For the last time the Princes started forth on their quest. The elder brothers took their own roads, but the youngest, mounting his old wooden horse, rode straight to the Castle of the White Cat. She was as happy as ever to see him, and soothed away his disappointment, promising him all the help in her power. Just as before, the days sped away in merry-making, and when the year rolled round again, the White Cat told the Prince that now the time had come when he was to carry back to his father’s Palace the most beautiful girl in the world. “But where shall I find her?” cried the Prince, in despair. “I have delayed too long in your castle, and now I shall never rule over my father’s Kingdom.” “Yes, you shall,” replied the White Cat. “If you will do as I bid you, you shall have the most beautiful Princess in the world for your bride. Take your sword, cut off my head and tail, and fling me into the fire that burns in the great hall.” The Prince angrily refused to do anything so base. “What! After all your kindness would you have me treat you as your worst enemy might? No, I would far rather never be King than buy my inheritance at such a price,” he said. But the White Cat begged so, telling him, with tears in her eyes, that it was the greatest favor in the world that could be done her, that, at last, the Prince consented. He drew his sword, cut off her head and tail, and flung her into the fire. In her stead rose up, to his great wonderment, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She stretched out her hands to him. “Oh, you have saved me from a horrible enchantment, dear Prince,” she cried. “If you had not done as I asked, all my life long I should have remained a cat. I was changed into that shape, and condemned to stay so until my death, or until the enchantment should be broken, because I displeased the fairies who brought me up. They declared that I must marry the hideous little King of the Dwarfs, and when I refused, and showed them your picture, telling them that you were the only man that I would ever wed, they threw this spell over me. And now, if you love me as I do you, and wish to marry me, take me to your father’s Palace, and the Kingdom shall be yours.” The Prince, who all this time had been falling deeper and deeper in love, helped her mount her horse, and followed by her attendants--who were cats no longer, but men and women like themselves--the Prince and the beautiful Princess rode back to his home. The brides of the elder brothers were beautiful to see; the Court could not decide which was the lovelier, but when the youngest Prince entered the hall, every courtier declared that he had again been successful. The old King rose from his throne. “My son,” he said, “the Princess you have brought home is the loveliest lady that these old eyes have ever seen, and though my Kingdom is all unworthy her rule, it is yours; fairly have you won it.” But the Princess knelt down beside him, and said:--