e in as proud and
grand as you please, and up they were walking to the altar rails, when
the boards opened two yards wide under their feet and down they went
among the dead men and the coffins in the vaults. Oh, such shrieks as
the ladies gave! and such running and racing and peeping down as there
was! but the clerk soon opened the door of the vault, and up came the
two princes, their fine clothes covered an inch thick with cobwebs and
mould.

[Illustration: DOWN WENT THE TWO BRIDEGROOMS]

So the king said they should put off the marriage. 'For,' says he, 'I
see there is no use in thinking of it till the youngest gets her three
crowns, and is married with the others. I'll give my youngest daughter
for a wife to whoever brings three crowns to me like the others; and if
he doesn't care to be married, some other one will, and I'll make his
fortune.'

'I wish,' says the smith, 'I could do it; but I was looking at the
crowns after the princesses got home, and I don't think there's a black
or a white smith on the face of the earth that could imitate them.'
'Faint heart never won fair lady,' says the prince. 'Go to the palace
and ask for a quarter of a pound of gold, a quarter of a pound of
silver, and a quarter of a pound of copper. Get one crown for a pattern,
and my head for a pledge, I'll give you out the very things that are
wanted in the morning.' 'Are you in earnest?' says the smith. 'Faith, I
am so,' says he. 'Go! you can't do worse than lose.'

To make a long story short, the smith got the quarter of a pound of
gold, and the quarter of a pound of silver, and the quarter of a pound
of copper, and gave them and the pattern crown to the prince. He shut
the forge door at nightfall, and the neighbours all gathered in the
yard, and they heard him hammering, hammering, hammering, from that to
day-break; and every now and then he'd throw out through the window bits
of gold, silver, and copper; and the idlers scrambled for them, and
cursed one another, and prayed for the good luck of the workman.

Well, just as the sun was thinking to rise, he opened the door, and
brought out the three crowns he got from his true love, and such
shouting and huzzaing as there was! The smith asked him to go along with
him to the palace, but he refused; so off set the smith, and the whole
townland with him; and wasn't the king rejoiced when he saw the crowns!
'Well,' says he to the smith, 'you're a married man. What's to be
done?' 'Faith, y