Next morning when it was pitch dark, for it was the shortest
day, up jumped the palmer, and prepared to resume his journey. Now
it chanced that the day before, the lady had ordered that the fool
should be whipped, for mocking her, when she could not get the marrow
neatly out of a bone with her fingers, and peeped into it like a
hungry magpie; so that the moment the poor palmer appeared in the
court-yard, all the squires and pages set upon him, taking him for
the fool, and whipped him round and round like any peg-top.
Suddenly, down fell the cap and bells, and he saw what had been done;
upon which he immediately turned into an enchanter, and commanded the
Princess and all her train to fall into a deep sleep, all excepting
the knight who had committed the offence, who is for ever riding up
and down the castle court, repenting of his discourtesy, with his
face towards the tail of a cream-coloured donkey, wearing a cap and
bells for a helmet, with a rod for a lance, and a cockle-shell for a
shield, and star-fishes for spurs, and the Princess can only be
disenchanted by her devoted champion doing battle with him.
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