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Updated: June 18, 2025
In the evening, when the relatives and friends had gone to rest and Ileane, too, had been asleep, the prince said to his bride: "Dear Ileane, wait a little while, I'll come back directly." Then he left the room. Ileane did not hesitate long, but jumped out of bed, left the sugar doll in her place, and hid behind a curtain at the head of the bed.
But Ileane had not forgotten the evil the prince had in his mind; she knew that he would try some trick upon her the first night after their marriage. So she ordered a sugar doll to be made exactly the same size as she was herself, with face, eyes, lips, and figure precisely like Ileane's. When it was finished, she hid it in the bed where she was to sleep that night.
The prince cut the doll across her face. "Did you empty my dishes of food?" asked the prince the third time. "Yes," said Ileane. The prince slashed the doll from head to foot. "Did you pour out my wine?" was the prince's fourth question. "Yes," said Ileane. The prince cut the figure once across. Ileane began to breathe heavily as if in the agony of death.
Ileane cleverly answered: "If your nature is like your words, if your soul is like your face, proud and beautiful, and mild and gentle, I will gladly call you into the house, seat you at a banquet, give you food and drink and kisses."
"Where did you put the flower, and what have you done with the bird?" he asked Ileane. Ileane did not answer, but hurried to her sisters and brought back a fresh flower and a merry little bird. "May you prosper, my little daughter," said the emperor; "I see now that you have kept faith with me." From Ileane the emperor went to his second daughter, and then to the eldest one.
Ileane, left alone in the kitchen, filled her jug with food, emptied all the dainty dishes that were on the fire upon the floor, and went away. When the princes heard of this insult they were still more enraged than before, sent another message to the two sisters and again prepared a revenge.
Can you make roses grow on burdocks?" "No!" said the prince. "Then the thistle is your flower," said clever Ileane. "Can you make the bat sing in a sweet voice?" "No!" said the prince. "Then night is your day," said clever Ileane. "Can you make apples grow on wolf's-bane?" "That I can!" said the prince. "Then that shall be your fruit!" replied the beautiful and cunning Ileane.
When he reached the palace where the three sisters lived Ileane was standing at the window, and when she saw him, said merrily: "You handsome champion with the royal face, where are you hurrying, that you urge on your steed so hotly?"
Ileane took her apples, carried them home, gave them to her sisters, and then went back to the imperial palace and told the servants to go and rescue their master from his great danger. The prince, who had been so abominably treated, sent for the most skillful witch in the whole country to come and give him a cure for his wounds.
The emperor said nothing, but went to his second daughter. She showed him only the little bird, and that, too, looked drooping. Again the emperor did not speak, but silently went up to his youngest daughter, clever Ileane. When the emperor saw the apple on Ileane's chest of drawers he could almost have devoured it with his eyes, it was so beautiful.
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