But when they reached the palace an old
woman met them. She was the King's guardian, and when she set eyes on
the Princess she became so cross and jealous of her, because she was so
lovely, that she said to the King:
"Can't you see now, that this thing whom you have picked up, and whom
you are going to marry, is a witch? Why, she can neither talk nor laugh
nor weep!"
But the King did not care a straw for what she said. He held to the
wedding and married the Princess, and they lived in great joy and glory.
But the Princess didn't forget to go on working on her shirts, and she
neither talked nor laughed nor wept. However, when she had spun and
woven and cut, she found that she still had not enough cloth for the
twelve shirts, and she needs must go to the witches' moor again.
So that night while all the palace slept she quietly slipped out and
walked off to pick her thistledown, but the old woman who was the King's
guardian saw her, and she knew well where the young Queen was going, for
I must tell you she was the same wicked witch who had changed the twelve
Princes into wild ducks. She hurried to the King's chamber, woke him and
said, "Now, come with me and I'll prove to you that your lovely Queen is
a witch, who joins the wicked company on the moor at midnight." The King
would not listen to her at first, but when he saw that the Queen's bed
was empty, he got up and went with the old woman.
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