The dog did not notice how the grains were strewn
right from the castle to the soldier's window,
where he ran up the wall with the
princess.
Thus, next morning the king and the queen saw plainly where their
daughter had been
and took the soldier and put him into prison.
There he sat. How dark and dull it was. And they
told him:
"Tomorrow you will be hanged."
Hearing that did not exactly
cheer him, and he had left his tinder-box in the inn.
Next morning he could see through the iron
grating in front of his little window
how the people were hurrying out of town
to see his hanging.
He heard drums and saw soldiers marching.
People were running to and fro
Just below his window was a shoemaker's apprentice with
leather apron and shoes;
he was skipping along so merrily that one of his shoes
flew off and fell against the wall,
just where the soldier was sitting peeping
through the iron grating.
"Oh, shoemaker's boy, you needn't be in such
a hurry!" said the soldier to him.
"There's nothing going on till I
arrive.
But if you will run back to the house where I lived, and fetch me my
tinder-box,
I will give you four shillings. But you must run as fast as you
can."
The shoemaker's boy was eager to earn four
shillings.
He fetched the tinder-box, gave it to the soldier, and—yes—
Outside the town a great scaffold had been
erected,
and all round were soldiers arrayed, and thousands of people.
The king
and queen were sitting on a throne opposite the judges and the whole council.
The soldier was already standing on the top of
the ladder;
but when they wanted to put the rope round his neck,
he said he had
a last wish, and expected it to be granted, as was the custom.
He would so much
like to smoke his last pipe in this world.
The king could not refuse him this,
and so the
soldier took out his tinder-box,
and rubbed it once, twice, three times.
And at
once all three dogs stood there with their big eyes.
"Help me so that I may not be hanged!"
said the soldier to them.
The dogs fell on the judges and the whole council and
were ferocious to them.
"I won't stand this!" said the king;
but the largest dog seized him too, and the queen as well.
This frightened the soldiers, but all the people
cried: "Soldier, you may marry the pretty princess!"
Then they put the
soldier into the king's coach,
and the three dogs barked something like
"Hurrah!" as the soldier was taken to the copper castle.
The princess
came out and became his queen, very much so.
The wedding festivities lasted for eight days,
and the dogs sat at table and made eyes at everyone.
After getting familiar, the princess fell deeply in love with the soldier and they lived happily ever after.