Enda has
proved himself a battle champion, and who amongst you now will dare
gainsay his right to claim my daughter for his bride?"

And no answer came.

But when he summoned Enda to his throne, and placed the lady's hand in
his, a cheer arose from the great assembly, that proved that jealousy
was extinguished in all hearts, and that all believed that Enda was
worthy of the winsome bride; and never since that day, although a
thousand years have passed, was there in all the world a brighter and
gayer wedding than the wedding of Enda and the Princess Mave.

THE ENCHANTED CAVE

A long, long time ago, Prince Cuglas,[4] master of the hounds to the
high King of Erin, set out from Tara to the chase. As he was leaving the
palace the light mists were drifting away from the hill-tops, and the
rays of the morning sun were falling aslant on the _grinan_ or sunny
bower of the Princess Ailinn. Glancing towards it the prince doffed his
plumed and jeweled hunting-cap, and the princess answered his salute
by a wave of her little hand, that was as white as a wild rose in the
hedges in June, and leaning from her bower, she watched the huntsman
until his tossing plumes were hidden by the green waving branches of
the woods.

The Princess Ailinn was over head and ears in love with Cuglas, and
Cuglas was over head and ears in love with the Princess Ailinn, and he
believed that never was summer morning half as bright, or as sweet, or
as fair as she. The glimpse which he had just caught of her filled his
heart with delight, and almost put all thought of hunting out of his
head, when suddenly the tuneful cries of the hounds, answered by a
hundred echoes from the groves, broke upon his ear.

The dogs had started a dappled deer that bounded away through the
forest. The prince, spurring his gallant steed, pushed on in eager
pursuit.

On through the forest sped the deer, through soft, green, secret ways
and flowery dells, then out from the forest, up heathery hills, and over
long stretches of moorland, and across brown rushing streams, sometimes
in view of the hounds, sometimes lost to sight, but always ahead of
them.

All day long the chase continued, and at last, when the sun was sinking,
the dogs were close upon the panting deer, and the prince believed he
was about to secure his game, when the deer suddenly disappeared through
the mouth of a cave which opened before him. The dogs followed at his
heels, and the prince endeavore