in Prince Orca herself. The
Lady Ildea's temper was certainly none of the best, nor was her beauty
at all to be compared with that of the gamekeeper's daughter. She had
long laid siege to the heart of the prince, and she was now convinced
that it was only on account of the peasant maiden that she made so
little progress.

The Lady Ildea was not unskilled in magic, and by consultation with
divers not very respectable spirits, she found means to transform the
beautiful Sipelie into a raven. Thus it happened that when the prince
went as usual to visit his beloved, he found the cottage empty, and no
living thing in sight but a raven, which croaked dolorously from a
neighboring tree. When the gamekeeper appeared, in answer to Prince
Orca's eager questions, he could only say that his daughter was missing.
Together, the two men searched the whole night for the lost maiden; but
neither then, nor in any after search, could a trace of Sipelie be
discovered.

It is needless to speak of the gamekeeper's grief, or the prince's
despair. Both refused to be comforted, and the unhappy prince became so
pale and thin that it was pitiful to see.

In all his grief and anguish, the Lady Ildea showed a deep sympathy,
encouraging him to tell her all his woes, and if she could not comfort
him, she at least wept for him, and that was something.

And so it went on until the prince was taken violently ill. The wise men
gathered about his bed, and at last concluded, after many long and
tedious days of consultation, that his sickness was caused by an evil
influence, which they ascribed to a raven that had been noticed
fluttering continually about the palace windows. They farther announced
that the prince could only be cured by the juice of certain wild herbs,
which were exceedingly rare, and which only grew in wild and dangerous
places in the mountains. Messengers were dispatched throughout the whole
country in search of the precious herbs, but the third day a bundle of
the plants was found on the ledge of the prince's window. No one knew
whence they came, nor did any one notice that the raven sat on a distant
tree, and watched until the herbs were taken in, but then flew silently
away, to return no more.

The prince now rapidly recovered, and was soon able to go again into the
open air. The lady Ildea had been most attentive throughout his illness,
and on the first day on which he went to the hunt, she rode by his side.
She was outwardly calm