Then the King made ready the wedding, and he sent for the Black Duke that was to marry his daughter, and he was made much of and was the right-hand man, and there was music and shouting before him, and the greatest wedding given out that ever was. But the King’s daughter knew well it was not the Black Duke had saved her, and she took out the bunch of hair she had, and she said she would marry no one but the man whose hair would match that: and she showed the gold shoe and said she would marry no one but the man whose foot would fit it. And the Black Duke tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would not go into it; and as for his hair, it did not match at all to the bunch of hair she had cut from the man that saved her. So then the King gave a great ball to bring all the chief men of the country together, to try would the shoe fit any of them. And they were all going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of their feet cut off to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use; not one of them could get it on. Then the King went to his Chief Adviser and asked what could he do. And the Chief Adviser bade him to give another ball. ‘And this time,’ he said, ‘give it to poor as well as rich.’ So the ball was given and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would not fit any one of them. And there were two Fools passing the way and they said: ‘There is a wedding going on, the greatest that ever was in the world; and let us go in now,’ they said, ‘and we will be eating meat.’ So they went in and sat by the kitchen fire, and the King asked had everyone in the house or out of the house tried to see would the bunch of hair fit to their poll, and they said all unless the two Fools that were sitting by the kitchen fire. So they were brought up and bade to take their caps off, but the hair did not match their own. And the Chief Adviser said: ‘Is everyone here belonging to the district?’ ‘They are all here,’ said the King, ‘unless the boy that minds the cooper’s goats. And I would not like him to be coming up here,’ he said. So Shawneen was sent for, and he was told what the King said, and that vexed him, where he knew the two Fools had got their chance. And he got his sword and came running up the stairs as if to strike off the King’s head. But when he got to the top of the stairs the King’s daughter saw him and she gave a cry and ran into his arms. And they tried the shoe and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the bunch that had been cut off. That was a good thought the King’s daughter had to cut a bit of his hair; and there is nothing in the world so quick as a woman’s thought. A man’s thought is quick enough, but a woman’s thought is quicker again.