to the sun."

I took it, and went out into the night.

It was very cold, and pitch-dark. To fall would be a dread thing, and
the way I had to go was a difficult one even in the broad sunlight! But
I had not set myself the task, and the minute I started I learned that I
was left to no chance: a pale light broke from the ground at every step,
and showed me where next to set my foot. Through the heather and the low
rocks I walked without once even stumbling. I found the bad burrow quite
still; not a wave arose, not a head appeared as I crossed it.

A moon came, and herself showed me the easy way: toward morning I was
almost over the dry channels of the first branch of the river-bed, and
not far, I judged, from Mara's cottage.

The moon was very low, and the sun not yet up, when I saw before me in
the path, here narrowed by rocks, a figure covered from head to foot as
with a veil of moonlit mist. I kept on my way as if I saw nothing. The
figure threw aside its veil.

"Have you forgotten me already?" said the princess--or what seemed she.

I neither hesitated nor answered; I walked straight on.

"You meant then to leave me in that horrible sepulchre! Do you not yet
understand that where I please to be, there I am? Take my hand: I am
alive as you!"

I was on the point of saying, "Give me your left hand," but bethought
myself, held my peace, and steadily advanced.

"Give me my hand," she suddenly shrieked, "or I will tear you in pieces:
you are mine!"

She flung herself upon me. I shuddered, but did not falter. Nothing
touched me, and I saw her no more.

With measured tread along the path, filling it for some distance, came a
body of armed men. I walked through them--nor know whether they gave way
to me, or were bodiless things. But they turned and followed me; I heard
and felt their march at my very heels; but I cast no look behind, and
the sound of their steps and the clash of their armour died away.

A little farther on, the moon being now close to the horizon and the way
in deep shadow, I descried, seated where the path was so narrow that I
could not pass her, a woman with muffled face.

"Ah," she said, "you are come at last! I have waited here for you an
hour or more! You have done well! Your trial is over. My father sent me
to meet you that you might have a little rest on the way. Give me your
charge, and lay your head in my lap; I will take good care of both until
the sun is well risen. I am not bitternes