and when she saw him turning back, she threw down one of the golden apples after him, and it rolled down into his shoe. but when he got to the bottom of the hill, he rode off so fast that no one could tell what had become of him. that evening all the knights and princes were to go before the king, that he who had ridden so far up the hill might show the apple which the princess had thrown, but there was no one who had anything to show. one after the other they all came, but not a man of them could show the apple.