But the Queen held up her hand to command silence.
"Don't make such a fearful noise. I can't even hear myself think. I'm
not going to marry any of you, though you were very nice, dear geese,
and I was very fond of you."
"No; the lady is going to marry me!" a voice said, and the man in
shepherd's clothes stept forth.
"No, marry me!" the man in armour said.
"I'm a prince. I will make you a princess," the man in shepherd's
clothes said.
"I'm a shepherd," the man dressed like a prince said. "A shepherd is a
far better match for a goose-girl than a prince is."
"But why were either of you so deceitful?" the Queen said. "Because
it's so ridiculous. You don't look like a shepherd, prince--your skin is
much too fair; and you are much too brawny to be a prince, shepherd."
"Well, I thought it was not quite respectable for a prince to be seen
visiting a witch, and so I changed clothes with the shepherd here."
"And I changed clothes with the prince because I had seen you from afar,
and had loved you; and because I thought a prince would have seemed more
splendid than a common shepherd."
"But you were both wrong to try to deceive me," the Queen said. "As for
you, prince, I will not marry you to be made a princess, for I am a
Queen already; and for you, shepherd, I will not marry you to become a
shepherdess, for I am goose-girl already, though my flock has turned
back from its goose-shape again. But how did you become geese, anyhow?"
she asked of them.
And he who had been the old grey gander answered, "The witch turned us
into it when we came to ask for the Elixir of Love."
"Dear me!" the Queen said. "Does love make such geese of people?"