“What is that you say?” asked Fair Ellen.
“’Tis a rhyme I learned when I was young,” said the stepmother. “I was but minding myself of it.”
After awhile they reached the top of the crag, and the sea was far, far below them. Then the stepmother turned to Fair Ellen.
“Blue of eyes and fair of speech,” she cried; “you have crossed my path, and none may do that and have good come of it. You have crossed my path with your beauty, but with your beauty you shall cross it no longer.”
Fair Ellen stood and looked at her, and her heart grew cold within her, and she could stir neither hand nor foot.
The stepmother raised her hand and touched her. “A loathly worm you shall be,” she cried. “You shall dwell under Estmere Crag and the salt sea shall be your home, and bonowed[1] shall ye never be, till Kempion, the king’s own son, shall come to the crag and thrice kiss thee.”
Then the witch turned and walked down the crag, and back to her own home.
But the Fair Ellen was changed in her shape so that even her own father would have feared her. Her shape grew long, her breath was fire, and she became a scaly dragon. Down over Estmere Crag she swung, and deep in a cavern she hid herself, and the smoke rose from the cavern and everyone was afraid.
Now it was not long that she had been there when word came to the king’s palace that such a beast was in the land, and that all the country was wasted because of her. But none dared to go out against her because she was so terrible.
But Kempion, the king’s own son, was as brave a prince as ever lived. Handsome he was, too, and straight and tall.