er comes back from the wood with his beasts you must go to him
and say, "Brother, you are very strong. If I were to fasten your thumbs
behind your back with a stout silk cord, could you wrench yourself
free?" And when you see that he cannot do it, call me.'

When the brother came home, the step-sister did as the robber had told
her, and fastened her brother's thumbs behind his back. But with one
wrench he set himself free, and said to her, 'Sister, that cord is not
strong enough for me.'

The next day he went back to the wood with his beasts, and the robber
told her that she must take a much stouter cord to bind his thumbs with.
But again he freed himself, though not so easily as the first time, and
he said to his sister:

'Even that cord is not strong enough.'

The third day, on his return from the wood he consented to have his
strength tested for the last time. So she took a very strong cord of
silk, which she had prepared by the robber's advice, and this time,
though the prince pulled and tugged with all his might, he could not
break the cord. So he called to her and said: 'Sister, this time the
cord is so strong I cannot break it. Come and unfasten it for me.'

But instead of coming she called to the robber, who rushed into the room
brandishing a knife, with which he prepared to attack the prince.

But the prince spoke and said:

'Have patience for one minute. I would like before I die to blow three
blasts on my hunting horn--one in this room, one on the stairs, and one
in the courtyard.'

So the robber consented, and the prince blew the horn. At the first
blast, the fox, which was asleep in the cage in the courtyard, awoke,
and knew that his master needed help. So he awoke the wolf by flicking
him across the eyes with his brush. Then they awoke the lion, who sprang
against the door of the cage with might and main, so that it fell in
splinters on the ground, and the beasts were free. Rushing through the
court to their master's aid, the fox gnawed the cord in two that bound
the prince's thumbs behind his back, and the lion flung himself on the
robber, and when he had killed him and torn him in pieces each of the
beasts carried off a bone.

Then the prince turned to the step-sister and said:

'I will not kill you, but I will leave you here to repent.' And he
fastened her with a chain to the wall, and put a great bowl in front of
her and said, 'I will not see you again till you have filled this bowl
with yo