that there was nothing to be
gathered, or counted, or cooked, and when he had finished he begged her
to tell him who she was.

'That I will, with pleasure,' she replied. 'But it will be a long
story.'

'Oh! if it's long, I can't listen,' cried the Prince.

'But,' said she, 'at your age, you should attend to what old people say,
and learn to have patience.'

'But, but,' said the Prince, in his most impatient tone, 'old people
should not be so long-winded! Tell me what country I have got into, and
nothing else.'

'With all my heart,' said she. 'You are in the Forest of the Black Bird;
it is here that he utters his oracles.'

'An Oracle,' cried the Prince. 'Oh! I must go and consult him.'
Thereupon he drew a handful of gold from his pocket, and offered it to
the old woman, and when she would not take it, he threw it down upon the
table and was off like a flash of lightning, without even staying to ask
the way. He took the first path that presented itself and followed it at
the top of his speed, often losing his way, or stumbling over some
stone, or running up against a tree, and leaving behind him without
regret the cottage which had been as little to his taste as the
character of its possessor. After some time he saw in the distance a
huge black castle which commanded a view of the whole forest. The Prince
felt certain that this must be the abode of the Oracle, and just as the
sun was setting he reached its outermost gates. The whole castle was
surrounded by a deep moat, and the drawbridge and the gates, and even
the water in the moat, were all of the same sombre hue as the walls and
towers. Upon the gate hung a huge bell, upon which was written in red
letters:

'Mortal, if thou art curious to know thy fate, strike this bell, and
submit to what shall befall thee.'

The Prince, without the smallest hesitation, snatched up a great stone,
and hammered vigorously upon the bell, which gave forth a deep and
terrible sound, the gate flew open, and closed again with a thundering
clang the moment the Prince had passed through it, while from every
tower and battlement rose a wheeling, screaming crowd of bats which
darkened the whole sky with their multitudes. Anyone but Prince Vivien
would have been terrified by such an uncanny sight, but he strode
stoutly forward till he reached the second gate, which was opened to him
by sixty black slaves covered from head to foot in long mantles.

[Illustration]

He wished to spea