Before they had gone very far, a handsome young man, splendidly dressed,
rode up and stopped to ask the way to the castle where the King was
staying; and when he found that they too were going thither, he got off
his horse and walked beside them along the road.
The herdboy pulled out his pipe and played a low sweet tune, and the
stranger looked again and again at Tattercoats' lovely face till he fell
deeply in love with her, and begged her to marry him.
But she only laughed, and shook her golden head.
"You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife!"
said she; "go and ask one of the great ladies you will see to-night at
the King's ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats."
But the more she refused him the sweeter the pipe played, and the deeper
the young man fell in love; till at last he begged her, as a proof of
his sincerity, to come that night at twelve to the King's ball, just as
she was, with the herdboy and his geese, and in her torn petticoat and
bare feet, and he would dance with her before the King and the lords and
ladies, and present her to them all, as his dear and honoured bride.
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