r.

But long they waited, and longer still,
With muckle doubt and pain.
And woe were his mother's and brother's hearts,
For he came not back again.

Now when they had waited and waited a long, long time, and none had come
back from the Dark Tower of Elfland, Childe Rowland, the youngest, the
best beloved of Burd Helen's brothers, besought his mother to let him
also go on the quest; for he was the bravest of them all, and neither
death nor danger could dismay him. But at first his mother the Queen
said:

"Not so! You are the last of my children; if you are lost, all is lost
indeed!"

But he begged so hard that at length the good Queen his mother bade him
God-speed, and girt about his waist his father's sword, the brand that
never struck in vain, and as she girt it on she chanted the spell that
gives victory.

So Childe Rowland bade her good-bye and went to the cave of the Great
Magician Merlin.

"Yet once more, Master," said the youth, "and but once more, tell how
man or mother's son may find fair Burd Helen and her brothers twain in
the Dark Tower of Elfland."

"My son," replied the wizard Merlin, "there be things twain; simple they
seem to say, but hard are they to perform. One thing is to do, and one
thing is not to do. Now the first thing you have to do is this: after
you have once entered the Land of Faery, _whoever speaks to you_, you
must out with your father's brand and cut off their head. In this you
must not fail. And the second thing you have not to do is this: after
you have entered the Land of Faery, bite no bit, sup no drop; for if in
Elfland you sup one drop or bite one bit, never again will you see
Middle Earth."

Then Childe Rowland said these two lessons over and over until he knew
them by heart; so, well schooled, he thanked the Great Master and went
on his way to seek the Dark Tower of Elfland.

And he journeyed far, and he journeyed fast, until at last on a wide
moorland he came upon a horse-herd feeding his horses; and the horses
were wild, and their eyes were like coals of fire.

Then he knew they must be the horses of the King of Elfland, and that at
last he must be in the Land of Faery.

So Childe Rowland said to the horse-herd, "Canst tell me where lies the
Dark Tower of the Elfland King?"

And the horse-herd answered, "Nay, that is beyond my ken; but go a
little farther and thou wilt come to a cow-herd who mayhap can tell
thee."

Then at once Childe Rowland drew his