he reins they fell from his hands and down from his horse
slipped Tamlane, and laid himself down to rest, so weary, so cold
was he. But no sooner had he lain down on the bare earth than he
closed his eyes and fell fast asleep. And no sooner had he fallen
fast asleep than the Queen of the Fairies came and carried
Tamlane off to Fairyland.

For long years Tamlane dwelt among the little green folk, yet
ofttimes he would come back to visit the land of his birth.

Now many were the hills and dells haunted by the fairy folk. Yet
neither hill nor dell pleased them more than the lone plain of
Carterhaugh, where the soft-flowing rivers of Ettrick and Yarrow
met and mingled.

Many a long day after fairies were banished from the plain of
Carterhaugh would the peasant folk come to gaze at the circles
which still marked the green grass of the lone moor. The circles
had been made, so they said, by the tiny feet of the fairies as
they danced round and round in a ring.

Well, in the days before the fairies were banished from the plain
of Carterhaugh, strange sights were to be seen there by the light
of the moon.

Little folk, dressed all in green, would flit across the moor.
They would form tiny rings and dance on their tiny toes until the
moonlight failed.

Little horsemen dressed in green would go riding by, the bells on
the fairy bridles playing magic music the while. Sounds too,
unknown to mortals, would tremble on the still night air.

Full of mischief too were these little elfin folk, and wise
mortals feared to tread where fairy feet were tripping.

Wise mortals would warn the merry children and the winsome
maidens lest they should venture too near the favourite haunts of
fairydom.

To Carterhaugh came, as I have told you, many of the fairy folk;
but more often than any other came a little elfin knight, and he
was the young Tamlane, who had been carried away to Fairyland
when he was only nine years old.

Beyond all other of the little green folk was the elf knight
feared. And little was that to be wondered at, for well was it
known that over many a fair-haired child, over many a beauteous
maiden, he had used his magic power. Nor would he let them go
until they promised to come back another moonlit eve, and as a
pledge of their promise he would seize from the children a toy,
from the maidens a ring, or it might be their mantle of green.

Now about two miles from the plain of Carterhaugh stood a castle,
and in the