the robin had left the horsemen far behind him he spied
Rosaleen sitting outside the palace gates bemoaning her fate. The
robin perched upon her shoulder, and almost before she knew he was
there he put the berry between her lips, and the taste was so
delicious that Rosaleen ate it at once, and that very moment the
witch's withering spell passed away from her, and she became as lovely
as the flower of beauty. Just then the warriors on the snow-white
steeds came up, and the chief with the mantle of yellow silk and the
golden helmet leaped from his horse, and bending his knee before her,
said:

"Fairest of all fair maidens, you are surely the daughter of the king
of these realms, even though you are without the palace gates,
unattended, and wear not royal robes. I am the Prince of the Sunny
Valleys."

"Daughter of a king I am," said Rosaleen, "but not of the king who
rules these realms."

And saying this she fled, leaving the prince wondering who she could
be. The prince then ordered his trumpeters to give notice of his
presence outside the palace, and in a few moments the king and all his
nobles came out to greet the prince and his warriors, and give them
welcome. That night a great feast was spread in the banquet-hall, and
the Prince of the Sunny Valleys sat by the king, and beside the prince
sat the king's beautiful daughter, and then in due order sat the
nobles of the court and the warriors who had come with the prince, and
on the wall behind each noble and warrior his shield and helmet were
suspended, flashing radiance through the room. During the feast the
prince spoke most graciously to the lovely lady at his side, but all
the time he was thinking of the unknown beauty he had met outside the
palace gates, and his heart longed for another glimpse of her. When
the feast was ended, and the jewelled drinking-cups had gone merrily
around the table, the bards sang, to the accompaniment of harps, the
"Courtship of the Lady Eimer," and as they pictured her radiant beauty
outshining that of all her maidens, the prince thought that fair as
Lady Eimer was there was one still fairer.

When the feast was ended the king asked the prince what brought him
into his realms.

"I come," said the prince, "to look for a bride, for it was foretold
to me in my own country that here only I should find the lady who is
destined to share my throne, and fame reported that in your kingdom
are to be found the loveliest maidens in all the