king, which he did with difficulty and much carefulness. He
"hirpled," as we say, towards me very warily; then, seeing the rope bound
about me, and the cloth in my mouth, he drew his dagger, but not to cut
my bonds. He was over canny for that, but he slit the string that kept
the cursed gag in my mouth, and picked it out with his dagger point; and,
oh the blessed taste of that first long draught of air, I cannot set it
down in words! "What, in the name of all the saints, make you here, in
this guise?" he asked in French, but with a rude Border accent.

"I am a kindly Scot," I said in our own tongue, "of your own country.
Give me water." And then a dwawm, as we call it, or fainting-fit, came
over me.

When I knew myself again, I was lying with my head in a maiden's lap, and
well I could have believed that the fairies had carried me to their own
land, as has befallen many, whereof some have returned to earth with the
tale, and some go yet in that unearthly company.

"Gentle demoiselle, are you the gracious Queen of Faerie?" I asked, as
one half-wakened, not knowing what I said. Indeed this lady was clad all
in the fairy green, and her eyes were as blue as the sky above her head,
and the long yellow locks on her shoulders were shining like the sun.

"Father, he is not dead," she said, laughing as sweet as all the singing-
birds in March--"he is not dead, but sorely wandering in his mind when he
takes Elliot Hume for the Fairy Queen."

"Faith, he might have made a worse guess," cried the man. "But now, sir,
now that your bonds are cut, I see nothing better for you than a well-
washed face, for, indeed, you are by ordinary 'kenspeckle,' and no
company for maids."

With that he brought some water from the burn by the road, and therewith
he wiped my face, first giving me to drink. When I had drunk, the maid
whom he called Elliot got up, her face very rosy, and they set my back
against a tree, which I was right sorry for, as indeed I was now clean
out of fairyland and back in this troublesome world. The horses stood by
us, tethered to trees, and browsed on the budding branches.

"And now, maybe," he said, speaking in the kindly Scots, that was like
music in my ear--"now, maybe, you will tell us who you are, and how you
came into this jeopardy."

I told him, shortly, that I was a Scot of Fife; whereto he answered that
my speech was strangely English. On this matter I satisfied him with the
truth, namely, that my