was afraid to look at the bed. Then she went
over and saw the Hunter-King with his face still, his eyes closed down,
and the plate of salt on his breast. His gray gaunt hound was stretched
across his feet.

The woman and her daughters lighted candles and placed them in the
window recesses and at the head of the corpse. Then they went into their
dormer-room and left Sheen to her watching. She sat at the fire and made
one fagot after another blaze up. She had brought her basket of bog-down
and she began to spin a thread upon the neighbor-woman's wheel.

She finished the thread and put it round her neck. Then she began to
search for more candles so that she might be able to light one, as
another went out. But as she rose up all the candles went out all at
once. The hound started from the foot of the bed. Then she saw the
corpse sitting up stiffly in the place where it had been laid.

Something in Sheen overcame her dread, and she went over to the corpse
and took the salt that was on its breast and put it on its lips. Then a
voice came from between the lips. "Fair Maid," said the voice, "have
you the courage to follow me? The others failed me and they have been
stricken. Are you faithful?" "I will follow you," said Sheen. "Then,"
said the corpse, "put your hands on my shoulders and come with me. I
must go over the Quaking Bog, and through the Burning forest, and across
the Icy Sea." Sheen put her hands on his shoulders. A storm came and
they were swept through the roof of the house. They were carried through
the night. Down they came on the ground and the dead man sprang away
from Sheen. She went to follow him and found her feet upon a shaking
sod. They were on the Quaking Bog, she knew. The corpse of the
Hunter-King went ahead and she knew that she must keep it in sight. He
went swiftly. The sod went under her feet and she was in the watery mud.
She struggled out and jumped over a pool that was hidden with heather.
All the time she was in dread that the figure that went before her so
quickly would be lost to her. She sank and she struggled and she sprang
across pools and morasses. All the time what had been the corpse of the
Hunter-King went before her.

Then she saw fires against the sky and she knew they were coming to the
Burning Forest. The figure before her sprang across a ditch and went
into the forest. Sheen sprang across it too. Burning branches fell
across her path as she went on. Hot winds burnt her face. F