through the green woods of Tara.
He looked out through the window, and he saw all the fairy champions
mounted on their steeds ready for the chase, and at their head the
fairy queen. And at that moment the pages came to say the queen wished
to know if he would join them, and the prince went out and found his
steed ready saddled and bridled, and they spent the day hunting in the
forest that stretched away for miles behind the palace, and the night
in feasting and dancing.
When the prince awoke the following morning he was summoned by the
pages to the presence of the queen. The prince found the queen on the
lawn outside the palace surrounded by her court.
"We shall go on the lake to-day, Cuglas," said the queen, and taking
his arm she led him along the water's edge, all the courtiers
following.
When she was close to the water she waved her wand, and in a second a
thousand boats, shining like glass, shot up from beneath the lake and
set their bows against the bank. The queen and Cuglas stepped into
one, and when they were seated two fairy harpers took their places in
the prow. All the other boats were soon thronged by fairies, and then
the queen waved her wand again, and an awning of purple silk rose over
the boat, and silken awning of various colours over the others, and
the royal boat moved off from the bank followed by all the rest, and
in every boat sat a harper with a golden harp, and when the queen
waved her wand for the third time, the harpers struck the trembling
chords, and to the sound of the delightful music the boats glided over
the sunlit lake. And on they went until they approached the mouth of a
gentle river sliding down between banks clad with trees. Up the river,
close to the bank and under the drooping trees, they sailed, and when
they came to a bend in the river, from which the lake could be no
longer seen, they pushed their prows in against the bank, and the
queen and Cuglas, and all the party, left the boats and went on under
the trees until they came to a mossy glade.
Then the queen waved her wand, and silken couches were spread under
the trees, and she and Cuglas sat on one apart from the others, and
the courtiers took their places in proper order.
And the queen waved her wand again, and wind shook the trees above
them, and the most luscious fruit that was ever tasted fell down into
their hands; and when the feast was over there was dancing in the
glades to the music of the harps, and wh
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