to go before him; and the
cavalcade ascended the hill, the sunlight brightly glancing on helmet
and on lance, and when it reached the palace the horsemen filed around
the walls.

When at length the prince and herald crossed the bridge and began
to climb the hill, the prince thought he felt the ground moving under
them, and on looking back he could see no sign of the golden bridge,
and the blue stream had already become as wide as a great river, and
was becoming wider every second.

"You are on the floating island now," said the herald, "and before you
is the palace of the Princess Crede."

At that moment the queen came out through the palace door, and the
prince was so dazzled by her beauty, that only for the golden bracelet
he wore upon his right arm, under the sleeve of his silken tunic, he
might almost have forgotten the Princess Ailinn. This bracelet was made
by the dwarfs who dwell in the heart of the Scandinavian Mountains, and
was sent with other costly presents by the King of Scandinavia to the
King of Erin, and he gave it to the princess, and it was the virtue of
this bracelet, that whoever was wearing it could not forget the person
who gave it to him, and it could never be loosened from the arm by any
art or magic spell; but if the wearer, even for a single moment, liked
anyone better than the person who gave it to him, that very moment the
bracelet fell off from the arm and could never again be fastened on. And
when the princess promised her hand in marriage to the Prince Cuglas,
she closed the bracelet on his arm.

The fairy queen knew nothing about the bracelet, and she hoped that
before the prince was long in the floating island he would forget all
about the princess.

"You are welcome, Cuglas," said the queen, as she held out her hand, and
Cuglas, having thanked her for her welcome, they entered the palace
together.

"You must be weary after your long journey," said the queen. "My page
will lead you to your apartments, where a bath of the cool blue waters
of the lake has been made ready for you, and when you have taken your
bath the pages will lead you to the banquet hall, where the feast is
spread."

At the feast the prince was seated beside the queen, and she talked to
him of all the pleasures that were in store for him in fairyland, where
pain, and sickness, and sorrow, and old age, are unknown, and where
every rosy hour that flies is brighter than the one that has fled before
it. And when t