Then she went thither, and found everything as the night wind had said.
She counted the reeds by the sea, and cut off the eleventh, struck the
dragon therewith, whereupon the lion overcame it, and immediately both
of them regained their human shapes. But when the princess, who had
before been the dragon, was delivered from enchantment, she took the
youth by the arm, seated herself on the griffin, and carried him off
with her. There stood the poor maiden who had wandered so far and was
again forsaken. She sat down and cried, but at last she took courage
and said, “Still I will go as far as the wind blows and as long as the
cock crows, until I find him,” and she went forth by long, long roads,
until at last she came to the castle where both of them were living
together; there she heard that soon a feast was to be held, in which
they would celebrate their wedding, but she said, “God still helps me,”
and opened the casket that the sun had given her. A dress lay therein
as brilliant as the sun itself. So she took it out and put it on, and
went up into the castle, and everyone, even the bride herself, looked
at her with astonishment. The dress pleased the bride so well that she
thought it might do for her wedding-dress, and asked if it was for
sale? “Not for money or land,” answered she, “but for flesh and blood.”
The bride asked her what she meant by that, so she said, “Let me sleep
a night in the chamber where the bridegroom sleeps.” The bride would
not, yet wanted very much to have the dress; at last she consented, but
the page was to give the prince a sleeping-draught. When it was night,
therefore, and the youth was already asleep, she was led into the
chamber; she seated herself on the bed and said, “I have followed after
thee for seven years. I have been to the sun and the moon, and the four
winds, and have enquired for thee, and have helped thee against the
dragon; wilt thou, then quite forget me?” But the prince slept so
soundly that it only seemed to him as if the wind were whistling
outside in the fir-trees. When therefore day broke, she was led out
again, and had to give up the golden dress. And as that even had been
of no avail, she was sad, went out into a meadow, sat down there, and
wept. While she was sitting there, she thought of the egg which the
moon had given her; she opened it, and there came out a clucking hen
with twelve chickens all of gold, and they ran about chirping, and
crept again under the old hen’s wings; nothing more beautiful was ever
seen in the world! Then she arose, and drove them through the meadow
before her, until the bride looked out of the window. The little
chickens pleased her so much that she immediately came down and asked
if they were for sale. “Not for money or land, but for flesh and blood;
let me sleep another night in the chamber where the bridegroom sleeps.”
The bride said, “Yes,” intending to cheat her as on the former evening.
But when the prince went to bed he asked the page what the murmuring
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