Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More (71 page)

he answered, “In an underground castle with twelve princes,”

and related how it had come to pass,

and brought out the tokens.

The King then summoned his daughters,

and asked them if the soldier had told the truth,

and when they saw that they were betrayed, and that falsehood would be of no avail, they were obliged to confess all.

Thereupon the King asked which of them he would have to wife?

He answered, “I am no longer young, so give me the eldest.”

Then the wedding was celebrated on the self-same day, and the kingdom was promised him after the King’s death.

But the princes were bewitched for as many days as they had danced nights with the twelve.

King Thrushbeard

A King had a daughter who was beautiful beyond all measure, but so proud and haughty withal that no suitor was good enough for her. She sent away one after the other, and ridiculed them as well.

Once the King made a great feast and invited thereto, from far and near, all the young men likely to marry.

They were all marshalled in a row according to their rank and standing; first came the kings, then the grand-dukes, then the princes, the earls, the barons, and the gentry.