CHAPTER XII.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE-THE KNIGHT AND THE THREE QUESTIONSRACING FOR A WIFE-FAIRY DRINKING HORNS-THE CARPENTER AND THE MAGIC STATUE-CONCLUSION.

"I HAVE been very much surprised at the almost entire absence of compulsory marriages from your tales; marriage, indeed, is the staple incident of the story, but the course of love seems to be allowed to run almost too smooth."

"Why, Herbert," said Frederick Thompson, with a smile, “ were it not rank heresy to suppose that power, and wealth, and policy influenced marriages in those romantic days, when knights performed impossibilities, and ladies sang love ditties from high towers ?"

"You must not delude yourselves that ladies were married in the tenth and eleventh centuries on principles very widely differing from those now prevailing. I could give you far worse examples than the wondrous nineteenth century furnishes."

"What!" exclaimed Herbert, "worse examples than eighty linked to eighteen because their properties adjoined? or a spendthrift title propped up by a youthful heiress, because the one wanted money and the other rank ?"

Hilloa, Master Reginald Herbert, methinks we speak feelingly; is there not something of the accepted lover and disappointed sonin-law in that exalted burst of indignation, eh, Lathom? can it be true that

The lady she was willing,

But the baron he say No."

"Be it as it may," said Lathom, "we will solace our friend with

an example or two of the approved ways of lady-winning in the tenth century. Which shall it be, the case of a successful racer or a clever resolver of riddles ?"

'Oh, I will answer for Reginald; pray leave Miss Atalanta for the present, and favour us with the resolver of hard questions." Here begins the tale of

THE KNIGHT AND THE THREE QUESTIONS.

A CERTAIN emperor had a very beautiful, but wilful, daughter, and he much wished to marry her, for she was his heir, but to all his wishes she was deaf. At last she agreed to marry that person who should answer succinctly these three questions. The first question was, "What is the length, breadth, and depth of the four elements?" The second required a means of changing the north wind; and the third demanded by what means fire might be carried in the bosom without injury to the person.

Many and many were the nobles, knights, and princes that endeavoured to answer the princess's questions. It was all in vain: some answered one, some another, but no one resolved all three, and each reserved his secret from his competitor, in the hopes of another and more successful trial. The emperor began to grow angry with his daughter, but she still persisted in her intentions, and her father did not like to compel her. At length, after many years, came a soldier from a foreign land, and when he heard of the questions of the princess, he volunteered for the trial. On the appointed day, the soldier entered the court of the palace accompanied by one attendant, who led an extremely fiery horse by the bridle. The king descended to the gate of the inner court-yard, and demanded the soldier's wishes.

"I come, my lord, to win thy daughter, by rightly answering her three questions; I pray thee propose them to me." "Right willingly," rejoined the emperor. "If thou succeedest, my daughter, and the succession to my throne, is

thine; but mark me, if thou failest, a sound whipping awaits thee as an impudent adventurer. Shall I

tions ?"

propose the

ques

"Even so, my lord-I am ready: a crown and a wife, or the whipping-post."

'Tell me, then, succinctly, how many feet there are in the length, breadth, and depth of the elements."

"Launcelot," said the soldier to his servant, "give the horse to a groom, and lie down on the ground."

The servant obeyed his master's orders, and the soldier carefully measured his length, his breadth, and the thickness of his body.

"My lord," said the soldier, as soon as the measuring was complete, "the length of the elements is scarcely seven feet, the breadth is nearly three, and the depth does not exceed one."

"How mean you, sir; what has this to do with the ele ments ?"

"My lord," rejoined the soldier, "man is made of the four elements: I have given you the measure of man, and therefore of those parts of which he is composed."

"You have answered well, sir soldier: now resolve this difficulty-how can the north wind be changed ?"

"Launcelot, bring up Niger."

The servant brought up the horse at his master's command, and the soldier placed it with its head to the north; after a few minutes he administered to it a potion, and at the same moment turned its head to the east; the horse that before had breathed fiercely now became quiet, and its breathing was soft and quiet.

"See, my lord, the wind is changed."

'How, sir soldier ?" asked the emperor, "what has this to do with the wind?"

My lord," rejoined the soldier, "who knows not that the life of every animal is in its breath, and that breath is air? When my horse looked northward, he breathed fiercely and

snorted excessively. Lo, I gave him a potion and turned his head to the east, and now the same breath comes softly and quietly, for the wind is changed."

"Well done-well done, soldier! for these two answers thou shalt escape the whipping-post. Now resolve me this difficulty, How can fire be carried in the bosom without injury to the person?"

Look and see, my

lord."

With these words, the soldier stooped towards a fire that burned in the court-yard, and hastily seizing some of the burning wood, placed it in his bosom. Every one expected to see him injured, but after the fire had burned out the soldier threw the wood from his breast, and there was neither scar nor burn on his flesh.

"Well hast thou performed thy task, O soldier," said the king. "My daughter is thine according to promise—the inheritance of my kingdom is also thine and hers; now tell me the secret whereby thou didst prevent the fire from burning thee."

"This stone is the talisman," replied the soldier, showing at small bright stone that he carried in his right hand. “Whosoever bears this about him shall be able to resist the hottest fire that men can light."

Loaded with riches and honours, the soldier married the princess, and they succeeded to the throne and the wealth of her father.

"Your princess, Lathom, seems to have been one of those young ladies, who never dream that husbands and wives are born for each other, but regard the former as especially provided for the benefit of the latter."

"I suspect the old monk, Thompson, thought very little about love matters, but rather looked to the appropriateness of his story for a religious application."

Exactly so, Herbert," remarked Lathom, "the moral is decidedly the best part of this tale. The emperor is our Saviour;

th

daughter, the human soul. Measuring the elements, is typical of subduing the lusts of the flesh. The fiery horse is a sinner changed by repentance; and the small bright stone, that conquers the power of fire, is a true and lively faith in our Saviour, utterly subjugating the fire of pride, luxury, and avarice."

"What is the tale of the marriage by racing ?" asked Thompson. Hardly worth relating at length."

66

Except as a hint to our poor friend Reginald."

"The lady is to be won by no one who cannot outrun her. After many failures, comes one called Abibas, a poor, but shrewd fellow. Knowing the failings of the young lady, he prepares a garland of roses, a beautiful silken girdle, and a golden ball, on which was written, whosoever plays with me, shall never be tired.' The race begins, and the lady is just passing her competitor, when he skilfully jerks the rose garland on to her head. Attracted by the smell of the flowers, and despising the slow pace of Abibas, the lady stops to admire, and Abibas gets well ahead. She soon throws away the garland, and is off again after her competitor; nearer and nearer she comes, when Abibas slily drops the embroidered girdle in her path. She stops-admires-takes it up, and again loses ground. Again she throws away the tempting bait, and renews the race; the distance between her and her suitor is soon lessened, and the race draws towards its end. As a last resource, he casts the golden ball before her. She stops-reads the inscription-determines to try it for a moment-goes on and on with her pleasure, and is only awakened from her folly by the cries that hail Abibas as the winner of the race and the lady."

"What makes you look so solemn, Herbert? Can you not persuade the repudiating father in your case, to run a race with you for the lady."

"Tut-tut, Thompson; I was thinking whether any of those persons who promote or sanction what the world calls marriages of convenience, in which every one admits that love, or identity of feelings has nothing at all to do, ever read the commencement of the exhortation in the marriage service. Surely it can never occur to them, that we are there told that marriage signifies unto us the mystical union between our Saviour and his Church."

"It were charity to suppose they were ignorant," replied