ne.

And there was a wide smooth road that went through fields of lilies, and
that was the path of easy living and pleasure.

The third path wound about the wild hillside, through ferns and heather,
and that was the way to Elfland, and that way they rode. And still
they rode through a country of dark night, and they crossed great black
rivers, and they saw neither sun nor moon, but they heard the roaring
of the sea. From that country they came into the light, and into the
beautiful garden that lies round the castle of the Fairy Queen. There
they lived in a noble company of gallant knights and fair ladies. All
seemed very mirthful, and they rode, and hunted, and danced; and it was
never dark night, nor broad daylight, but like early summer dawn before
the sun has risen.

There Randal said that he had quite forgotten his mother and Jean, and
the world where he was born, and Fairnilee.

But one day he happened to see a beautiful golden bottle of a strange
shape, all set with diamonds, and he opened it. There was in it a
sweet-smelling water, as clear as crystal, and he poured it into his
hand, and passed his hand over his eyes. Now this water had the power to
destroy the "glamour" in Fairyland, and make people see it as it really
was. And when Randal touched his eyes with it, lo, everything was
changed in a moment. He saw that nothing was what it had seemed. The
gold vanished from the embroidered curtains, the light grew dim and
wretched like a misty winter day.

[Illustration: Page 293]

The Fairy Queen, that had seemed so happy and beautiful in her bright
dress, was a weary, pale woman in black, with a melancholy face and
melancholy eyes. She looked as if she had been there for thousands of
years, always longing for the sunlight and the earth, and the wind and
rain. There were sleepy poppies twisted in her hair, instead of a golden
crown. And the knights and ladies were changed. They looked but half
alive; and some, in place of their gay green robes, were dressed in
rusty mail, pierced with spears and stained with blood. And some were in
burial robes of white, and some in dresses torn or dripping with water,
or marked with the burning of fire. All were dressed strangely in some
ancient fashion; their weapons were old-fashioned, too, unlike any that
Randal had ever seen on earth. And their festivals were not of dainty
meats, but of cold, tasteless flesh, and of beans, and pulse, and such
things as the old heathens,