30 TEE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES.
As soon as the time came when he was to declare the secret, he was taken before the king with the three branches and the golden cup ; and the twelve princesses stood listening behind the door to hear what he would say. And when the king asked him " Where do my twelve daughters dance at night ?" he answered, " With twelve princes in a castle under ground." And then he told the king all that had hap- pened, and showed him the three branches and the golden cup which he had brought with him. Then the king called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said was true : and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. And the king asked the soldier which of them he would choose for his wife ; and he answered, " I am not very young, so I will have the eldest" — ^And they were married that very day, and the soldier was chosen to be the king's heir.
