And as he said the words one part of the cloth unwove itself from the rest, and ran in ripples up the coverlet, and on to the pillow where the Princess’s head lay. There it coiled itself under the wimple, a great mass of shining gold, and the face of the Princess flushed warm and lovely in her sleep. Lubin passed on to the next bed, and there uttered the same words; and again one part of the web came loose, and wound itself about the sleeper’s face, that grew warm and lovely at its touch. So he went from bed to bed, and when he came to the end there was no more of the web left. He went back into his own chamber, laughing in his heart for joy, and there he dropped himself between the sheets and fell into a sound slumber. He was wakened in the morning by the King knocking and trying to get into the room. Lubin pulled back the bed, and in came the King with a mournful countenance. “Which of them is it?” said he. “Go and ask them!” said Lubin. The King went over and knocked at the Princess Royal’s door; the knocking opened her eyes. Lubin heard her suddenly utter a yell. “Ah! now she has looked at herself in the glass,” thought he. “What is the matter?” called the King. “Come out and let me look at you!” But the Princess Royal would not come out. She ran quick to her mirror, and touched the secret spring. “At least,” she thought, “though fiends have robbed me of all my beauty, I can get it back by wearing the cloth woven from my sisters’ hair!” She skipped along the passage and up the steps to the little chamber where the loom was. The King, getting no answer, went across and knocked at Lyneth’s door; she came out, all fresh in her beauty, but wearing upon her head the wimple. “Ah!” said the King dolorously; and he snipped his fingers at Lubin. Lubin laughed out. “But look at her face!” he said. “Surely she is beautiful enough?” The Princess lifted up her wimple, and showed the King her hair all short beneath. “That was my doing,” said Lubin; “’twas the way of saving it.” “What a Dutchman’s remedy!” cried the King; and just then the Princess Royal’s door flew open. She came out tearing herself to pieces with rage; her face was pale and thin, and her head was as bare as a billiard ball. “Have that clown of a cobbler killed!” she cried in a passion. “That fool, that numbskull, that cheat! Have him beheaded, I say!” “No, no, I am only to have one of my ears cropped off!” said Lubin, looking hard at her all the time. “I am not at all sure,” said the King. “You have done foolishly and badly, for not only have you let the disease go on, but your very remedy is as bad. Two heads of hair gone in one night! You had better have kept away. If the Princesses wish it, certainly I will have you put to death.” “Will you not see the other Princesses too?” asked Lubin. “Let them decide between them whether I am to live or die!”