and yet not her mother's--no, it could never be, for it shouted after
her,

"Come now, or come no more!"

Some evil impulse goaded the haughty girl to assert her womanly right of
free action, and she passed from her home, flying with swift steps. A
little, only a little absence, to show her indignant pride, and she
would be back again, to heal all strife. Nevertheless, ere she was
aware, Hyldreda had reached the oak-wood, beneath which she had seen the
morning's bewildering sight.

And there again, brighter in the moonlight than it had ever seemed in
the day, came sweeping by the stately pageant. Its torches flung red
shadows on the trees, its wheels resounded through the night's quiet
with a music as of silver bells. And sitting in his state alone, grand
but smiling, was the lord of all this splendor.

The chariot stopped, and he dismounted. Then the whole train vanished,
and, shorn of all his glories, except a certain brightness which his
very presence seemed to shed, the king, if he were indeed such, stood
beside the trembling peasant maid.

He did not address her, but looked in her face inquiringly, until
Hyldreda felt herself forced to be the first to speak.

"My lord, who art thou, and what is thy will with me?"

He smiled. "Thanks, gentle maiden, for thy question has taken off the
spell. Otherwise it could not be broken, even by Kong Tolv."

Hyldreda shuddered with fear. Her fingers tried to seize the cross which
always lay on her breast, but no! she had thrown aside the coarse black
wooden crucifix, while dreaming of ornaments of gold. And it was St.
John's Eve, and she stood beneath the haunted oak-wood. No power had she
to fly, and her prayers died on her lips, for she knew herself in the
Hill-king's power.

Kong Tolv began to woo, after the elfin fashion, brief and bold. "Fair
maiden, the Dronningstolen[17] is empty, and 'tis thou must fill it.
Come and enter my palace under the hill."

But the maiden sobbed out that she was too lowly to sit on a queen's
chair, and that none of mortals, save the dead, made their home
underground. And she prayed the Elle-king to let her go back to her
mother and little Resa.

He only laughed. "Wouldst be content, then, with the poor cottage, and
the black bread, and the labor from morn till eve. Didst thou not of
thyself wish for a palace and a lord like me? And did not the Hyldemoer
waft me the wish, so that I came to meet and welcome thee under the
hill?"

Hy