door on the bridge over which the bridal train had to pass, for it was the custom there that the bride rode at the head of the train with her friends.
So when they got well on the bridge, the trap-door tipped up with the bride and all the other old hags who were her bridesmaids. But King Valemon and the princess, and all the rest of the train, turned back to the castle and took all they could carry away of the gold and goods of the old hag, and so they set off for his own land, and were to hold their real wedding.
And on the way King Valemon picked up those three little girls in the three huts and took them with them; and now she saw why it was he had taken her babes away and put them out at nurse: it was that they might help her to find him out. And so they drank their bridal ale both stiff and strong.
