The Two Brotherspage 16 / 20
When the king received this answer, he turned to his daughter, and asked, "What am I to do?" She replied, "You will do well to send for him as he desires." Accordingly the king sent the royal robes and the carriage with six horses, and servants to wait upon the huntsman. When the latter saw them coming, "See, Mr Innkeeper," he said, "they have sent to fetch me as I desired," and he put on the royal robes and drove off to the castle, taking with him the handkerchief and the dragon's tongues.
When the king saw him coming, he asked his daughter, "How shall I receive him?" She replied, "You will do well to go and meet him." So the king went out to meet him and led him up to the banqueting-room, the animals following meanwhile. The king gave him a seat beside himself and his daughter, the marshal, as bridegroom, was seated on the other side, but he did not recognise the huntsman.
The dragon's heads were now carried round for all the company to see. "Those are the seven heads of the dragon that was slain by the marshal," said the king; "it is in return for that deed that I am this day giving him my daughter for wife." The huntsman now stood up and one by one opened the seven jaws, and asked, "What has become of the seven tongues of the dragon?" Then a great fear seized the marshal, and he turned pale and did not know what to answer; till at last he said in his terror, "Dragons have no tongues."
"Liars should have none," exclaimed the huntsman, "but the dragon's tongues are the trophies which distinguish the victor," and with that he unfolded the handkerchief, and taking up the tongues that he had uncovered, he placed one in each of the dragon's mouths, and they all fitted exactly. Then handing the handkerchief on which her name was embroidered to the king's daughter, he asked her to whom she had given it. She answered, "To him who killed the dragon." Calling his animals to him, he took the ornaments off their necks, among them the gold clasp from the lion's neck, and showing them to her, asked to whom they belonged. "The necklace and the clasp were mine," she answered, "and I divided them among the animals who helped to destroy the dragon."