Stranica 107 [107]
RAPUNZEL. 7
The same day on which she took Rapunzel away she
went back to the tower in the evening and made fast the
severed locks of hair to the window-hasp, and the King’s son
. came and cried,
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel! let down your hair.”
Then she let the hair down, and the King’s son climbed up,
but instead of his dearest Rapunzel he found the witch look¬
ing at him with wicked glittering eyes.
. “Aha!” cried she, mocking him, “you came for your
darling, but the sweet bird sits no longer in the nest, and
sings no more; the cat has got her, and will scratch out your
eyes as well! Rapunzel is lost to you; you will see her no
more."
The Kings son was beside himself with grief, and in his
agony he sprang from the tower: he escaped with life, but the
thorns on which he fell put out his eyes. Then he wandered
blind through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries,
and doing nothing but lament and weep for the loss of his
dearest wife.
So he wandered several years in misery until at last he
came to the desert place where Rapunzel lived with
her twin-children that she had borne, a boy and a girl. At
first he heard a voice that he thought he knew, and when he
reached the place from which it seemed to come Rapunzel
knew him, and fell on his neck and wept. And when her
tears touched his eyes they became clear again, and he could
see with them as well as ever.
Then he took her to his kingdom, where he was received
with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.