'Alas! both my brothers are dead.' And he too set out towards
the town in which his brother had ruled, and his faithful beasts
followed him. When he entered the town, all the people thought
it was their own prince come back to them, and they gathered
round him, as they had gathered round his youngest brother, and
asked him where he had been and why he had not returned. And
they led him to the king's palace, but the princess knew that he
was not her husband. So when they were alone together she
besought him to go and seek for his brother and bring him home.
Calling his beasts round him, he set out and wandered through the
woods. And he put his ear down to the earth, to listen if he
could hear the sound of his brother's beasts. And it seemed to
him as if he heard a faint sound far off, but he did not know
from what direction it came. So he blew on his hunting horn and
listened again. And again he heard the sound, and this time it
seemed to come from the direction of a fire burning in the wood.
So he went towards the fire, and there the old woman was raking
sticks and leaves into the embers. And he asked her if he might
spend the night beside her fire. But she told him she was afraid
of his beasts, and he must first allow her to give each of them a
stroke with her rod.

But he answered her:

'Certainly not. I am their master, and no one shall strike them
but I myself. Give me the rod'; and he touched the fox with it,
and in a moment it was turned into stone. Then he knew that the
old woman was a witch, and he turned to her and said: