips,rode beside her on twelve coal-black horses.The Princess herself rode a snow-white horse,decorated with diamonds and rubies.Her riding costume was of pure gold,and the whip that she carried looked like a ray of sunlight.The gold crown on her head twinkled like the stars of heaven,and her cloak was made from thousands of bright butterfly wings.But she herself it;was far lovelier than all these things.
When John first set eyes on her,his face turned red—as red as blood—and he could hardly speak a single word.The Princess was the living image of the lovely girl with the golden crown,of whom he had dreamed on the night when his father died.He found the Princess so fair that he could not help falling in love with her.
“Surely,”he thought,“it can't be true that she is a wicked witch who has people hanged or beheaded when they can't guess what she asks them.Anyone at all may ask for her hand,even though he is the poorest beggar,so I really will go to the palace,for I cannot help doing it!”
Everyone told him he ought not to try it,lest he meet with the same fate that had befallen the others.His traveling companion also tried to persuade him not to go,but John felt sure he would succeed.He brushed his shoes and his coat,washed his face and his hands,and combed his handsome blond hair.Then,all alone,he went through the town to the palace.
“Come in,”the old King said when John came knocking at his door.As John opened it the old King advanced to meet him,wearing a dressing gown and a pair of embroidered slippers.He had his crown on his head,his sceptre in one hand,and his orb in the other.“Just a minute,”he said,tucking the orb under his arm so that he could offer a hand to John.But the moment he heard that John had come as a suitor,he fell to sobbing so hard that both the orb and sceptre dropped to the floor,and he had to use his dressing gown to wipe his eyes.The poor old King!
“Don't try it!”he said.“You will fare badly like all the others.Come,let me show them to you.”
Then he led John into the Princess's pleasure garden,where he saw a fearful thing.From every tree hung three or four Kings'sons who had been suitors of the Princess but had not been able to answer the questions she put to them.The skeletons rattled so in every breeze that they terrified the little birds,who never dared come to the garden.All the flowers were tied to human bones,and human skulls grinned up from every flower pot.What a charming garden for a Princess!
“There!”said the old King,“you see.It will happen to you as it happened to all these you see here.Please don't try it.You would make me awfully unhappy,for I take these things deeply to heart.”
John kissed the good old King's hand,and said he was sure everything would go well;for he was infatuated with the Princess's beauty.Just then the Princess and all of her ladies rode into the palace yard,so they went over to wish her good morning.She was lovely to look at,and when she held out her hand to John he fell in love more deeply than ever.How could she be such a wicked witch as all the people called her?
The whole party went to the palace hall,where little pages served them jam and gingerbread.But the old King was so miserable that he couldn't eat anything at all.Besides,the gingerbread was too hard for his teeth.
It was arranged that John was to visit the palace again the following morning,when the judges and the full council would be assembled to hear how he made out with his answer.If he made out well he would have to come back two more times,but as yet no one had ever answered the first question,so they had forfeited their lives in the first attempt.
