But the servant said : ` My lord , let me examine this carriage first and then you can get in if I find it is all right ; otherwise we had better stay in our own . ' The prince made no objections , and after looking the carriage well over the servant said : ` It is as bad as it is smart ' ; and with that he knocked it all to pieces , and they went on in the one that they had bought . At last they reached the frontier ; there another messenger was waiting for them , who said that the king had sent two splendid robes for the prince and his bride , and begged that they would wear them for their state entry . But the servant implored the prince to have nothing to do with them , and never gave him any peace till he had obtained leave to destroy the robes . The old king was furious when he found that all his arts had failed ; that his son still lived and that he would have to give up the crown to him now he was married , for that was the law of the land . He longed to know how the prince had escaped , and said : ` My dear son , I do indeed rejoice to have you safely back , but I can not imagine why the beautiful carriage and the splendid robes I sent did not please you ; why you had them destroyed . ' ` Indeed , sire , ' said the prince , ' I was myself much annoyed at their destruction ; but my servant had begged to direct everything on the journey and I had promised him that he should do so . He declared that we could not possibly get home safely unless I did as he told me . ' The old king fell into a tremendous rage . He called his Council together and condemned the servant to death . The gallows was put up in the square in front of the palace . The servant was led out and his sentence read to him . The rope was being placed round his neck , when he begged to be allowed a few last words . ` On our journey home , ' he said , ` we spent the first night at an inn . I did not sleep but kept watch all night . ' And then he went on to tell what the crows had said , and as he spoke he turned to stone up to his knees . The prince called to him to say no more as he had proved his innocence . But the servant paid no heed to him , and by the time his story was done he had turned to stone from head to foot . Oh ! how grieved the prince was to lose his faithful servant !
And what pained him most was the thought that he was lost through his very faithfulness , and he determined to travel all over the world and never rest till he found some means XXXXX restoring him to life .
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