great for words. At once in his heart he accused the king of
cruelty in permitting him to drag out a miserable existence for a whole
year in endeavoring to fulfill a condition which in his thoughts he at
once resolved to be impossible. For who could decide upon what would
please all ladies best, when it was agreed by all wise men that no two
of the uncertain sex would ever fix upon one and the same thing?

With these desponding thoughts Sir Ulric went out of the queen's
presence, and prepared to travel abroad over the country, if perchance
by inquiring far and wide he might find out the answer which would save
his life.

From house to house and from town to town traveled Sir Ulric, asking
maid and matron, young or old, the same question. But never, from any
two, did he receive a like answer. Some told him that women best loved
fine clothes; some that they loved rich living; some loved their
children best; others desired most to be loved; and some loved best to
be considered free from curiosity, which, since Eve, had been said to
be a woman's chief vice. But among all, no answers were alike, and at
each the knight's heart sank in despair, and he seemed as if he
followed and ignis fatuus which each day led him farther and farther
from the truth.

One day, as he rode through a pleasant wood, the knight alighted and
sat himself down under a tree to rest, and bewail his unhappy lot.
Sitting here, in a loud voice he accused his unfriendly stars that they
had brought him into so sad a state. While he spoke thus, he looked up
and beheld an old woman, wrapped in a heavy mantle, standing beside
him. Sir Ulric thought he had never seen so hideous a hag as she who
now stood gazing at him. She was wrinkled and toothless, and bent with
age. One eye was shut, and in the other was a leer so horrible that he
feared her some uncanny creature of the wood, and crossed himself as he
looked on her.

"Good knight," said the old crone, before he could arise to leave her
sight, "tell me, I pray thee, what hard thing ye seek. I am old, and
have had much wisdom. It may happen that I can help you out of the
great trouble into which you have come."

The knight, in spite of her loathsomeness, felt a ray of hope at this
offer, and in a few words told her what he was seeking.

As soon as she had heard, the old creature burst into so loud a laugh
that between laughing and mumbling Sir Ulric feared she would choke
herself before she f