The youngest Princess married the captain of the guard. Once this might have been thought too lowly a match for a royal Princess; but her fiancé had been seen to be the right-hand man of the new Crown Prince.
And an ostler who had once told a restless soldier the story of the twelve dancing Princesses came to the wedding by special invitation, which included a horse from the royal stables to ride on; and this ostler later admired all the King’s stable and stud so intelligently that room was found for him there. And by the time he had taught thirty-two young Princes and forty-seven young Princesses how to ride and drive and take proper care of their horses, he was Master of the Stable and ready to retire.
On their bridal trip the Crown Prince and his Princess rode up the road that had first brought the Prince to the city; and the Prince recognized much of what he had seen on his journey. But they found no small cottage near a well where such should be, nor any old woman like the one he still remembered. They went so far as to ask some of the folk who lived along the road to the King’s city if they knew of her; but none did.