This plan also pleased the King, and he ordered the spinning wheels. But again the kind servant warned the Huntsmen of the plan. When they were alone, the Princess said to her maidens, ‘Control yourselves, and don’t so much as look at the spinning-wheels.’
When the King next morning sent for the Huntsmen, they walked through the ante-chamber without even glancing at the spinning-wheels.
Then the King said to the Lion, ‘You lied tome. They are men; they never looked at the spinning-wheels.’
The Lion answered, ‘They knew that they were on their trial, and restrained themselves.’
But the King would not believe him any more.
The twelve Huntsmen always went with the King on his hunting expeditions, and the longer he had them, the better he liked them. Now, it happened one day when they were out hunting, that the news came of the royal bride’s approach.
When the true bride heard it, the shock was so great that her heart nearly stopped, and she fell down in a dead faint. The King, thinking something had happened to his favourite Huntsman, ran to help him, and pulled off his glove. Then he saw the ring which he had given to his first betrothed, and when he looked her in the face he recognised her. He was so moved that he kissed her, and when she opened her eyes he said, ‘Thou art mine, and I am thine, and nobody in the world shall separate us.’
Then he sent a messenger to the other bride, and begged her to go home, as he already had a wife, and he who has an old dish does not need a new one. Their marriage was then celebrated, and the Lion was taken into favour again, as, after all, he had spoken the truth.
