his most precious treasures. However, get it she
must, and in the meantime the first step was to see the royal prisoner
himself. So, drawing out her tablets, she wrote as follows:

[Illustration: THE SWALLOW BRINGS THE NOTE TO LINO]

'The bird which brings you this letter is the Swan fairy, mother of
Hermosa, who loves you as much as you love her!' And after this
assurance, she related the wicked plot of which he had been the
victim. Then, quickly changing herself into a swallow, she began to
fly round the tower, till she discovered the window of Lino's prison.
It was so high up that bars seemed needless, especially as four
soldiers were stationed in the passage outside, therefore the fairy
was able to enter, and even to hop on his shoulder, but he was so much
occupied with gazing at the princess's portrait that it was some time
before she could attract his attention. At last she gently scratched
his cheek with the corner of the note, and he looked round with a
start. On perceiving the swallow he knew at once that help had come,
and tearing open the letter, he wept with joy on seeing the words it
contained, and asked a thousand questions as to Hermosa, which the
swallow was unable to answer, though, by repeated nods, she signed to
him to read further. 'Must I indeed pretend to wish to marry that
horrible Riquette?' he cried, when he had finished. 'Can I obtain the
stone from the magician?'

Accordingly the next morning, when Riquette paid him her daily visit,
he received her much more graciously than usual. The magician's
daughter could not contain her delight at this change, and in answer
to her expressions of joy, Lino told her that he had had a dream by
which he had learned the inconstancy of Hermosa; also that a fairy had
appeared and informed him that if he wished to break the bonds which
bound him to the faithless princess and transfer his affections to the
daughter of Ismenor, he must have in his possession for a day and a
night a stone from the ring of Gyges, now in the possession of the
magician. This news so enchanted Riquette, that she flung her arms
round the king's neck and embraced him tenderly, greatly to his
disgust, as he would infinitely have preferred the sticks of the
soldiers. However, there was no help for it, and he did his best to
seem pleased, till Riquette relieved him by announcing that she must
lose no time in asking her father and obtaining from him the precious
stone.

His daughter's