After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower.As he drew near it he heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and listened.It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to while away the time by letting her sweet voice ring out into the wood.The Prince longed to see the owner of the voice, but he sought in vain for a door in the tower.He rode home, but he was so haunted by the song he had heard that he returned every day to the wood and listened.One day, when he was standing thus behind a tree, he saw the old Witch approach and heard her call out:
`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair.'
Then Rapunzel let down her plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them.
`So that's the staircase, is it?' said the Prince.`Then I too will climb it and try my luck.'
So on the following day, at dusk, he went to the foot of the tower and cried:
`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,'
and as soon as she had let it down the Prince climbed up.
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she had never seen one before; but the Prince spoke to her so kindly, and told her at once that his heart had been so touched by her singing, that he felt he should know no peace of mind till he had seen her.Very soon Rapunzel forgot her fear, and when he asked her to marry him she consented at once.
`For,' she thought, `he is young and handsome, and I'll certainly be happier with him than with the old Witch.' So she put her hand in his and said:
`Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the tower?
Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk with you, and I will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb down by it, and you will take me away on your horse.'
They arranged that till the ladder was ready, he was to come to her every evening, because the old woman was with her during the day.
The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and said:
`How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Prince? He is always with me in a moment.'
`Oh! you wicked child,' cried the Witch.`What is this I hear? Ithought I had hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of it you have managed to deceive me.'
In her wrath she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wound it round and round her left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right, snip snap, off it came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground.And, worse than this, she was so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel to a lonely desert place, and there left her to live in loneliness and misery.
But on the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Rapunzel away, the Witch fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Prince came and called out:
`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,'
she let them down, and the Prince climbed up as usual, but instead of his beloved Rapunzel he found the old Witch, who fixed her evil, glittering eyes on him, and cried mockingly:
`Ah, ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too.Rapunzel is lost to you for ever--you will never see her more.'
The Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped right down from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the thorns among which he fell pierced his eyes out.Then he wandered, blind and miserable, through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of his lovely bride.So he wandered about for some years, as wretched and unhappy as he could well be, and at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living.Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him.He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite close, Rapunzel recognised him and fell on his neck and wept.But two of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again, and he saw as well as he had ever done.Then he led her to his kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever after.[23]
[23] Grimm.