as a bride to the favourite of the
stars. Arise, and go thy way!"

The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
arms.

"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts
of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father's
plumed crown, I yield me to their will."

"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my sister
in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust
if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
Osslah."

"Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not; but, when thou
art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I
dare to lift mine eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the
night!--who shall gainsay their word?"

"The day that sees me king sees Orna thine," answered the prince.

Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself,
"The king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!" and he
began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time. Thus absorbed,
he wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his
path among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home. So he
lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger
came upon him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots
as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to
appease the cravings of nature.

He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of
a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his
eyes swim, and a deadly sickness came over him. For several hours he lay
convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
recovered slowly, and after great anguish. But he went with feebl