He gives his horse to the fox to take care of, and the fox says to him:
"You will go to such a room; there will be the young lady whom you
need. You will not recognise her because she has old clothes on, but
there are beautiful dresses hanging up in the room. You will make
her put on one of those. As soon as she shall have it on, she will
begin to sing and will wake up everybody in the house."
He goes inside as the fox had told him. He finds the young lady. He
makes her put on the beautiful dresses, and as soon as she has them
on she begins to sing and to carol. Everyone rushes into this young
lady's room. The king in a rage wished to put him in prison, but the
king's son shows his crown, and tells how such a king sent him to
fetch this young lady, and when once he has brought her he promises
him the white blackbird to open his father's eyes.
The king then says to him, "You must go to the house of such a king,
and you must bring me from there a white horse, which is very,
very beautiful."
Our young man sets out, and goes on, and on, and on. As he comes near
the house of the king, the fox appears to him and says to him:
"The horse which you want is in such a place, but he has a bad saddle
on. You will put on him that which is hanging up, and which is handsome
and brilliant. As soon as he shall have it on he will begin to neigh,
so much as not to be able to stop. [163] All the king's people will
come to see what is happening, but with your crown you will always
get off scot free."
He goes off as the fox had said to him. He finds the horse with the
bad saddle, and puts on him the fine one, and then the horse begins
to neigh and cannot stop himself. People arrive, and they wish to put
the young man in prison, but he shows them his crown, and relates
what king had sent him to fetch this horse in order to get a young
lady. They give him the horse, and he sets off.
He comes to the house of the king where the young lady was. He shows
his horse with its beautiful saddle, and asks the king if he would not
like to see the young lady take a few turns on this beautiful horse
in the courtyard. The king says, "Yes." As the young lady was very
handsomely dressed when she mounted the horse, our young man gives
the horse a little touch with his stick, and they set off like the
lightning. The king's son follows them, and they go both together to
the king who had the white blackbird. They ask him for the blackbird,
and the bird goes of itself on to the knees of the young lady, who
was still on horseback. The king's son gives him a blow, and they
set off at full gallop; he also escapes in order to rejoin them. They
journey a long, long time, and approach their city.
His brothers had heard the news how that their brother was coming
with the white blackbird. These two brothers had come back at last
to their father's house, and they had told their father a hundred
falsehoods; how that robbers had taken away their money, and many
things like that. The two brothers plotted together, and said that
they must hinder their brother from reaching the house, and that they
must rob him of the blackbird.
They keep expecting him always. One day they saw him coming, and
they say that they must throw him into a cistern, [164] and they do
as they say. They take the blackbird and throw him and the lady into
the water, and leave the horse outside. The fox comes to them on the
brink of the cistern, and says to them:
"I will leap in there; you will take hold of my tail one by one,
and I will save you."
The two wicked brothers had taken the blackbird, but he escaped from
them as they entered the house, and went on to the white horse. Judge
of the joy of the youngest brother when he sees that nothing is wanting
to them! They go to the king. As soon as they enter the young lady
begins to carol and to sing, the bird too, and the horse to neigh. The
blackbird of its own accord goes on to the king's knees, and there by
its songs restored him to sight. The son relates to his father what
labours he underwent until he had found these three things, and he
told him how he had saved two men condemned to death by paying their
debts, and that they were his two brothers; that he had also paid
the debts of a dead man, and that his soul (the fox was his soul)
had saved him from the cistern into which his brothers had thrown him.
Think of the joy of the father, and his sorrow at the same time, when
he saw how wisely this young son had always behaved, and how wicked
his two brothers had been. As he had well earned her, he was married
to the young lady whom he had brought away with him, and they lived
happily and joyfully. The father sent the two brothers into the desert
to do penance. If they had lived well, they would have died well.