w the grandest sight to-day. The
strange lady came again, in grander array than before. On herself and
the horse she rode were the finest colours of the world, and between
the ears of the horse was a bird which never stopped singing from the
time she came till she went away. The lady herself is the most
beautiful woman ever seen by man in Erin."

After Trembling had disappeared from the church, the son of the king of
Emania said to the other kings' sons: "I will have that lady for my
own."

They all said: "You didn't win her just by taking the shoe off her
foot; you'll have to win her by the point of the sword; you'll have to
fight for her with us before you can call her your own."

"Well," said the son of the king of Emania, "when I find the lady that
shoe will fit, I'll fight for her, never fear, before I leave her to
any of you."

Then all the kings' sons were uneasy, and anxious to know who was she
that lost the shoe; and they began to travel all over Erin to know
could they find her. The prince of Emania and all the others went in a
great company together, and made the round of Erin; they went
everywhere,--north, south, east, and west. They visited every place
where a woman was to be found, and left not a house in the kingdom they
did not search, to know could they find the woman the shoe would fit,
not caring whether she was rich or poor, of high or low degree.

The prince of Emania always kept the shoe; and when the young women saw
it, they had great hopes, for it was of proper size, neither large nor
small, and it would beat any man to know of what material it was made.
One thought it would fit her if she cut a little from her great toe;
and another, with too short a foot, put something in the tip of her
stocking. But no use; they only spoiled their feet, and were curing
them for months afterwards.

The two sisters, Fair and Brown, heard that the princes of the world
were looking all over Erin for the woman that could wear the shoe, and
every day they were talking of trying it on; and one day Trembling
spoke up and said: "Maybe it's my foot that the shoe will fit."

"Oh, the breaking of the dog's foot on you! Why say so when you were at
home every Sunday?"

They were that way waiting, and scolding the younger sister, till the
princes were near the place. The day they were to come, the sisters put
Trembling in a closet, and locked the door on her. When the company
came to the house, the prince of Emania