prince
shall surely come."

"But he must be the bravest of men ere he can enter the enchanted
castle," said the queen; "for the wide moat is filled with flames, and
no faint heart will ever dare battle with them."

"But I will dare!" cried Siegfried; and he sprang from his hiding-place,
forgetful of the little folk, who suddenly flitted away, and left him
alone upon the beach. He glanced across the meadows at the green turrets
glistening in the mellow moonlight, and then at the flickering flames
around the castle walls, and he resolved that on the morrow he would at
all hazards perform the perilous feat.

In the morning, as soon as the gray dawn appeared, he began to make
ready for his difficult undertaking. But, when he looked again at the
red flames, he began to hesitate. He paused, uncertain whether to
wait for a sign and for help from the All-Father, or whether to go
straightway to the castle, and, trusting in his good armor alone, try
to pass through the burning moat. While he thus stood in doubt, his eyes
were dazzled by a sudden flash of light. He looked up. Greyfell came
dashing across the sands; and from his long mane a thousand sunbeams
gleamed and sparkled in the morning light. Siegfried had never seen the
wondrous creature so radiant; and as the steed stood by him in all his
strength and beauty he felt new hope and courage, as if Odin himself had
spoken to him. He hesitated no longer, but mounted the noble horse; and
Greyfell bore him swiftly over the plain, and paused not until he had
reached the brink of the burning moat.

Now, indeed, would Siegfried's heart have failed him, had he not been
cheered by the sunbeam presence of Greyfell. For filling the wide,
deep ditch, were angry, hissing flames, which, like a thousand
serpent-tongues, reached out, and felt here and there, for what they
might devour; and ever and anon they took new forms, and twisted and
writhed like fiery snakes, and then they swirled in burning coils high
over the castle-walls. Siegfried stopped not a moment. He spoke the
word, and boldly the horse with his rider dashed into the fiery lake;
and the vile flames fled in shame and dismay before the pure sunbeam
flashes from Greyfell's mane. And, unscorched and unscathed, Siegfried
rode through the moat, and through the wide-open gate, and into the
castle-yard.

The gate-keeper sat fast asleep in his lodge, while the chains and the
heavy key with which, when awake, he was wont to make