“Dear uncle, heavy news.”
“God wot! Prithee! what heavy news can come to me? I am a giant with
three heads, and besides, thou knowest, I fight five hundred men in
armour, and make them all fly like chaff before the wind.”
“Oh,” said Jack, “but here is a king’s son coming with a thousand men
in armour to kill you, and to destroy all you have.”
“O my cousin Jack, this is heavy news indeed, but I have a large vault
underground where I will run and hide myself, and you shall lock, bolt,
and bar me in, and keep the keys till the king’s son is gone.”
Jack, having now secured the giant, returned and fetched his master,
and both made merry with the best dainties the house afforded. In the
morning Jack furnished his master with fresh supplies of gold and
silver, and having set him three miles on the road out of the giant’s
smell, he returned and let his uncle out of the hole, who asked Jack
what he should give him for his care of him, seeing his castle was
demolished.
“Why,” said Jack, “I desire nothing but your old rusty sword, the coat
in the closet, and the cap and the shoes at your bed’s head.”
“Ay,” said the giant, “thou shalt have them, and be sure keep you
them, for my sake. They are things of excellent use. The coat will
keep you invisible, the cap will furnish you with knowledge, the sword
cuts asunder whatever you strike, and the shoes are of extraordinary
swiftness. They may be serviceable to you, so take them with all my
heart.”
Jack took them, and immediately followed his master. Having overtaken
him, they soon arrived at the lady’s dwelling, who, finding the king’s
son to be a suitor, prepared a banquet for him, which being ended,
she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, saying—“You must show me this
to–morrow morning, or lose your head,” and then she put it in her bosom.
The king’s son went to bed right sorrowful, but Jack’s cap of knowledge
instructed him how to obtain the handkerchief. In the midst of the
night the lady called upon her familiar to carry her to Lucifer. Jack
whipped on his coat of darkness, with his shoes of swiftness, and was
there before her, but could not be seen by reason of his coat, which
rendered him perfectly invisible to Lucifer himself. When the lady came
she gave him the handkerchief, from whom Jack took it, and brought it
to his master, who, showing it the next morning to the lady, saved his
life. This much surprised the lady, but he had yet a harder trial to
undergo. The next night the lady salutes the king’s son, telling him he
must show her the next day the lips she kissed last or lose his head.
“So I will,” replied he, “if you kiss none but mine.”
“It is neither here nor there for that,” says she. “If you do not,
death is your portion.”
At midnight she went again and chid Lucifer for letting the
handkerchief go.
“But now,” said she, “I shall be too hard for the king’s son, for I
will kiss thee, and he is to show me the lips I kissed last, and he
can never show me thy lips.”
Jack, standing up with his sword of sharpness, cut off the evil
spirit’s head, and brought it under his invisible coat to his master,
who laid it at the end of his bolster, and in the morning, when the
lady came up, he pulled it out and showed her the lips which she kissed
last. Thus, she having been answered twice, the enchantment broke, and
the evil spirit left her, to their mutual joy and satisfaction. Then
she appeared her former self, both beauteous and virtuous. They were
married the next morning, and soon after returned with joy to the court
of King Arthur, where Jack, for his good services, was made one of the
knights of the Round Table.