k in despair,
when he remembered the two good gifts of a giant whom he had overcome--a
suit of armour which no sword could pierce, and a ring which would throw
open all doors. So he showed the ring to the porters that guarded all
the other three doors, and soon found himself in the garden of the
palace.

Even the groves of palms, and the trees of delicious fruits, could not
make him forget the lie he had uttered. Indeed, if he had wished to do
so, he could not, for presently he came to a fountain beside which was
written that no traitor should drink thereof on pain of being destroyed
by the serpent that dwelt therein. At this Huon suddenly felt himself
forsaken of all, and he sat down and wept bitterly.

'O noble King Oberon, listen to me once more,' he cried, and tremblingly
blew his horn.

'I help no liars,' said the fairy king when the blast echoed through the
forest, and, though Huon could not hear his answer, the silence soon
told him what it was.

'If he slays me, at least it will be soon over,' he thought to himself,
and, putting forth all his strength, he blew a fresh blast.

This time it was so loud that it reached the ears of the lord of
Babylon, who was sitting at a feast in the Hall of Moonbeams. And he
rose up, together with his nobles and their squires and their wives and
daughters, and every one in the palace from the least to the greatest,
and began to dance and sing. They sang and danced as long as the horn
kept on blowing, and when it had ceased the ruler of Babylon called to
his lords and bade them follow him into the garden, as of a surety some
great enchanter must have strayed therein.

'Seek him and bring him to me, wherever I be,' commanded the emir; but
the gardens were so large, and it took so long to find Huon, that the
emir went back into the palace and laid himself down on a pile of soft
cushions at the end of the hall.

By his side on a great carved chair was the king of a neighbouring
country, who arrived hither only a few days before to beg for the hand
of the emir's fair daughter, the princess Esclaramonde, who was said to
be the loveliest maiden in the whole world. To be sure, it was whispered
among the courtiers that the princess did not look on him with a
favourable eye, when she had watched his arrival from behind her
lattice, and that more than once she had protested that she was too ill
to leave her room when sent for by her father; but of course, if
marriage was resolved u