ncess Kathleen, and so he did not know what to do.

"You can't do anything to-night," said the cat, for he knew what the
prince was thinking of, "but when morning comes go down to the sea,
and look not to the right or the left, and let no living thing touch
you, for if you do you shall never leave the island. Drop the second
ball into the water, as you did the first, and when the boat comes
step in at once. Then you may look behind you, and you shall see what
you shall see, and you'll know which you love best, the Princess
Eileen or the Princess Kathleen, and you can either go or stay."

The prince didn't sleep a wink that night, and at the first glimpse of
the morning he stole from the palace. When he reached the sea he threw
out the ball, and when it had floated out of sight, he saw the little
boat sparkling on the horizon like a newly-risen star. The prince had
scarcely passed through the palace doors when he was missed, and the
king and queen and the princess, and all the lords and ladies of the
court, went in search of him, taking the quickest way to the sea.
While the maidens with the silver harps played sweetest music, the
princess, whose voice was sweeter than any music, called on the prince
by his name, and so moved his heart that he was about to look behind,
when he remembered how the cat had told him he should not do so until
he was in the boat. Just as it touched the shore the princess put out
her hand and almost caught the prince's arm, but he stepped into the
boat in time to save himself, and it sped away like a receding wave. A
loud scream caused the prince to look round suddenly, and when he did
he saw no sign of king or queen, or princess, or lords or ladies, but
only big green serpents, with red eyes and tongues, that hissed out
fire and poison as they writhed in a hundred horrible coils.

The prince, having escaped from the enchanted island, sailed away for
three days and three nights, and every night he hoped the coming
morning would show him the island he was in search of. He was faint
with hunger and beginning to despair, when on the fourth morning he
saw in the distance an island that, in the first rays of the sun,
gleamed like fire. On coming closer to it he saw that it was clad with
trees, so covered with bright red berries that hardly a leaf was to be
seen. Soon the boat was almost within a stone's cast of the island,
and it began to sail round and round until it was well under the
bending br