hour had come--whether for good or evil.

Seating himself beside her, the prince took one of her hands in his and
looked steadily into her downcast face.

"Corm--Bran--" he began, and stopped.

She looked up.

"Branwen," he said, in a low, calm voice, "will it pain you very much to
know that I am glad--inexpressibly glad--that there is no youth Cormac
in all the wide world?"

Whether she was pained or not the girl did not say, but there was a
language in her eyes which induced Bladud to slip his disengaged arm
round--well, well, there are some things more easily conceived than
described. She seemed about to speak, but Bladud stopped her mouth--
how, we need not tell--not rudely, you may be sure--suffice to say that
when the moon arose an hour later, and looked down into the forest that
evening she saw the prince and Branwen still seated, hand in hand, on
the fallen tree, gazing in rapt attention at the stars.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

THE LAST.

When Bladud walked out to the Hebrew's hut next day and informed him of
what had taken place, that long-suffering man heaved a deep sigh and
expressed his intense relief that the whole affair was at last cleared
up and had come to an end.

"I cannot view matters in the same light that you do, Beniah," said the
prince, "for, in my opinion, things have only now come to a satisfactory
beginning. However, I suppose that you are thinking of the strange
perplexities in which you have been involved so long."

"I would not style them perplexities, prince, but intrigues--obvious and
unjustifiable intrigues--in which innocent persons have been brought
frequently to the verge of falsehood--if they have not, indeed, been
forced to overstep the boundary."

"Surely, Beniah, circumstances, against which none of us had power to
contend, had somewhat to do with it all, as well as intrigue."

"I care not," returned the Hebrew, "whether it was the intrigues of your
court or the circumstances of it, which were the cause of all the mess
in which I and others have been involved, but I am aweary of it, and
have made up my mind to leave the place and retire to a remote part of
the wilderness, where I may find in solitude solace to my exhausted
spirit, and rest to my old bones."

"That will never do, Beniah," said the prince, laughing. "You take too
serious a view of the matter. There is no fear of any more intrigues or
circumstances arising to perplex you for some time to come. Besi