ugly and had such a strange appearance, that they declared he could
not be the winner they had been searching for, but a wicked robber who
had murdered ever so many people, but had always managed to escape.

'Yes, it must be the robber,' said the king, when the fisher's son was
led into his presence; 'build a gallows at once and hang him in the
sight of all my subjects, that they may behold him suffer the punishment
of his crimes.'

So the gallows was built upon a high platform, and the fisher's son
mounted the steps up to it, and turned at the top to make the speech
that was expected from every doomed man, innocent or guilty. As he spoke
he happened to raise his arm, and the king's daughter, who was there at
her father's side, saw the name which she had written under it. With a
shriek she sprang from her seat, and the eyes of the spectators were
turned towards her.

'Stop! stop!' she cried, hardly knowing what she said. 'If that man is
hanged there is not a soul in the kingdom but shall die also.' And
running up to where the fisher's son was standing, she took him by the
hand, saying,

'Father, this is no robber or murderer, but the victor in the three
races, and he loosed the spells that were laid upon me.'

Then, without waiting for a reply, she conducted him into the palace,
and he bathed in a marble bath, and all the dirt that the fairies had
put upon him disappeared like magic, and when he had dressed himself in
the fine garments the princess had sent to him, he looked a match for
any king's daughter in Erin. He went down into the great hall where she
was awaiting him, and they had much to tell each other but little time
to tell it in, for the king, her father, and the princes who were
visiting him, and all the people of the kingdom were still in their
places expecting her return.

'How did you find me out?' she whispered as they went down the passage.

'The birds in the box told me,' answered he, but he could say no more,
as they stepped out into the open space that was crowded with people.
There the princess stopped.

'O kings!' she said, turning towards them, 'if one of you were killed
to-day, the rest would fly; but this man put his trust in me, and had
his head cut off three times. Because he has done this, I will marry him
rather than one of you, who have come hither to wed me, for many kings
here sought to free me from the spells, but none could do it save Ian
the fisher's son.'

From 'Popu