“Heh! what is this you have been telling the people about me.”
The poor youth began at once to explain that he had indeed noticed the
emperor’s ears, but had never told a soul of it. The emperor tore his
saber out of its sheath to hew the apprentice down, at which the youth
was so frightened that he told the whole story in its order: how he had
confessed himself to the earth; how an elder tree had sprang up on the
very spot; and how, when a pipe was made of one of its sterns, the tale
was sounded in every direction.
Then the emperor took the apprentice with him in a carriage to the
place, to convince himself of the truth of the story; and when they
arrived there they found there was only a single stem left. The Emperor
Trojan ordered a pipe to be made out of this stem, that he might hear
how it sounded. As soon as the pipe was ready, and one of them blew
into it, out poured the words:
“The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears!”
Then the emperor was convinced that nothing on this earth could be
hidden, spared the barber apprentices life, and henceforth allowed any
barber, without exception, to come and shave him.