“Yours,” said Father Gryphon, “is a very sad story, [[100]]and in my opinion you have not been treated at all well; but if you desire it, I may perhaps be of some assistance to you. What I propose is that you should mount upon my back, and I will then carry you through the air to the kingdom of the gods, where you can represent your case to the King of the Fairies in person, and where you will, at any rate, have the opportunity of persuading your wife to accompany you back to earth.”
The young Man gladly assented to this proposition, and mounted on the Gryphon’s back; and the great bird, spreading his wings, soared upwards straight into the blue sky, carrying the youth with him. Up and up they flew, whilst the earth seemed to recede into the distance and to grow smaller and smaller, until at length it disappeared from view altogether. Still they flew on until, towards nightfall, they arrived at the country of the gods. The Gryphon, with the young Man upon his back, flew straight in through the great golden gates, and deposited the youth in the centre of a vast courtyard round which were sitting numbers of gods, fairies and other denizens of the sky.
When the gods saw that a human being had been deposited in their midst they rose in great wrath, and began bitterly to reproach the Gryphon for what he had done.
“How is it,” said they, “that you have dared, unordered, to bring into our presence an inhabitant of the human world? Do you not know that human beings are of a coarser essence than ourselves and are [[101]]repugnant and abhorrent to us? How dare you so defile the sacred country of the gods?”
But the Gryphon was not at all frightened at their anger, and he answered them boldly and firmly:
“This young man,” said he, “is a valiant and kind-hearted youth. He saved my young ones from destruction by attacking, single-handed, and killing a Dragon who was on the point of devouring them. He then related to me his story of how, after nine years of happiness, he was deprived by the King of the Fairies of his wife, his house, his wealth, and everything which he had possessed. I consider, therefore, that he has been treated in a shameful and unjustifiable manner, and so I have brought him here to plead his cause in person and to claim redress.”
While this conversation was in progress the young man’s Fairy wife had been hiding in a corner, too nervous to show herself before her husband and all the assembly of the gods. But she could now contain herself no longer, and, rushing forward, she threw herself into her husband’s arms, crying out that she loved him and would return with him to earth.
When her father heard this he did not know how to act, but it was decided that a conclave should be held, and the matter debated at length. So the celestial powers met together in a great council, and, having discussed the matter in all its bearings, they decided that, as the Fairy Princess desired to return to earth of her own free will, they would not stand in her way; but that if she did so, she must take the consequence of [[102]]her own action, and that as the result of mating with an unclean creature like a human being she must herself become mortal and lose her Fairy nature.
On hearing this decision the girl joyfully agreed. So she and her husband mounted together upon the broad back of the Gryphon, and the great beast, spreading his wings, sailed through the golden gates of the palace and swept downwards through the blue heavens to the earth below. He soon deposited the youth and his wife on the ground near their old home, where he bade them farewell and returned to his own nest. And henceforward, although the Fairy had lost her magic powers, the two lived happily together, and grew to a good old age in prosperous and comfortable circumstances. [[103]]