“Hold! Hold! I, and I alone, can tell you of the lost Prince Ariel.”
Hearing these words, the mountaineers thought it wise to take their captive to Leoline. Bound securely, the horseman was thrust into a corner of the cottage and commanded to tell his story to the assembled company.
“Babylan gave me the Prince Ariel,” said the man at arms, “and bade me abandon him in the wildwood. But I obeyed not his cruel word and left the child with a good forester, named Hildebrand of the Oaks.”
Now, when the horseman had spoken, all present knew that, by a strange and wonderful turn of Fortune’s wheel, their young leader was likewise their lawful lord and king. For Norbert the daring had passed as the son of the forester, Hildebrand of the Oaks.
And now it was the old nurse’s turn to speak. Said she, “Long enough have I kept my counsel, but now that the danger which kept me silent is no more, I may tell all. Our Leoline, whom you have known as Leoline, the shepherdess, is Leoline, our Princess and own sister to Prince Ariel.”
And she told them all of her flight to the mountain and of how she had saved the little Princess from the cruel Babylan. You will believe that Leoline was amazed to find herself a real Princess. But her heart was filled with joy and pride because of her brother’s deeds.
Now, when Ariel’s wounds had healed and his strength had returned, the people of the mountain escorted him in triumph to the royal city, and there, amid universal joy, the brave Prince claimed and received his own. The annals of Fairyland tell of no better King. I am glad to say that he richly rewarded both the man at arms and the old nurse.
As for Leoline, she took the Mountain for her kingdom and, under the protection of the Giant of the Height, dwelt there long in peace and happiness.
THE BELL OF THE EARTH AND THE BELL OF THE SEA
Once upon a time a brave mariner, who had sailed the blue for many years, married a captain’s daughter and went to live in a pleasant inland country a long way from the sea. Now it came to pass that, as the sailor and his wife dwelt in the inland vale, a sturdy son was born to them whom they named Altair; and this little son grew to manhood with a great longing in his heart to go companying with sailors and sail upon the sea. Presently the old mariner called his son unto him and said:—