oubt this would be a good opportunity to go to their
aid."

The prince immediately equipped a troop of soldiers, and led them to the
cottage in the wood, where they arrived on the following day. The
maidens were alone, as the dream had fore-shadowed, and ran out with
joyful cries to meet their deliverers. A soldier was ordered to gather
hemlock-roots, and to boil them for the punishment of the old woman, so
that she should need no more food if she came home, and ate a
sufficiency of them. They passed the night in the cottage, and on the
following morning set out early on the road with the maidens, so that
they reached the town in the evening. Great was the joy of the sisters,
who had not seen each other for two years.

The old woman returned home the same night, and greedily devoured the
food which she found on the table. Then she crept into bed to rest, but
she never awoke again, for the hemlock put an end to her wicked life. A
week later the prince sent a trusty captain to see how things were going
on, when he found the old woman dead. Fifty loads of golden thread were
found in the secret chamber, and were divided among the sisters. As soon
as the treasure was carried away, the captain sent the red cock on the
roof.[134] But while the cock was already stretching his red comb out of
the smoke-hole, a great cat with fiery eyes clambered down the wall from
the roof. The soldiers chased the cat, and soon caught her, when a bird
sang from the summit of a tree, "Fix the cat in a trap by her tail, and
all will come to light." The men obeyed.

"Don't torture me, good people," said the cat. "I am a human being like
yourselves, and have been changed into the shape of a cat by witchcraft,
though it was a just return for my wickedness. I was the housekeeper in
the palace of a great king a long way from here, and the old woman was
the queen's first chambermaid. We were led by avarice to plot together
secretly to steal the king's three daughters and a great treasure, and
then to make our escape. After we had contrived to make away with all
the golden vessels, which the old woman changed into golden flax, we
took the children, when the eldest was three years old, and the youngest
six months. The old woman was afraid that I might repent and change my
intentions, so she transformed me into a cat. Her death loosed my
tongue, but I did not recover my former shape." When the captain heard
this, he answered, "You deserve no better fate