o came to
her in the tower every afternoon in the form of a pigeon.

"He's a prince," she told them, "the son of a distant king. At present
he is under an enchantment that turns him into a pigeon. When the
enchantment is broken he is coming as a prince to marry me."

"My poor child!" the Queen cried. "Think no more about this Pigeon
Prince! The enchantment may last a hundred years and then where will you
be!"

"But he is my love!" the Princess declared, "and if I can't have him I
won't have any one!"

When the King found that nothing they could say would move her from this
resolution, he sighed and murmured:

"Very well, my dear. If it must be so, it must be. This afternoon when
your lover comes, bring him down to me that I may talk to him."

But that afternoon the Pigeon did not come. Nor the next afternoon
either, nor the next, and then too late the Princess remembered his
warning that if she told about him he could never come back.

So now she sat in the tower-room idle and heartbroken, reproaching
herself that she had betrayed her lover and praying God to forgive her
and send him back to her. And the roses faded from her cheeks and her
eyes grew dull and the people about the Court began wondering why they
had ever thought her the most beautiful princess in the world.

At last she went to the King, her father, and said:

"As my love can no longer come back to me because I forgot my promise
and betrayed him, I must go out into the world and hunt him. Unless I
find him life will not be worth the living. So do not oppose me,
father, but help me. Have three pairs of iron shoes made for me and
three iron staffs. I will wander over the wide world until these are
worn out and then, if by that time I have not found him, I will come
home to you."

So the King had three pairs of iron shoes made for the Princess and
three iron staffs and she set forth on her quest. She traveled through
towns and cities and many kingdoms, over rough mountains and desert
places, looking everywhere for her enchanted love. But nowhere could she
find any trace of him.

At the end of the first year she had worn out the first pair of iron
shoes and the first iron staff. At the end of the second year she had
worn out the second pair of iron shoes and the second iron staff. At the
end of the third year, when she had worn out the third pair of iron
shoes and the third staff, she returned to her father's palace looking
thin and worn and sad.