mshee, in
order to prevent the Princess from ever exercising the wonderful gift
she had inherited.

This much the water-woman told the Prince, but as to what had now become
of the Princess, she did not know; but there were others of her people
who knew more than she did, and she would inquire of them. Taking the
Prince by the hand, she led him out upon a headland that projected some
distance out into the sea, and blew four times loudly upon her
conch-shell. A great heaving and swelling of the waters was presently
seen, and in a few moments an elderly personage emerged from the waves,
and walked carefully up to the rock on which they stood. He was a
curious-looking individual, and, as the water-woman informed the Prince,
a powerful lord of the ocean.

He was wrapped in an old-fashioned cloak, made of the finest quality of
sea-weed, and drawing this closely around him, he requested his fair
cousin of the sea to be as quick as possible in her business with him,
as it was not prudent for him to be in the air much at his age. So the
water-woman briefly related to him what the Prince had told her.

When he heard this, the old sea-gentleman folded his arms and looked
very grave. "Mahbracca is at the bottom of this," said he. "The Prime
Minister would never have thought of imprisoning the Princess, if that
wretched sorceress had not put it into his head. I have no doubt that
she now has the Princess in her power, and very likely shut up in her
retreat."

"What!" cried the Prince, "where is it? Where is her cave? I will go
instantly and rescue my beloved Princess!" and he drew his sword of
adamant and waved it over his head.

"Ah my friend!" said the old man of the water, "you could do little
against the powerful Mahbracca and her minions. But you might go there
to be sure, and find out if she really has possession of the Princess.
But then you may lose your life."

"I care not!" cried the Prince. "Dead or alive, I will be with my
Princess."

The two citizens of the ocean talked together a few moments, and then
the old man asked him if he was really determined to undertake this
perilous enterprise, and the Prince emphatically declared that he was.

"The distance by the sea is much the shortest; would you be willing to
go in that way?" asked the old man.

"Certainly," said the Prince, "provided I have to go over, and not under
the water."

The old gentleman made no reply to this, but putting his two forefingers
in h