the Princess; but they stayed quite long enough to be very, very
much in love with her, and when at last they had to come away--for
no man who is not "dead" can remain long beyond the sunset--she
gave to each of them a beautiful little bird, a tiny living bird
with a voice of sweetest music, that had been trained and tuned
to song by Phoebus Apollo himself. And I could no more describe
to you the sweetness of that song than I could describe the beauty
of the Princess.

Then she told the travelers to be of brave heart and of valiant
hope, because there lay before them an ordeal demanding all their
prowess, and after that the prospect of a great reward. "Now,"
she said, "that you have learned to love me, and to desire to have
your dwelling here with me, you must go forth to prove your knighthood.
I am not inaccessible, but no man must think to win me for his lady
unless he first justify his fealty by noble service. The world to
which you now go is a world of mirage and of phantasms, which appear
real only to those who have never reached and seen this realm of
mine on the heavenward side of the sun. You will have to pass
through ways beset by monstrous spectres, over wastes where rage
ferocious hydras, chimeras, and strange dragons breathing flame.
You must journey past beautiful shadowy islets of the summer sea,
in whose fertile bays the cunning sirens sing; you must brave the
mountain robber, the goblins of the wilderness, and the ogre whose
joy is to devour living men. But fear nothing, for all these are
but phantoms; nor do you need any sword or spear to slay them,
but only a loyal mind and an unswerving purpose. Let not your
vision be deceived, nor your heart beguiled; return to me unscathed
through all these many snares, and doubt not the worth and greatness
of the guerdon I shall give. Nor think you go unaided. With each