Celtic Fairy Tales | Page 5

dry land again, and were
going like the wind.
At last they stood still, and a man of them said to Guleesh: "Guleesh,

do you know where you are now?"
"Not a know," says Guleesh.
"You're in France, Guleesh," said he. "The daughter of the king of
France is to be married to-night, the handsomest woman that the sun
ever saw, and we must do our best to bring her with us; if we're only
able to carry her off; and you must come with us that we may be able to
put the young girl up behind you on the horse, when we'll be bringing
her away, for it's not lawful for us to put her sitting behind ourselves.
But you're flesh and blood, and she can take a good grip of you, so that
she won't fall off the horse. Are you satisfied, Guleesh, and will you do
what we're telling you?"
"Why shouldn't I be satisfied?" said Guleesh. "I'm satisfied, surely, and
anything that ye will tell me to do I'll do it without doubt."
They got off their horses there, and a man of them said a word that
Guleesh did not understand, and on the moment they were lifted up,
and Guleesh found himself and his companions in the palace. There
was a great feast going on there, and there was not a nobleman or a
gentleman in the kingdom but was gathered there, dressed in silk and
satin, and gold and silver, and the night was as bright as the day with
all the lamps and candles that were lit, and Guleesh had to shut his two
eyes at the brightness. When he opened them again and looked from
him, he thought he never saw anything as fine as all he saw there.
There were a hundred tables spread out, and their full of meat and drink
on each table of them, flesh-meat, and cakes and sweetmeats, and wine
and ale, and every drink that ever a man saw. The musicians were at the
two ends of the hall, and they were playing the sweetest music that ever
a man's ear heard, and there were young women and fine youths in the
middle of the hall, dancing and turning, and going round so quickly and
so lightly, that it put a soorawn in Guleesh's head to be looking at them.
There were more there playing tricks, and more making fun and
laughing, for such a feast as there was that day had not been in France
for twenty years, because the old king had no children alive but only
the one daughter, and she was to be married to the son of another king
that night. Three days the feast was going on, and the third night she

was to be married, and that was the night that Guleesh and the
sheehogues came, hoping, if they could, to carry off with them the
king's young daughter.
Guleesh and his companions were standing together at the head of the
hall, where there was a fine altar dressed up, and two bishops behind it
waiting to marry the girl, as soon as the right time should come. Now
nobody could see the sheehogues, for they said a word as they came in,
that made them all invisible, as if they had not been in it at all.
"Tell me which of them is the king's daughter," said Guleesh, when he
was becoming a little used to the noise and the light.
"Don't you see her there away from you?" said the little man that he
was talking to.
Guleesh looked where the little man was pointing with his finger, and
there he saw the loveliest woman that was, he thought, upon the ridge
of the world. The rose and the lily were fighting together in her face,
and one could not tell which of them got the victory. Her arms and
hands were like the lime, her mouth as red as a strawberry when it is
ripe, her foot was as small and as light as another one's hand, her form
was smooth and slender, and her hair was falling down from her head
in buckles of gold. Her garments and dress were woven with gold and
silver, and the bright stone that was in the ring on her hand was as
shining as the sun.
Guleesh was nearly blinded with all the loveliness and beauty that was
in her; but when he looked again, he saw that she was crying, and that
there was the trace of tears in her eyes. "It can't be," said Guleesh, "that
there's grief on her, when everybody round her is so full of sport and
merriment."
"Musha, then, she is grieved," said the little man; "for it's against her
own will