Then
Jacob Stuck and the princess sat down to supper and began eating and
drinking, and Jacob Stuck talked of all the sweetest things he could
think of. Thousands of wax candles made the palace bright as day, and as
the princess looked about her she thought she had never seen anything so
fine in all the world. After they had eaten their supper and ended with
a dessert of all kinds of fruits and of sweetmeats, the door opened and
there came a beautiful young serving-lad, carrying a silver tray, upon
which was something wrapped in a napkin. He kneeled before Jacob Stuck
and held the tray, and from the napkin Jacob Stuck took a necklace of
diamonds, each stone as big as a pigeon's egg.

"This is to remind you of me," said Jacob Stuck, "when you have gone
home again." And as he spoke he hung it around the princess's neck.

Just then the clock struck twelve.

Hardly had the last stroke sounded when every light was snuffed out, and
all was instantly dark and still. Then, before she had time to think,
the Genie of Good Luck snatched the princess up once more and flew back
to the palace more swiftly than the wind. And, before the princess knew
what had happened to her, there she was.

It was all so strange that the princess might have thought it was a
dream, only for the necklace of diamonds, the like of which was not to
be found in all the world.

The next morning there was a great buzzing in the palace, you may be
sure. The princess told all about how she had been carried away during
the night, and had supped in such a splendid palace, and with such
a handsome man dressed like an emperor. She showed her necklace of
diamonds, and the king and his prime-minister could not look at it or
wonder at it enough. The prime-minister and the king talked and talked
the matter over together, and every now and then the proud princess put
in a word of her own.

"Anybody," said the prime-minister, "can see with half an eye that it is
all magic, or else it is a wonderful piece of good luck. Now, I'll tell
you what shall be done," said he: "the princess shall keep a piece of
chalk by her; and, if she is carried away again in such a fashion, she
shall mark a cross with the piece of chalk on the door of the house to
which she is taken. Then we shall find the rogue that is playing such a
trick, and that quickly enough."

"Yes," said the king; "that is very good advice."

"I will do it," said the princess.

All that day Jacob Stuck sat