speak; the salvation and the lives
of her brothers depended upon her silence. She hid her hands under her
apron, so that the king should not see what she suffered.

"Come with me," he said; "you cannot stay here. If you are as good as
you are beautiful I will dress you in silks and velvets, put a golden
crown upon your head, and you shall live with me and have your home in
my richest palace!" Then he lifted her upon his horse: she wept and
wrung her hands, but the king said: "I only think of your happiness;
you will thank me one day for what I am doing!" Then he darted off
across the mountains, holding her before him on his horse, and the
huntsmen followed.

When the sun went down the royal city with churches and cupolas lay
before them, and the king led her into the palace, where great
fountains played in the marble halls, and where walls and ceilings
were adorned with paintings; but she had no eyes for them, she only
wept and sorrowed. Passively she allowed the women to dress her in
royal robes, to twist pearls into her hair, and to draw gloves onto
her blistered hands.

She was dazzlingly lovely as she stood there in all her magnificence;
the courtiers bent low before her, and the king wooed her as his
bride, although the archbishop shook his head, and whispered that he
feared the beautiful wood maiden was a witch who had dazzled their
eyes and infatuated the king.

The king refused to listen to him; he ordered the music to play, the
richest food to be brought, and the loveliest girls to dance before
her. She was led through scented gardens into gorgeous apartments, but
nothing brought a smile to her lips or into her eyes; sorrow sat there
like a heritage and a possession for all time. Last of all, the king
opened the door of a little chamber close by the room where she was to
sleep. It was adorned with costly green carpets, and made to exactly
resemble the cave where he found her. On the floor lay the bundle of
flax she had spun from the nettles, and from the ceiling hung the
shirt of mail which was already finished. One of the huntsmen had
brought all these things away as curiosities.

"Here you may dream that you are back in your former home!" said the
king. "Here is the work upon which you were engaged; in the midst of
your splendor, it may amuse you to think of those times."

When Elise saw all those things so dear to her heart, a smile for the
first time played about her lips, and the blood rushed back t