It was not long before the Virgin Mary came back from her journey.
She called the girl before her, and asked to have the keys of heaven back.
When the maiden gave her the bunch, the Virgin looked into her eyes and
said,
"Have you not opened the thirteenth door also?"
"No," she answered.
Then she laid her hand on the girl's heart, and felt how it beat
and beat,
and saw right well that she had disobeyed her order and had opened the door.
Then she said once again, "Are you certain that you
have not done it?"
"Yes," said the girl, for the second time.
Then she perceived the finger which had become golden from touching
the fire of heaven,
and saw well that the child had sinned, and said for the third time "Have
you not done it?"
"No," said the girl for the
third time. Then said the Virgin Mary,
"You have not obeyed me, and besides that you have
lied, you are no longer worthy to be in heaven."
Then the girl fell into a deep sleep, and when she awoke,
she lay on the earth below, and in the midst of a wilderness.
She wanted to cry out, but she could bring forth no sound.
She sprang up and wanted to run away, but whither ever she turned herself,
she was continually held back by thick hedges of thorns through which she could
not break.
In the desert, in which she was imprisoned, there stood an old
hollow tree,
and this had to be her dwelling-place.
Into this she crept when night came, and here she slept.
Here, too, she found a shelter from storm and rain, but it was a miserable life,
and bitterly did she weep, when she remembered how happy she had been in heaven,
and how the angels had played with her.
Roots and wild berries were her only food,
and for these she sought as far as she could go.
In the autumn she picked up the fallen nuts and leaves, and carried
them into the hole.
The nuts were her food in winter, and when snow and ice came,
she crept amongst the leaves like a poor little animal that she might not
freeze.
Before long her clothes were all torn, and one bit of them after
another fell off her.
As soon, however, as the sun shone warm again, she went out and sat in front of
the tree,
and her long hair covered her on all sides like a mantle.
Thus she sat year after year, and felt the pain and the misery of
the world.
One day, when the trees were once more clothed in fresh green,
the king of the country was hunting in the forest, and followed a roe,
and as it had fled into the thicket which shut in this part of the forest,
he got off his horse, tore the bushes asunder, and cut himself a path with his
sword.
When he had at last forced his way through,
he saw a wonderfully beautiful maiden sitting under the tree;
and she sat there and was entirely covered with her golden hair down to her very
feet.
He stood still and looked at her full of surprise,
then he spoke to her and said, "Who are you? Why are
you sitting here in the wilderness?"
But she gave no answer, for she could not open her mouth.
The king went on, "Will you go with me to my
castle?"
Then she just nodded her head a little.
The king took her in his arms, carried her to his horse, and rode
home with her,
and when he reached the royal castle, he caused her to be dressed in beautiful
garments,
and gave her all things in abundance.
Although she could not speak, she was still so beautiful and
charming,
that he began to love her with all his heart, and it was not long before he
married her.