stag to bring him there because she loved him so much. Then she
brought out a great gold cup, covered with jewels, from her fairy
palace, and she offered him wine in the cup to drink. And he drank, and
the more he drank the more he longed to drink, because the wine was
enchanted. So he kissed the lovely lady, and she became his wife, and he
stayed all that day and all that night in the hill where she lived, and
when he woke he found he was lying on the ground, close to where he had
seen the stag first, and his horse was there and his hounds were there
waiting, and he looked up, and the sun sank behind the mountain. And he
went home and lived a long time, but he would never kiss any other lady
because he had kissed the queen of the fairies, and he would never drink
common wine any more, because he had drunk enchanted wine. And sometimes
nurse told me tales that she had heard from her great-grandmother, who
was very old, and lived in a cottage on the mountain all alone, and most
of these tales were about a hill where people used to meet at night long
ago, and they used to play all sorts of strange games and do queer
things that nurse told me of, but I couldn't understand, and now, she
said, everybody but her great-grandmother had forgotten all about it,
and nobody knew where the hill was, not even her great-grandmother. But
she told me one very strange story about the hill, and I trembled when I
remembered it. She said that people always went there in summer, when it
was very hot, and they had to dance a good deal. It would be all dark at
first, and there were trees there, which made it much darker, and people
would come, one by one, from all directions, by a secret path which
nobody else knew, and two persons would keep the gate, and every one as
they came up had to give a very curious sign, which nurse showed me as
well as she could, but she said she couldn't show me properly. And all
kinds of people would come; there would be gentle folks and village
folks, and some old people and boys and girls, and quite small children,
who sat and watched. And it would all be dark as they came in, except in
one corner where some one was burning something that smelt strong and
sweet, and made them laugh, and there one would see a glaring of coals,
and the smoke mounting up red. So they would all come in, and when the
last had come there was no door any more, so that no one else could get
in, even if they knew there was anything beyond.