sked--

"Who hath proclaimed to thee Halfred's coming, and name!"

"The moonlight."

"Then art thou indeed, as I had already perceived, the prince of the
light elves, to whom moon and stars speak words. Be gracious to me, O
loveliest of the Gods."

Then the boy smiled. "I am a child of earth, like thyself, Halfred.
Draw nearer. Take my hands."

"But who art thou, if thou art mortal!" asked Halfred, still
hesitating.

"Thoril, King Thorul's orphan grandchild."

"And wherefore dwellest thou here alone, on this small island, as
though hidden, and not in King Thorul's hall?"

"He dreamed thrice that danger threatened me, in the month when the
wild roses blow; a strange ship which should come into his harbour
would carry me away, never to be seen again.

"To render me quite safe against this danger he sent me here to this
small outlying island, at which, because of its circling cliffs, no
ship can land. Only Moengal, his ancient armour-bearer, and his wife,
my foster-mother, are with me; yonder, in that small wooden house,
behind the beech mound, we live. But so long as the dear lord shines,
and the gay butterflies flit over the flowers, I tarry here in hidden
airy bower."

"But, thou wonderful boy, if thou art really a child of earth, how
could the moon reveal to thee my coming and my name?"

"I sleep not in the moonlight, because it entices me out and upwards.
It lifts me by force from my couch, and upwards to itself. With closed
eyes, they say, I wander then away on the narrowest ridges of the roof;
and far away, through forest and mountain, I see what shall happen in
the future, and the distance.

"Carefully they guarded me, therefore, in the king's hall. But here, the
clear moon looks freely through the rifts in our cottage roof.

"And I saw, seven nights ago, a ship, with a swan on the prow, that drew
nearer and nearer. On the deck lay sleepless a dark-bearded man, with a
noble countenance. 'Halfred,' his two friends called him.

"And ever nearer floated the sailing Swan. But when, one cloudy night,
the moon shone not upon my pillow, and my eyes could not see the ship,
and the man, then yearning seized upon me for that noble countenance.
And I laid my pillow and my head, since then, ever carefully under the
full flood of the moonlight. And night after night I gazed again on
that lofty forehead and these palid temples.

"But still more beautiful and lordly art thou, than thy dream picture;
and never