, because there
was a vague hope in his heart that had never been there before. He lay
down under the branches, with his feet towards the rustling waters, and
the smiles of the princess gilded his slumbers, as the rays of the
rising sun gild the glades of the forest; and when the morning came he
was scarcely surprised when before him appeared the little old woman
with the shuttle he had welcomed on the winter's night.

"You think you have won her already," 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 colors
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 colors 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 inclosure, and rode up in
front of the queen's pavilion. Holding up the glancing and many-colored
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