was for a poor sheep-farmer’s son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a princess and carry off things from her bed-room.
‘See what else he has about him,’ said the princess to the steward, and Niels had to submit to be searched: out of one pocket came a gold-embroidered slipper, and out of another the half of a gold-hemmed handkerchief.
‘That is enough,’ said the princess; ‘now we needn’t ask any more questions. Send for my father the king at once.’
‘Please let me go,’ said Niels; ‘I did you as much good as harm, at any rate.’
‘Why, who said anything about doing harm?’ said the princess. ‘You must stay here till my father comes.’
The way in which the princess smiled when she said this gave Niels some hope that things might not be bad for him after all, and he was yet more encouraged when he thought of the words engraved on the horn, though the last line still seemed too good to be true. However, the arrival of the king soon settled the matter: the princess was willing and so was Niels, and in a few days the wedding bells were ringing. Niels was made an earl by that time, and looked as handsome as any of them when dressed in all his robes. Before long the old king died, and Niels reigned after him; but whether his father and mother stayed with him, or went back to the moor in Jutland, or were sent to Rome in a carriage and four, is something that all the historians of his reign have forgotten to mention.
