said the little woman. "And so
you have, too; her heart is all your own, and I'm half inclined to
think that my trouble will be thrown away, for if you had never a
wedding robe to give her, she'd rather have you this minute than all
the kings of Erin, or than all the other princes and kings and
chieftains in the whole world. But you and your father and mother were
kind to me on a wild winter's night, and I'd never see your mother's
son without a wedding robe fit for the greatest princess that ever
set nations to battle for her beauty. So go and pluck me a handful of
wild forest flowers, and I'll weave out of them a wedding robe with
all the colours of the rainbow, and one that will be as sweet and as
fragrant as the ripe, red lips of the princess herself."

Fergus, with joyous heart, culled the flowers, and brought them to the
little old woman.

In the twinkling of an eye she wove with her little shuttle a wedding
robe, with all the colours of the rainbow, as light as the fairy dew,
as soft as the hand of the princess, as fragrant as her little red
mouth, and so small that it would pass through the eye of a needle.

"Go now, Fergus," said she, "and may luck go with you; but, in the
days of your greatness and of the glory which will come to you when
you are wedded to the princess, be as kind, and have as open a heart
and as open a door for the poor as you had when you were only a poor
huntsman's son."

Fergus took the robe and went towards Tara. It was the last day of the
fair, and all the contests were over, and the bards were about to
chant the farewell strains to the memory of the great queen. But
before the chief bard could ascend the mound, Fergus, attended by a
troop of Fenian warriors on their steeds, galloped into the enclosure,
and rode up in front of the queen's pavilion. Holding up the glancing
and many-coloured robe, he said:

"O Queen and King of Erin! I claim the princess for my bride. You, O
king, have decided that I have won the prize in the contest of the
bards; that I have won the prize in the race against the white steed
of the plains; it is for the princess to say if the robe which I give
her will fit in the hollow of her small white hand."

"Yes," said the king. "You are victor in the contests; let the
princess declare if you have fulfilled the last condition."

The princess took the robe from Fergus, closed her fingers over it, so
that no vestige of it was seen.

"Yes, O king!" said she, "