'Choose your prize,' said the king, when the game was ended, 'but
do not be too hard on me, or ask what I cannot give.'

'The prize I choose,' answered the Gruagach, 'is that the crop-
headed creature should take thy head and thy neck, if thou dost
not get for me the Sword of Light that hangs in the house of the
king of the oak windows.'

'I will get it,' replied the young man bravely; but as soon as he
was out of sight of the Gruagach he pretended no more, and his
face grew dark and his steps lagging.

'You have brought nothing with you to-night,' said the queen, who
was standing on the steps awaiting him. She was so beautiful that
the king was fain to smile when he looked at her, but then he
remembered what had happened, and his heart grew heavy again.

'What is it? What is the matter? Tell me thy sorrow that I may
bear it with thee, or, it may be, help thee!' Then the king told
her everything that had befallen him, and she stroked his hair
the while.

'That is nothing to grieve about,' she said when the tale was
finished. 'You have the best wife in Erin, and the best horse in
Erin. Only do as I bid you, and all will go well.' And the king
suffered himself to be comforted.

He was still sleeping when the queen rose and dressed herself, to
make everything ready for her husband's journey; and the first