d wear not royal robes. I am the Prince of the Sunny Valleys."

"Daughter of a king I am," said Rosaleen, "but not of the king who rules
these realms."

And saying this she fled, leaving the prince wondering who she could be.
The prince then ordered his trumpeters to give notice of his presence
outside the palace, and in a few moments the king and all his nobles
came out to greet the prince and his warriors, and give them welcome.
That night a great feast was spread in the banquet hall, and the Prince
of the Sunny Valleys sat by the king, and beside the prince sat the
king's beautiful daughter, and then in due order sat the nobles of the
court and the warriors who had come with the prince, and on the wall
behind each noble and warrior his shield and helmet were suspended,
flashing radiance through the room. During the feast the prince spoke
most graciously to the lovely lady at his side, but all the time he was
thinking of the unknown beauty he had met outside the palace gates, and
his heart longed for another glimpse of her. When the feast was ended,
and the jeweled drinking-cups had gone merrily around the table, the
bards sang, to the accompaniment of harps, the "Courtship of the Lady
Eimer," and as they pictured her radiant beauty outshining that of all
her maidens, the prince thought that fair as Lady Eimer was there was
one still fairer.

When the feast was ended the king asked the prince what brought him into
his realms.

"I come," said the prince, "to look for a bride, for it was foretold
to me in my own country that here only I should find the lady who is
destined to share my throne, and fame reported that in your kingdom are
to be found the loveliest maidens in all the world, and I can well
believe that," added the prince, "after what I have seen to-day."

When the king's daughter heard this she hung down her head and blushed
like a rose, for, of course, she thought the prince was alluding only to
herself, as she did not know that he had seen Rosaleen, and she had not
heard of the restoration of her beauty.

Before another word could be spoken a great noise and the clang of arms
were heard outside the palace. The king and his guests started from
their seats and drew their swords, and the bards raised the song of
battle; but their voices were stilled and their harps silenced when they
saw at the threshold of the banquet hall a battle champion, in whose
face they recognized the features of their murdered k