She has been accused unjustly.” The old midwife and the king’s sister-in law now felt indisposed and wished to leave the room. “Let no one depart hence,” said the king. “Continue to speak the truth, my little bird.” “You have had two sons and a daughter, sire,” the bird went on to say—“all three born of your lady, and here they are! Remove their bandages and you will see that each of them has a star on the forehead.” They removed the bandages and saw a gold star on the brow of each of the boys and a silver star on the girl’s brow. “The authors of all the evil,” continued the bird, “are your two sisters-in-law and this midwife—this sorceress of the devil. They have made you believe that your wife only gave birth to little dogs, and your poor children were exposed on the Seine as soon as they were born. When the midwife—that sorceress of hell—learned that the children had been saved and afterwards brought to the palace, she sought again to destroy them. Penetrating one day into the palace, disguised as a beggar, and affecting to be perishing from cold and hunger, she incited in the mind of the princess the desire to possess the Dancing-Water, the Singing-Apple, and the Bird of Truth—myself. Her two brothers went, one after the other, in quest of these things, and the sorceress took very good care that they should never return. Nor would they have returned, if their sister had not succeeded in delivering them after great toil and trouble.” As the bird ended his story, the king became unconscious, and when he revived he went himself to fetch the queen from the tower. He soon returned with her to the festive chamber, holding her by the hand. She was beautiful and gracious as ever, and having ate and drank a little, she died on the spot. The king, distraught with grief and anger, ordered a furnace to be heated, and threw into it his sister-in-law and the midwife—“ce tison de l’enfer!” As to the princess and her two brothers, I think they made good marriages all three, and as to the bird, they do not say if it continues still to speak the truth;—“mais je présume que oui, puisque ce n’était pas un homme!” It would indeed be surprising did we not find our story popularly known throughout Germany in various forms. Under the title of “The Three Little Birds” a version is given in Grimm’s _K. u. H. M._ (No. 96, vol. i. of Mrs. Hunt’s English translation), which reproduces the chief particulars of Galland’s tale with at least one characteristic German addition: GERMAN VERSION.